HISTORICAL EVOLUTION

OF OM

INTRODUCTION

operations management is the management of

systems or processes that create goods or provide
services.

EVOLUTION
Began

Industrial Revolution

in the 1770s in England and spread

to the rest of Europe and to the United
States during the 19th century.
Substituted machine power for human
power.
Most significant machine was steam
engine.

What did take place

Production became fast and low costly one
Economies of scale
Development of standard gauging system
Factories grew rapidly
Provided countless jobs

SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT

Widely changed the management of factories.

Developed

by Frederick Winslow Taylor,

the father of scientific management.
Based on observation, measurement,
analysis and improvement of work
methods and economic incentives.
Studied to identify the best method for
doing each job.

Cont.
Henry Ford practically adopted the scientific
management principles for Taylor.
Introduced the moving assembly line, which affected to
many industries.
Introduced mass production to the automotive industry.

The concept of Interchangeable Parts was applied by

Eli Whitney, an American inventor.
The basis for interchangeable parts was to standardize
parts.
Any part in a batch of parts would fit any automobile
coming down the assembly line.
Result was a high decrease in assembly time and cost.

Concept of division of labor, which Adam Smith

wrote about in the wealth of Nations (1776) was used
by Ford.
An operation is divided up in to a series of many small
tasks, individual workers are assigned to one of those
tasks.

PIONEERS WHO CONTRIBUTED

Frank Gilbreth - was an industrial engineer

who is often referred to as the father of

motion study. He developed principles of
motion economy that could be applied to
incredibly small portions of a task.

Henry Gantt - recognized the value of

nonmonetary rewards to motivate workers, and

developed a widely used system for scheduling,
called Gantt charts.

Harrington Emerson - applied Taylors ideas to

organization structure and encouraged the use

of experts to improve organizational efficiency.
He testified in a congressional hearing that
railroads could save a million dollars a day by
applying principles of scientific management.

Henry Ford - the great industrialist, employed

scientific management techniques in his

factories.

DECISION MODELS AND

MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
Accompanied by the development of several
quantitative techniques.
F.W. Harris developed a mathematical model for
inventory order size in 1915.
H.F. Dodge, H.G. Romig and W. Shewhart
developed statistical procedures for sampling and
quality control in 1930.
L.H.C. Tippott conducted studies that provided
the groundwork for statistical sampling theory In
1935.

Those qualitative models were widely used in world

war 2.
These decision models were also used for forecasting,
inventory management, project management and
other areas of operations management

THE INFLUENCE OF JAPANESE

MANUFACTURERS
Japanese manufactures developed management
practices that increased the productivity and
quality.
Companies which were outside Japan was
interested in their approaches.
The influence of Japanese companies is
continuing for the foreseeable future.

OPERATIONS TODAY
Advances in information technology and global
competition have had a major influence.
E business is receiving increased attention
from business owners and managers in
developing strategies, planning and decision
making.
Technology refers to the application of scientific
discoveries to the development and improvement
of goods and services.

Operations management is concerned with product and

service technology, process technology and information
technology.

Created by;

Shakthi Fernando

Sandun Ulpathakumbura

BSc. Financial management(Special)-Undergraduates

Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka

Thank You