ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the core of operations management business and explains suggestions for operations management. Operations management is a balancing act involving a firm's ability to meet market demand while staying within budget and managing costs. While the various business systems involve different resources and have different goals, they each function as systems and need to be managed as such. Human resources, purchasing and operations are subsystems of company systems. In service organizations, meeting the various needs of customers oftentimes requires employees involved in the service encounter to have broad capabilities. Meeting customer requirements can significantly improve retention of customers. The reality of the short-term profit focus often reverses the process. A systematic approach to managing operations is summarized in Deming's fourteen points, which help link Total Quality Management (TQM) to operations management. Deming's fourteen points are a basis for quality transformation of an organization.
