Is the set of activities that create value in the form of goods and services by transforming inputs into outputs?

Operations management transforms inputs (labor, capital, equipment, land, buildings, materials, and information) into outputs (goods and services) that provide added value to customers. All organizations must strive to maximize the quality of their transformation processes to meet customer needs.

WHAT IS THE TRANSFORMATION PROCESS?

A transformation process is any activity or group of activities that takes one or more inputs, transforms and adds value to them, and provides outputs for customers or clients. ... Changes in the physical characteristics of materials or customers.

HOW OPERATIONS CAN BE VIEWED AS A TRANSFORMATION PROCESS?

Briefly describe how operations can be viewed as a transformation process. Operations is often defined as a transformation process. Inputs such as raw materials, labor, equipment, and capital are transformed into outputs (goods and services). Customer feedback is used to adjust the transformation process.

WHAT IS PROCESS IN OPERATION MANAGEMENT?

Operations management is an area of management concerned with designing and controlling the process of production and redesigning business operations in the production of goods or services. ... Operations produce products, manage quality and creates service.

 EXAMPLE OF AN OUTPUT AND INPUT OF THE TRANSFORMATION PROCESS

Information and materials are two examples of inputs to the transformation process. ... Inputs to the transformation process are tangible, but the outputs may be tangible or intangible.  In general, operations management activities are not information and decision intensive.

WHAT IS THE MAIN OPERATION PROCESS OF THE ORGANIZATION?

Operations management (OM) is the business function responsible for managing the process of creation of goods and services. It involves planning, organizing, coordinating, and controlling all the resources needed to produce a company's goods and services.

FOUR PROCESS STRATEGIES

A process or transformation strategy is an organization's approach to transforming resources into goods and services. These goods or services are organized around a specific activity or process.

Every organization will have one of the four process strategies:

a.    Process focus in a factory; these processes might be departments devoted to welding, grinding, and painting. In an office the processes might be accounts payable, sales, and payroll. In a restaurant, they might be bar, grill, and bakery. The process focuses on low volume, high variety products are also called job shop. These facilities are process focus in terms of equipment, layout, and supervision.

b.    Repetitive focus; falls between the product and process focus. The repetitive process is a product-oriented production process that uses modules. Modules are parts or components of a product previously manufactured or prepared, often in a continuous process. Fast-food firms are an example of repetitive process using modules.

c.     Product focus, are high volume, low variety processes; also called continuous processes. Products such as light bulbs, rolls of paper, beer, and bolts are examples of product process. This type of facility requires a high fixed cost, but low costs. The reward is high facility utilization.

d.    Mass customizations focus; is rapid, low-cost production that caters to constantly changing unique customer desires. This process is not only about variety; it is about making precisely what the customer wants when the customer wants it economically. Achieving mass customization is a challenge that requires sophisticated operational capabilities.

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3.4 Transformation processes

A transformation process is any activity or group of activities that takes one or more inputs, transforms and adds value to them, and provides outputs for customers or clients. Where the inputs are raw materials, it is relatively easy to identify the transformation involved, as when milk is transformed into cheese and butter. Where the inputs are information or people, the nature of the transformation may be less obvious. For example, a hospital transforms ill patients (the input) into healthy patients (the output).

Transformation processes include:

• changes in the physical characteristics of materials or customers

• changes in the location of materials, information or customers

• changes in the ownership of materials or information

• storage or accommodation of materials, information or customers

• changes in the purpose or form of information

• changes in the physiological or psychological state of customers.

Often all three types of input – materials, information and customers – are transformed by the same organisation. For example, withdrawing money from a bank account involves information about the customer's account, materials such as cheques and currency, and the customer. Treating a patient in hospital involves not only the ‘customer's’ state of health, but also any materials used in treatment and information about the patient.

One useful way of categorising different types of transformation is into:

• manufacture – the physical creation of products (for example cars)

• transport – the movement of materials or customers (for example a taxi service)

• supply – change in ownership of goods (for example in retailing)

• service – the treatment of customers or the storage of materials (for example hospital wards, warehouses).

Several different transformations are usually required to produce a good or service. The overall transformation can be described as the macro operation, and the more detailed transformations within this macro operation as micro operations. For example, the macro operation in a brewery is making beer (Figure 2). The micro operations include:

• milling the malted barley into grist

• mixing the grist with hot water to form wort

• cooling the wort and transferring it to the fermentation vessel

• adding yeast to the wort and fermenting the liquid into beer

• filtering the beer to remove the spent yeast

• decanting the beer into casks or bottles.

Figure 2 Macro and micro operations

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This mapping diagram builds on the one shown in Figure 1. There are two rows of objects. The first row begins with a large white box, in which is written Malt, Water, Hops, Yeast. The ‘Inputs’ arrow points from this to the ‘Transformation Process’ box, which now also has the label ‘Macro operation’ written beneath it. The ‘Outputs’ arrow leads from this box to another large white box in which is written Beer. There is a narrow black dotted line above the arrows, linking them. It leads from ‘Outputs’, with an arrow head pointing to ‘Inputs’. This dotted line is labelled ‘Feedback’. Bold white lines lead from the bottom left and right edges of the ‘Transformation Process’ box to the mid bottom left and right sides of the diagram. Below this, is another row of objects. The heading for this states ‘Can be broken into’. The row consists of three identical rectangular white boxes. Inside each of the three boxes is a miniature representation of the arrow, rectangular box, arrow mapping presented in Figure 1, the difference being that each of the objects contains no writing or labelling. Beneath the first rectangular box is the label ‘ Micro operation 1’. Beneath the second is the label ‘Micro operation 2’. Beneath the third is the label ‘Micro operation 3’.

Figure 2 Macro and micro operations

Activity 5

Identify the principal resources (inputs), the type of transformation process and the principal outputs (goods or services) in each of the following operations.

Discussion

You may have identified various inputs such as materials, energy, machines, equipment, buildings and people. For example, the inputs used by a car assembly plant include components, equipment, buildings, labour and energy. You may also have included less tangible inputs to the transformation process, such as information and skills.

You might have noticed that, midway down the list, the activities changed from primarily the production of goods to the provision of services. In the case of car designing, the principal inputs are ideas and the outputs are materials used to communicate the finished idea, such as blueprints or computer models.

Is the set of activities that create value in the form of goods?

Is the set of activities that transform inputs into goods and services?

What activities relate to creation of goods and services?

What is the term used to describe an operation that uses resources to transform inputs into outputs?