Operations

Some basic terms and definitions related to operations management are given below.
The terms and information contained in this pack is not exhaustive in any manner. Also
the pack provides for only the introduction to these topics, you could be probed further
in an interview, so please do read beyond the mere definitions.

Operations Management
Operations management is concerned with planning, organizing and supervising
in the contexts of production, manufacturing or the provision of services. It is
delivery-focused, ensuring that an organization successfully turns inputs to
outputs in an efficient manner. The inputs themselves could represent anything
from materials, equipment and technology to human resources such as staff or
workers.

Supply Chain Management

Supply chain management is the streamlining of a business' supply-side activities
to maximize customer value and to gain a competitive advantage in the
marketplace. Supply chain management (SCM) represents an effort by suppliers
to develop and implement supply chains that are as efficient and economical as
possible. Supply chains cover everything from production, to product
development, to the information systems needed to direct these undertakings.

Inventory management is the process of ensuring that a company always has

the products it needs on hand and that it keeps costs as low as possible.
Three types of inventory: raw materials, work-in-progress, and finished goods.

Quality
Fitness for use. Quality is what the customer wants. It is the customers
perception about the degree to which the product or service meets his/her
expectation.

Quality Specifications:

Performance

Features

Reliability/ Durability

Serviceability

Aesthetics

Perceived Quality

Quality Assurance vs Quality Control

Quality assurance is a set of activities for ensuring quality in the processes by
which products are developed.
Quality Control is a set of activities for ensuring quality in products. The activities
focus on identifying defects in the actual products produced.
Preventive QC addresses the potential for a non-conformity or error to occur
even before the product is manufactured.

Total Quality Management

Total quality management aims to hold all parties involved in the production
process as accountable for the overall quality of the final product or service. It is
a continuous process that seeks to improve the quality of products and services.

Six Sigma:
Six sigma is a process driven approach which emphasize on continuous
improvement and focus on customer needs. It is an approach to achieve less
than 3.4 PPM defects by continuous improvement.
Benchmarking is the process of comparing one's business processes
and performance metrics to industry bests and best practices from other
companies.

Just In Time
It is an inventory control system in which the materials are delivered just in time
before manufacturing, not before, not after.
Lean Manufacturing/Production
Integrated activities designed to achieve high volume production using minimal
level of inventory.

Lean Supply Chain

It includes basically lean stakeholders in whole value chain i.e. Lean Supplier, Lean
Procurement, Lean manufacturing, Lean Warehousing, Lean logistics etc.

Logistics
It is the science of obtaining, producing and distributing material and product in
the proper place and in the proper quantity.

Job Scheduling
Specification of the work activities of an individual or a group and scheduling
their work as per requirement of supply chain.

Procurement
Process of purchasing material and products from a given vendor for various
application in an enterprise.
Supply Chain-Upstream & Downstream
Upstream in SC indicates supplier side while downstream in SC indicates goods
movement to customer side.

Lead Time
The amount of time that elapses between starting of a process and its
completion.

Transportation
Movement of goods among organizations and customers.

Value Chain
Value chain is a set of activities in which every individual involved in the process
add some value to the product. It includes procurement, design, manufacturing,
logistics, sales, services etc.