Understanding the roles of Operations Management and the importance of managing quality. Implement Strategic Quality Change and evaluating its wider implications

According to Plenert, Operations Management (OM) can be defined as the management of activities that enable an organisation to transfer a range of basic inputs (raw materials, energy, customer requirements, information, skills, finance) into outputs that deliver the organisation’s primary products and services to the end customer.

That definition is enlarged by adding factors such as inventory management, supply and logistics, design decisions related to capacity planning and scheduling, quality assurance and the management of processes and human resources in order to ensure that the right skill base is developed and utilised.