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Richard Branson once wrote that, "If you run one business well, you can run any business well." (Business). In one short sentence, Branson defined his vision of operations management. Regardless of the business being a record label, an airline, or a cellular phone company, operations management is a process of implementing policies and tasks as necessary to satisfy ownership, employees, and customers (Operations Management). Operations management is also the management of the processes that create goods, like records, and services, like air travel, that consumers utilize in the market (Ops). Because of the diversity of products and services in the market today, operations management can incorporate many different styles, strategies, and objectives.
Operations management is a loose term describing the conversion process raw goods are transformed into finished products. The transformation process includes the concepts of product / service, plant, processes, programs, and people as they apply to the creation of output (Introduction to Production and Operations Management, 2005). Each main concept introduces different management focuses that are filter through the entire operation. From Ford Motors approach to managing quality to Toyota's quest for continual improvement through kaizen, companies implement strategies to better manage their operations. These strategies can focus on improving quality, managing capacity, driving down costs, improving efficiency, reducing waste, or motivating employees to perform at a higher standard. For most companies these strategies all correlate to one primary objective, making more money. Whenever ...