Five Decades Of Operations Management And The Prospects Ahead

Abstract

In the article, authors have given an explicit view of how the department has evolved over the years, giving an insight how the foundation of today’s Operations and Supply chain department was laid 50 years ago with management science as the base. Authors have also discussed the editorial trends in the field and how the boundaries were drawn for the department’s functions. In the last section of the article, authors have discussed the various opportunities for the department along with other major divisions such as marketing, finance etc.

History and Accomplishments

The base was laid during the world war 2, when mathematical tools were used for efficient resource allocation and resource control. Developments on linear programming, inventory theory, gaming theory etc. were used to solve problems of job-scheduling, capacity expansion etc. However, the main focus was towards the optimization problems that involved just a single objective. This also led to the development of formation of operations group in many organizations with the agenda of improving performance.

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Challenges of the 1970s and 1980s and the Response

This period saw two major challenges. First, although management science helped the industry immensely, the storage of data and computation became hindrances. Second, the idea of optimization was now being internalized by other departments too. These two factors led to disappearance of operations group. To combat these challenges leading to identity crisis, interdisciplinary research was focused again. It was realized that department need to continually evaluate itself against industrial growth.

The Department’s History and Current Editorial Mission

Initially, there was no departmentalization.

Editors from both academia and industry contributed to the journal. Then in 1969, departmental structure was formed and featured separate department for production and logistics. A major challenge was defining boundaries for various departments. Later in 2002, as the understanding matured, the manufacturing, distribution and service operations department was renamed design and operation management. The current mission involves, gauging the interests of senior level manager and check if he is able to develop an interesting summary from the articles.

The Way Forward

It highlights the cross-functional scope of the field and defining objectives for the real-life problems faced by the managers. Supply chains department have a very broad scope from input of various raw materials to after sales service. OM-Marketing interface includes the various aspects of both the departments, such as, data about customer is required for product development. Similarly, all the other interfaces – OM -Finance interface, OM-Organizations interface, Service Operations, Operations Strategies and Process Design and Improvements will lead to a revolutionary change the way boundaries of the field are now defined.