Introduction
All departments in an organisation like to see themselves as the most important. Marketing people argue that without successful marketing even the greatest product in the world would fail. Those who work in personnel argue that without motivation, marketing and sales staff would achieve little.
Operation management can also claim a position of importance in the same way. Mercedes cars, Sony eletronics and Boeing airplanes are not just well packaged. They are brilliantly conceived and developed, and superbly made. They are wonderful examples of the potential of top-class operations management.
These days the importance of productive efficiency is widely recognised. The globalisation of business means that firms have to compete internationally. How do they do this? Through the adoption of production techiniques and ideas which set standards (benchmarking) and then make the best possible use of resources (lean production) to produce the best possible products ( R&D, efficiency ).