The Historical Evolution of Operations Management

Operations have always existed in some form since the olden times. Over the years, operations have dramatically changed at least in the manufacturing industry and it has gone through three main stages which are the craft manufacturing, mass production and the modern era.

Craft manufacturing involved highly skilled workers who produced in small quantities using simple tools with the objective to meet specific individual customer’s needs. In the craft production system, workers usually work in their homes or small workshops and at that time, there was low competition due to low scale production. Although operations have evolved greatly since that period, some industries still have recourse to craftsmanship like in furniture or clock making.

In the 18th century, production would change forever with the numerous innovations at that time but more significantly with the arrival of the steam engine invented by James Watt in 1765. Modern manufacturing was at its beginning in this first industrial revolution with machine power replacing human power and animal labour.

Mass production really began in many industries in the 19th century and it involved the production of goods in large volumes but less variety. This production method expected customers to buy what they produce rather than catering for customers’ individual requirements.

This system of mass production was really launched with the American system which was with the first innovation in operations at that time. The American system of manufacturing was a concept involving interchangeable parts and wide use of mechanisation in production created by Eli Whitney in 1790 in America. In 1851 this production system spread in many other countries namely the United Kingdom in the tex...

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...stomers with innovative goods.

During this evolution, the way employees worked has also changed. Although scientific management has immensely contributed, today this approach is less and less used in companies due to its lack of consideration towards workers. Today businesses have adopted more modern and human focused approaches like total quality management or the principles of Theory Z.

In various ways, all the theories and approaches discussed in this paper seek to achieve on one end result; that is combining high volume and low cost used in mass production with the product customisation, high levels of innovation and high levels of quality related to craft production.

So what about the next era? Technology seems to be the one domain which will continue to expand helping businesses facing new challenges and constantly offering customers innovation and quality.