What is operations/production management?
Effective Operations/Production management should provide a robust production schedule that gets work completed on time without requiring frequent rescheduling of resources/work centers. A production system is analogous to a chain in that just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, an operations unit can produce only as much as it’s slowest resource—the capacity constraint resource (CCR). Therefore, to schedule or improve a non-CCR resource to produce more than the CCR can process has little global benefit. Such over-activation increases lead times, increases the dollars invested in work-in-process inventory with no corresponding benefit, and usually reduces the firm’s responsiveness to clients by consuming valuable human and material resources doing things that won’t be needed until later—if they’re needed at all. A simple approach to operations management know as “Drum/Buffer/Rope” is taught and implemented. See in-depth information and related links.
