Operations management is vital to the success of every business, no matter what the sector and no matter how large or small the company. Reflecting this, the study of operations management is integral to advanced business administration studies. Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC), for instance, includes an in-depth course on operations management in all seven of the school’s specialized online Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs.
But what exactly is operations management? To define operations management, it may be helpful to think about what happens when it is absent. When employees don’t have what they need to get their jobs done, that’s an operational failure. No supplies, not enough information, the wrong equipment — each of these circumstances is an operational failure. Likewise, when a company cannot meet the peaks of high demand or survive the valleys of low demand for its product or service, that is an operational failure, too.
How Does Operations Management Impact Organizations Positively — or Negatively?
Operations management impacts the functioning of businesses in fundamental ways. For example, poor operations management in hospitals can lead to delayed care. From the internal flow of materials like medication and equipment to the processing of digital health records, patients’ lives depend on the careful coordination and management of systems at the highest level. Thus, hospital operations management is a critical component of hospital system administration, and a key part of studies in an MBA in healthcare administration.
In retail, successful operations management means the difference between capitalizing on a trend and letting one slip by. If suppliers are unreliable, a production facility cannot expand to meet demand or the shipping department cannot handle unexpected traffic increases, then the business is not set up to succeed. The day-to-day operations management of a retail business may include managing inventory, employees and costs. As such, operations management is also a focal point of studies in TAMU-CC’s MBA in Management program.
In education, especially higher education, operations management matters for entirely different reasons. Educational institutions cover a diverse set of departments, from facilities and dining to human resources and academic services. All these areas and more combine to form an institution of higher learning, and a weakness in one area can affect the others.
Operations Management Knowledge Is Crucial for Leadership
Clearly, any area of business requires at least some degree of operations management. Knowledge of this important business management function transforms job candidates into executives, no matter the field.
This is especially true in the current era of seemingly constant disruption, where success in operations management relies on the ability to be agile, adaptable and rapid in response to challenges. This agility comes from leaders who understand effective operations management as well as how and when to delegate and distribute strategic decision-making to the most appropriate points of the organizational structure. Operations management is not a static field or practice. It must evolve with the times to best suit an organization’s goals along with challenges and opportunities in the external environment.
How an Online MBA Can Prepare You for a Career in Operations Management
The fundamentals of supply chain management, inventory, capacity planning and other topics will be covered in any quality online MBA program. Experience matters a great deal, but students who graduate from an online MBA program will have read the research, applied the theoretical models to a variety of business environments, and analyzed the techniques with other professionals — all for the most up-to-date and thorough understanding of this essential area of business.
Learn more about TAMU-CC’s online MBA programs.
