Production and Operations Management

Explore production and operations management fundamentals, including forecasting, quality management, process design, supply chain, capacity planning, and scheduling, illustrated by Wegmans' focus on quality and customer service.

Production and operations management transforms inputs into valued goods and services, meeting customer needs through separation, modification, and assembly processes.

Explore the objectives of production and operations management, including quality aligned to customer requirements, right quantity, right time, manufacturing cost, and emphasis on customer service and resource utilization.

Understand what customers want and how much they want, forecast future demand, and plan resources accordingly to achieve cost efficiency and customer delight.

Explore strategic quality management through total quality management, aiming for 100 percent customer satisfaction and zero defects, with employee involvement and offline, statistical quality control, and acceptance sampling.

Align product and service design with customer feedback and market needs; plan, implement, audit, and manage end of life for production through an appropriate process strategy.

design effective products by balancing utility, aesthetics, profitability, and differentiation to maximize customer value at minimum cost, through brainstorming, market feedback, feasible solution development, and market introduction.

Explore how global procurement and distribution shape supply chain management, and analyze capacity planning across long, medium, and short horizons to meet demand with minimal waste.

Explore facilities planning, including choosing a facility location with access to customers, skilled labor, and transportation. Learn layout design, space utilization, safety, and flexibility to reduce costs and support growth.

Explore how warehouse design and materials management protect raw materials and finished goods, reduce wastage and theft, and drive cost efficiency through effective stock handling and layout.

Optimize inventory management by balancing holding, ordering, and setup costs, and applying independent and dependent demand models. Embrace just-in-time practices, pull-push systems, and waste elimination to ensure flexible production.

Coordinate material requirement planning to align inventory, production scheduling, and dispatch, ensuring material availability, right quantity at the right time, and efficient capacity utilization.

Align production planning and control with forecast demand and resources to optimize utilization, schedule labor and equipment, and maintain quality and inventory for on-time delivery.

Explore process configuration strategies, define processes as goal-oriented steps transforming materials, compare work configuration—custom shop, job shop, and flow shop—with analytical vs synthetic processes, progressive disassembly, and many-to-one synthesis.

Master technology management by aligning product technology, process technology, and information technology with equipment, information systems, and process methods to drive transformation in operations across societal, company, and international levels.

Explore how teamwork, training, and technology blend to boost process capabilities, and learn job design strategies—on-the-job training, human and engineering approaches, and flexible work considerations.

Plan development strategies to design new products that replace unprofitable ones and boost cash flow through a growing product line. Use staged project methods from concept to testing.

Assess change management by showing how new entrants leverage technology to outperform old designs, and describe Tremont Palm's evaluation and POM's role in re-engineering core processes through cross-functional analysis.

Investigate work study and industrial engineering through methods study, motion study, and time study to achieve higher productivity, smoother production flow, reduced waste, and better work conditions.