Role of Operation Manager in an Organisation

The challenge for operations managers would appear to be complex. In manufacturing, business drivers will be a relentless increase in efficiency, co-ordination of supply chains and cost reduction accompanied by a new demand for greater responsiveness to customer service needs. The need for greater responsiveness to customer needs and improved information including health and ethical information. There will probably be pressure to provide goods and services bundled together. Competition of service providers grows. In the industrial era, the nature of the goods themselves provided a clear measure of differentiation. In the post-industrial era there is not such a clear differentiator for services. At the same time the level of service competition is growing.

Operations management concentrated on the measurement of quantity then quality. Services are not so amenable to these measurements. New measurements are required and the acceptance that the perceptions of the customer in the consumption of services is a potential new area for business differentiation. The challenge for operations managers in services is to secure the efficiencies of the past but accommodate responsiveness to customer demands. This heralds the idea of mass customisation which requires the efficient organisation of the machine age adapted to accommodate an explosion of variety. Gone is the possibility of offering the market 'any colour you wish so long as its black'. The new business drivers are becoming variety and service with an increasing emphasis on service.