By Dr.Olaniyi Opanuga
College of Production And Operations Management.-COPOM.
In defining Production and Operations Management (POM) I will elucidate, illustrate and make reference to contemporary issues associated with its practice so that you can can make inferences, draw logical conclusions and arrive at informed decisions.
You are involved in production wherever you are and whatever you do. Directly or indirectly you are a producer. You may be making some products, providing some services or producing waste as you consume goods or services or doing all these things. Head or tail, think about it…you are a production person. Most importantly you are a product of some production processes. Human conception to birth exemplifies production. And, it doesn’t stop there. From birth every individual go through series of transformation- home training, education in the high school, polytechnic, university or other institutions. This transformation continues throughout one’s lifetime working as an operative, supervisor, an executive, a director, a CEO, President, Governor, Senator, a bureaucrat, an entrepreneur or whatever position of authority occupied or activities carried out till death. As a human being you are a product of various systems here on earth. And with the power of production you be able to achieve great success and leave the world better than you met it.
Success secrets are replete with production as the master key. Ask the world’s billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Amancio Ortega, Mark Zuckerberg and not forgetting our own Aliko Dangote*
The creation or evolution of the earth is about Production. Everything in Creation is governed by laws of Production. The emergence and sustenance of life of any kind must obey these laws. Any organisation that fail to produce will eventually die.Anyone or any nation that vilifies, denigrates or undermine production can never achieve meaningful growth and development. No human being can survive without production. It is a natural rule. Whatever job you do is about producing something. And, to enable you exist or live as a complex and multicellular organism the cells in your body are in constant process of production. As they wear out and die your body need replenishment by producing billions of cells daily. Plants, animals and other living things must produce to meet the requirements of the ecosystem. You exist because the plants produces oxygen. Human existence would be impossible without the food chain which is dependent on production.
In life, and shall I say as economists would agree with me, we have two sets of people – those who produce and those who consume. Even if the only category you belong is that of the consumers you will still end up producing waste,as I stated earlier. So, you are a producer still. Of course, we belong to different societies or organisations and are engaged in activities where we are called or identified by different classifications or titles.
Production operations are carried out by everyone of us in various ways and at all times knowingly or unknowingly. A medical doctor, an accountant or a supply chain director is involved in production operations. The difference is in the evolution of occupations, division of labour, specialization and terminology.
Let me give you an example of what happened to production practice even after it had evolved over thousands of years from farming, hunting, crafts, metal works, cottage industries up till the first industrial revolution in the 18th century.
Today,we are witnessing the fourth industrial revolution which is redefining production and operations with advanced technologies such as the Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics, internet of things (IoT), 3D printing, quantum computing, genetic engineering, blockchain et cetera.
Historically, operations
management evolved in the1960s but gained prominence in the1970s as the new name for production management.
In practice now operations management has been widened in scope as production managers report to operations managers or other executives such as manufacturing/factory/ plant managers etc. Of course, these are production titles as well. There are production directors but most organisations prefer to call them manufacturing directors, operations directors or director of manufacturing operations etc. in manufacturing industries. In media organisations, film making and entertainment industries they still passionately adopt the production titles. Agricultural or construction managers are production management practitioners. Whether they are called operations managers in hospitals or financial institutions and project managers in engineering companies the fact is that production management cannot be avoided as a practice. Change is inevitable. Fancy names can be adopted and processes can be re- engineered but production remains production in whatever shade it is coloured. This reminds me of a relatively new discipline called supply chain management which evolved from the production sphere of influence in1990s. It is part of production and operations management.
Talking about operations and production is like saying the same thing in a different way. OPERATIONS are activities, tasks, steps or actions taken to achieve a predetermined objective or goal. We are familiar with its popular usage in different settings. For instance, we know or hear of surgical operations in the hospital, military operations in warfare or battles, shipping operations, logistics operations, supply chain operations, banking operations and so on. Operations are the things done or steps taken to achieve production. Operations is also applicable in all business functions such as human resources, administration, sales and marketing, finance, project, purchasing, stores/warehousing, transportation, quality, safety, health and environment, engineering or maintenance et cetera. All these activities or functions involve production of services. They are meant to support production of goods. Let us not forget that goods will eventually end up providing services. From this analogy or expression of similitude you will understand easily if I tell you that suppliers and vendors- distributors, wholesalers and retailers which are classified as part of the supply chain are also involved in production.
PRODUCTION is the creation of
value in the form of goods and services aimed at satisfyingly the consumer.Production involves making of goods and the delivery of services.
You will notice in textbooks in the field that authors refer to inputs ,transformation process and outputs .They are very correct. They build or construct this model to illustrate how production systems works in real life situations. That is the fundamental value path. They tell you about the factors of production. True! But, you need to understand that these things are applicable both at home, on the farm ,on mining and construction sites and in the offices not only in the factory. The inputs are not only the 5Ms – manpower, materials, machines, money and methods. They also include knowledge, market information, general databases, intelligence and technology. While factory of the future is being envisioned and attempts at virtual manufacturing is going on we have the intensive use of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics as well as the internet platforms used by the Amazons of this world. Production and Operations Management (POM) is using knowledge and mordern technologies to drive global change as in the typical example of the controversial 5G, the new standard for wireless communications. Production goes on even on your laptop while you are travelling or on your way to the office and your handset at your place of worship. Just like we have workers on offshore platforms or the rigs drilling for oil and gas far away in remote locations there are teachers in schools around us who are need to understand that they are production managers who constantly require competencies to explore all the possibilities of effectively producing quality manpower for the labour market. Or, don’t you think one of the reasons we have a large population of unemployed school leavers and graduates in our country today is skills gap ?
