Project Operations Management - Essay Example

There are many definitions of the term operations management. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, operations management involves the aspect of design, product management, processing as well as management of the supply chain mechanism. The article on operations management also states that the term operations management encompasses a broad area that includes both strategic and tactical aspects of an organization. These include areas like layout, design, project management, sourcing, procurement etc as well as issues like quality control, monitoring and other aspects (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2011).

‘Operations management is defined as a complete management of the entire activities of an organization that includes planning, co-ordination, handling and utilisation of resources in a manner that generates considerable competitive advantage for the organization. It also includes managing the quality and monitoring of the day to day routine activities of all the departments of the organizations so as to ensure optimum and efficient utilisation and management of resources’. As stated in the previous section operations management is a very broad term and includes an array of activities and their management.

Operations management also assumes significance considering the fact that organizational excellence is directly related to operational expertise of an organization. Organizations like Wal-Mart and Toyota have their core competence based on operational aspects like cross docking and Total Quality Management (Shah, 2009, p.115). This calls for large scale responsibilities and efficiency on the part of the operations manager whose roles and responsibilities are listed below: The foremost direct responsibility of the operations manager involves a deeper understanding and analysis of the strategic objectives of the organization.

This involves setting up a clear vision with