We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Learning objectives
After reading this chapter you should be able to:
identify the operations function in any kind of organisation or industry
identify the roles and responsibilities of operations managers in different organisational settings
identify the operations management aspects of your own career choice
describe any operation in terms of its transforming resources, transformed resources, operations processes and products and services
understand the similarities and differences between operations in different industries
discuss the roles and priorities of operations managers in different industries.
Box 13.1: Management challenge: transferring operations knowledge
The theories, techniques and models of the operations management field mostly originated in the manufacturing sector but have migrated into a variety of other industries and organisations. When managers study successful operations management in other organisations which could be in totally different industry sectors, a key challenge they face is identifying what lessons can be transferred to their own organisation. They also need to work out how the concepts can be translated so their employees can comprehend and deploy these new ideas. How do managers balance the trade-off between lessons from their own industry sector where concepts are easily understood and quickly deployed and novel input from other industries? How can you tell if new operations ideas are relevant for your organisation? Can they be immediately adopted or do they need to be adapted, or would some ideas that might well work in, say Toyota, not work or apply at all in, say a hospital?
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
