Historical Milestones in Production and Operations Management Essay

Historical Milestones in Production and trading operations Management - Essay ExampleWhile the process involved may vary from administration to organization depending on the nature of output be it tangible product or intangible service, the essential elements of issue and operation management is concerned with the management of input-throughput-output process effectively and efficiently Operation Management can, therefore, be defined as the management of the conversion process, which converts land, labor, capital and management inputs in to desired outputs of comfortablys and services. The furtherance of terms used for this management function over the centuries as manufacturing management, production management, and operations management, is a good indication of the evolution process it has undergone and the historical milestones it has achieved which will be the focus of evaluation in this essay. The origins of operations management can be traced to the Industrial Revolution e ra which began in the 1700s in England. The main features of the changes which took piazza during this era were the Centralized production, Powered machinery, and concept of Factory production. One of the landmark achievements of this era was the steam locomotive being invented by James Watt in 1764, which provided a new source of energy to force the factory concept. Another key milestone which revolutionized the discipline was the 1776 publication of Adam Smiths germinal work known commonly as The Wealth of Nations which proposed the economic benefits associated with specialization of labor. His recommendation was that work should be broken down to subtasks, and assigned to workers where they became specialized in performing this tasks with efficiency through repetitive performance. As the industrial revolution gained momentum and spread to other parts of the world, Eli Whitney from America developed the concept of symmetrical parts in 1970, laying the foundation for volume pro ductions and standardized parts and the inception of large-scale factories in industries such as textile. By the mid-1800s, the traditional manufacturing systems associated with cottage and artisan productions was completely replaced by factory systems which as well as brought in new challenges such as managing the workforce and management of quality issues.