Operations management is just as important in small organizations as it is in large ones.
Irrespective of their size, all companies need to produce and deliver their products and
services efficiently and effectively. However, in practice, managing operations in a small or
medium-size organization has its own set of problems. Large companies may have the resources
to dedicate individuals to specialized tasks but smaller companies often cannot, so people
may have to do different jobs as the need arises. Such an informal structure can allow the
company to respond quickly as opportunities or problems present themselves. But decision
making can also become confused as individuals’ roles overlap. Small companies may have
exactly the same operations management issues as large ones but they can be more difficult
to separate from the mass of other issues in the organization. However, small operations can
also have significant advantages; the short case on Acme Whistles illustrates this.