Explain the major changes in the practice of operations management over the last five decades.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Answers will vary. In the 1960s, the focus of operations management was mainly on efficiency. The goal was to keep costs low so the firm could make a profit while keeping prices competitive. In today's highly competitive global markets, efficiency remains important. Today's operations managers have broadened their focus to look at benefits as well as costs.In the 1960s, the U.S. economy was a manufacturing powerhouse, with more than a third of its labor force employed in the goods-producing sector. But over the last five decades, the American economy has experienced a fundamental shift away from the production of goods and toward the provision of services.Fifty years ago, one common production strategy was to keep costs low by producing large quantities of standardized products. The goal of this mass production strategy was to achieve reductions in average cost by taking advantage of specialization and the efficient use of capital. But today's technologies allow many firms to pursue mass customization-the production of small quantities of customized goods and services that more precisely meet the needs of specific customers-with very little increase in costs.Over the last five decades, the increasingly competitive and global nature of markets has brought about major changes in how firms produce and distribute their goods and services. Many supply chains today span multiple organizations located in many different countries.In the 1960s, many operations managers viewed the natural environment as something to exploit. But the serious consequences of environmental pollution became increasingly apparent nowadays. Operations managers at socially responsible companies responded by adopting a variety of green practices to produce goods and services in more environmentally responsible ways.