EVOLUTION OF OPERATION MANAGEMENT

Historical Development of OM

Prior to 1900

1. Cottage industry produced custom-made goods.
2. Watt’s steam engine in 1785.
3. Whitney’s standardized gun parts in 1801.
4. Industrial Revolution began at mid-century.

Scientific Management (Frederick W. Taylor)

1. Systematic approach to increasing worker productivity through time study, standardization of work, and incentives.
2. Viewed workers as an interchangeable asset.

Other Management Pioneers

1. Frank and Lillian Gilbreth

-Motion study and industrial psychology

2. Henry L. Gantt

-Scheduling and the Gantt chart

Moving Assembly Line (1913)

1. Labor specialization reduced assembly time.

Hawthorne Studies

1. Yielded unexpected results in the productivity of Western Electric plant workers after changes in their production environment.
2. Led to recognition of the importance of work design and employee motivation.

Operations Research (Management Science)

1. Outgrowth of WWII needs for logistics control and weapons-systems design.
2. Seeks to obtain mathematically optimal (quantitative) solutions to complex problems.

OM Emerges as a Field

1. 1950–1960, OM moved beyond industrial engineering and operations research to the view of the production operation as a system.

The Marriage of OM and IT

1. Integrated solutions approaches
2. Business process reengineering
3. Supply chain management
4. Systems integration (SAP)

Operations Management in Services

1. OM concepts can apply to both manufacturing and service operations.
2. Integration of Manufacturing and Services
3. Conducting world class operations requires compatible manufacturing and service operations.