Production of goods (physical products) and production of services or service production ( intangible goods) are the preoccupation of production and operations managers.
Lack of professional know-how of production and operations management among leaders, managers, administrators and entrepreneurs have caused serious performance problems culminating in bad governance, failed projects, low productivity both in public and private sectors, business collapse, unompetitiveness, capacity underutilisation in industries and many more vices.
Let me add another definition. What is production?
Production is an organised human activity aimed at providing utility for sustainable customer satisfaction.
Let me re-emphasize that production is not limited to the factory or manufacturing. Production refers to physical products as well as services. Production may be in respect of banking or airline services or radio, television, film, music, play, entertainment production and other performing arts. In catering and hotel business or the hospitality industry production of food and other services go hand in hand. Production features in all economic activities be they agriculture, mining, construction, manufacturing, energy or commerce. Production is pivotal to the survival of the world and indeed the existence of the human race. Nothing meaningful happens in any society without production. Any knowledge that is not about production is useless.
Production is the chief economic activity and the mainstay of every economy. It is the most critical source of competitive advantage for any organisation.
Like it’s siamese twin- operations……….Government operations, business operations and other types of operations drive growth and development of nations. In production/ operations management practice there are systems, processes and methods which incorporates procedures. There are principles and techniques for managing quality, productivity, cost, safety, maintenance and reliability, supply chain and logistics and other functions for competitive advantage both locally and globally.
What is Production and Operations Management (POM)?
Production and Operations Management (POM) is a body of knowledge concerned with the effective, efficient and sustainable acquisition, development and utilisation of resources to create value in the form of goods and services aimed at satisfying the needs and wants of the consumers. Production and Operations Management is the management of systems, processes and supply chains used to deliver value to the customers and other stakeholders including investors or shareholders,employees, community, the society and the environment.
Production and Operations Management is not just a departmental function but a knowledge area focused on effective, efficient and sustainable utilisation of resources across the supply chain of an norganisation, multiple organisations or chains of national, regional and international business operations.
Production and operations management is the key weapon used by leading world class organisations and developed and industrialised nations to rule and lead the world. You may have heard about the Toyota Production System ( TPS) and the Japanese approach to quality ; Ford Motors, Chrysler and the robotic cars, driverless or autonomous vehicles ( AVs) , the exploits of Walmart, Amazon, Microsoft, Oracle,Google, IBM, Alibaba, Netflix and others.
As the world continued to intensify breakthroughs in computer science and software engineering technology a viral disaster struck in late 2019 in Wuhan, China which quickly spread through out the world claiming human lives at an alarming rate. We are now faced with the health challenges occassioned by the coronavirus pandemic associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and it is called COVID-19 precisely. The World Health Organisation ( WHO) is currently leading the global efforts to find effective therapeutics.
In good times and bad times the world needs production. Production to the rescue. Lives are being saved with the ongoing palliative treatments and care given by medical/health production managers (doctors, nurses and other health workers) worldwide while other production managers( scientists e.g. virologists, microbiologists, pharmacologists, as well as research and development ( R&D) specialists in pharmaceutical companies such as Roche, Sanofi,Amgen, Adaptive Biotech, Pfizer, Gilead Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline, Inovio, Moderna, Biogen, Takeda, Johnson & Johnson and others are battling to develop appropriate vaccines and other medications to save the human race from extinction.
In production of new pharmaceutical products especially to deal with new, complicated and deadly diseases speed is not as important as efficacy, safety and sustainability but this ravaging scourge requires the need to balance these key elements leading to appropriate and timely approvals by the relevant agencies and commercialisation while adoption of containment strategies need to be improved upon.
When we talk about supply chain ,value chain and other other related mordern concepts we should remember that it is on production they all pivot and it is by operations they are driven. CEOs and human resources directors don’t joke with learning and development ( L&D) of Production and Operations Managers, Supervisors and Workers .
Further explanation is given in my lecture handouts, training course manuals and publications at the College of Production And Operations Management (COPOM) Library. Adequate on-line learning support is provided at COPOM.
Persons involved or interested in the professional management of production and operations need proper and continuous education, training and certification from reputable professional production and operations management institutions. Professional Certificate,Diploma, Advanced Diploma or a Post-Graduate Diploma (PGD) in Production And Operations Management are conducted by the College of Production And Operations Management (COPOM).
To practice professional production and operations management you need to be registered with the *Nigerian Institute of Production Management (NIPM).
Dr. Olaniyi Opanuga,FNIPM,COPOM(c) is the Provost, College of Production & Operations Management (COPOM) and Dean of Studies)(OMI)
