1.D.

The historical evolution of OM

Posted on 5 December, 2014 by mgblazquez1
(Álvaro Terry, Felisa del Viejo, María Gonzalez & Pablo Díaz)

In the last century, operations management has experienced more changes than any
other functional area of business and is the most important factor in
competitiveness. This is a chronology of major themes that have changed the scope
and direction of operations management:

FOCUS ON EFFICIENCY
OM has it roots in the Industrial Revolution that occurred during the late 18th and
early 19th centuries in England. Until that time, goods had been produced without
the aid of mechanical equipment. During the Industrial revolution many inventions
came into being that allowed goods to be manufactured with greater ease and speed;
it lead to the development of modern factories. As international Trade grew the
emphasis on operations efficiency and cost reduction increased. Many companies
moved their factories to low-wage countries. Technology was viewed primarily as a
method of reducing costs and distracted from the importance of improving quality.

QUALITY REVOLUTION
US consultants told Japanese executives that continual improvement of quality
would open world markets, free up capacity and improve the economy. They
embarked on a massive effort to train the workforce, using statistical tools to identify
causes of quality problems and fix them; so that the made steady progress in
reducing defects and paid attention to consumers needs. Thanks to this progress
Japanese good were seen as more reliable and better met consumers needs, then
Japanese firms captured major shares of world market. Therefore, quality became an
obsession with top managers.

CUSTOMIZATION AND DESIGN

As the goals of low cost and high quality became “given´´ , companies began to
emphasize innovative designs and product features to gain a competitive edge.
Quality meant much more than simply defect reduction; quality meant offering
consumers new and innovative products , not only meeting their needs but
surprising and delighting them . Inflexible mass production methods that produced
high volumes of standardized goods and services using unskilled or semiskilled
workers and expensive single-purpose equipment, thought very efficient and cost
effective, were inadequate for the new goals of increased G&S variety and
improvement .

TIME –BASED COMPETITION

Companies have to respond quickly to changing customer needs to win competitive
advantage. That task includes developing products faster than competitors, speeding
ordering and delivering process, rapidly responding to changes in customers needs
and improving the flow of paperwork. As information technology matured, time
became an important source of competitive advantage.

SERVICE REVOLUTION
While the goods-producing industries were getting all the attention in the business
community, the popular press and in business school curricula, service industry were
quietly growing and creating many jobs. Today about four out of five jobs in the US
are in the service sector.