Production Management Made Easy and Interesting

I thought I was wasting my time with an course like Production Management since I'm a Financial services sector guy. Production Management , also called operations management, is planning and control of industrial processes to ensure that they move smoothly at the required level.

But wait, people like Steven Spielberg, Shekhar Kapoor or our own Karan Johar depend hugely on production managers who are responsible for realizing the visions of the Producer and the Director or the Choreographer. Interested now!!

I would think that the production manager is an important link and would answer directly to the director. This may involve dealing with matters ranging from the procurement of staff, materials and services, to freight, logistics, information technology, government liaison, venue booking, scheduling, operations management and workplace safety. And maybe liasioning with the heroines too! Interesting, no!?

Prof Bawa really made it interesting for us. We did some interesting case studies too and one of them was on Toyota where Prof Bawa told us about their Ten Commandments for competing in emerging global scenario. Worth listing it out here:

1. Quality obsession
2. Productivity through infrastructure
3. Global orientation
4. Investing in Human capital
5. Improving supply chain management
6. Product & process innovation
7. Global branding and positioning
8. Design & Research
9. Better product at lower prices
10. Access to low cost capital

Techniques of production management are employed in service as well as in manufacturing industries. It is a similar functional responsibility in level and scope to other specialties such as marketing or human resource and financial management. Any questions?