ABSTRACT
This chapter utilizes the acronym POM to stand for Production and Operations Management, Operations Management, and Production Management, therefore embodying all possible usages in a single acronym. It describes POM's evolution, and recognizing the real drivers of the field, we may be able to prophesize the future. The chapter discusses what POM is capable of becoming. It is concerned with how POM can fail and what POM should avoid. This POM Companion only begins to map the surface of the evolving POM discipline. The chapter capitalizes the first letters of Science and Art (S&A) because authors are dealing with many applications of the generic structure of both S&A in the same way that Chemistry and Physics are both employers of legitimate Science. The Operations Management field has experienced constant evolution over the last 250 years. As we enter the Industry 4.0 era, the rate of change is accelerating.
