What Are the Functions of Production & Operations?

The function of the production and operations department(s) in a company is to take inputs and fashion them into outputs for customer use. Inputs can be concrete physical objects, data driven, or service driven. The outputs can be intended for consumer use or for business use. The goal of production and operations is to create an end product in the most economic and efficient way possible.

Creation

The foundation of every production and operations department is the creation of goods or services. Traditionally, production included the physical assembly of goods, but production can also include data-based goods such as websites, analysis services and order processing services.

Customer Service

In many companies, the production and operations department contains the customer-facing customer service department that addresses the needs of the customer after the purchase of goods or services. The support function usually is served through phone, online or mail based support.

Profit

The main function of the production and operations department is to produce a product or service that creates profit and revenue for the company. Actualization of profit requires close monitoring of expenses, production methodology and cost of inputs.

Evaluation

Every production and operations department must function as self-evaluating entity that monitors the quality, quantity, and cost of goods produced. Analysis usually takes the form of statistical metrics, production evaluation and routine reporting.

Tasks

Common task functions in a production and operation department include forecasting, scheduling, purchasing, design, maintenance, people management, flow analysis, reporting, assembly and testing.

Fulfillment

Production and operations departments typically function as a fulfillment entity that ensures the timely delivery of the output from production to customers. Traditionally fulfillment is a shipping and mailing based function, but can be electronically based in a data-driven product.

Analysis

Standard analysis functions in a production and operations department include critical path analysis, stock control analysis, utilization analysis, capacity analysis, just-in-time analysis of inputs, quality metrics analysis and break-even analysis.