Operations Management: An Integrated Approach, 5th Edition

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT DECISIONS

In this section we look at some of the specific decisions that operations managers have to make. The best way to do this is to think about decisions we would need to make if we started our own company—say, a company called Gourmet Wafers that produces praline–pecan cookies from an old family recipe. Think about the decisions that would have to be made to go from the initial idea to actual production of the product: that is operations management. Table 1-1 breaks these down into the generic decisions that would be appropriate for almost any good or service, the specific decisions required for our example, and the formal terms for these decisions that are used in operations management.

Table 1-1 Operations Management Decisions for Gourmet Wafers

FIGURE 1-5 The relationship between strategic and tactical decisions

Note in the Gourmet Wafers example that the first decisions made were very broad in scope (e.g., the unique features of our product). We needed to do this before we could focus on more specific decisions (e.g., worker schedules). Although our example is simple, this decision-making process is followed by every company, including IBM, General Motors, Lands’ End, and your local floral shop. Also note in our example that before we can think about ...