Operations Management deals with the design and management of products, processes,

services and supply chains. It considers the acquisition, development, and utilization of
resources that firms need to deliver the goods and services their clients want.

The purvey of OM ranges from strategic to tactical and operational levels. Representative
strategic issues include determining the size and location of manufacturing plants, deciding
the structure of service or telecommunications networks, and designing technology supply
chains.

Tactical issues include plant layout and structure, project management methods, and
equipment selection and replacement. Operational issues include production scheduling and
control, inventory management, quality control and inspection, traffic and materials
handling, and equipment maintenance policies.

Meaning and Definition of Production Management:

Production management is a branch of management which is related to the production
function. Production may be referred to as the process concerned with the conversion of
inputs(raw materials, machinery, information, manpower, and other factors of production)
into output (Semi finished and finished goods and services) with the help of certain
processes (Planning, scheduling and controlling etc.) while management is the process of
exploitation of these factors of production in order to achieve the desired results.
 
According to E.F.L. Brech, “Production management then becomes the process of
effectively planning and regulating the operations of that part of an enterprise which is
responsible for actual transformation of materials into finished products.”
 
According to Elwood S. Buffa, “Production management deals with decision making
related to production process so that the resulting goods or services are produced according
to specifications in amounts and by the schedules demanded, and at a minimum cost.”
 
According to H.A. Harding, “Production management is concerned with those processes
which convert the inputs into the outputs. The inputs are various resources like raw
materials, men machines, methods, etc. and the outputs are goods and services.”
 
Thus production management is concerned with the decision making regarding the
production of goods and services at a minimum cost according to the demands of the
customers through the management process of planning, organizing and controlling. In
order to attain these objectives, effective planning and control of production activities is
very essential. Otherwise, the customers shall remain unsatisfied and ultimately certain
activities will have to be closed.
Operations research (also referred to as decision science, or management science) is an
interdisciplinary mathematical science that focuses on the effective use of technology by organizations. In
contrast, many other science & engineering disciplines focus on technology giving secondary
considerations to its use.

Employing techniques from other mathematical sciences — such as mathematical modeling, statistical

analysis, and mathematical optimization — operations research arrives at optimal or near-optimal
solutions to complex decision-making problems. Because of its emphasis on human-technology
interaction and because of its focus on practical applications, operations research has overlap with other
disciplines, notably industrial engineering and management science, and draws
on psychology and organization science. Operations Research is often concerned with determining
the maximum (of profit, performance, or yield) or minimum (of loss, risk, or cost) of some real-world
objective.
PRODUCTION SYSTEM: It is the framework within which the inputs are converted into outputs, which are
linked together by certain operations, which provide value to the inputs. There are three components of a
production system namely, inputs, transformation process and output, which are further divided into a
number of sub-components or operations.

INPUTS
Materials
Labour Transformation of conversion process OUTPUTS:
Machines Operations management Products
Facilities Systems design Services
Energy Operations planning and control
Information & 
Technology

Information feedback concerning

Outputs for process control

PRODUCTION SYSTEM

TYPES OF PRODUCTION SYSTEMS: There are five types of Production Systems- 

1. CONTINUOUS/FLOW PRODUCTION SYSTEM: It is the manufacture of a product through a series of
interconnected operations where material moves from one stage to another without interruption. 
2. MASS PRODUCTION SYSTEM: Here goods are produced in large quantities using Standardisation, product
wise layout and balanced production.
3. PROCESS PRODUCTION SYSTEM: Here production is carried out continuously through uniform and
standard sequence of operations using highly sophisticated and automatic machines.
4. JOB PRODUCTION SYSTEM: It means producing goods to meet specific customer requirements or special
order, thus this process is always non-standardised.
5. BATCH PRODUCTION SYSTEM: This is the manufacture of a product in batches (small or large) or lots by
a series of operations, each operation being carried out on the whole batch before any subsequent operation
is undertaken.