This chapter introduced operations management as a critical component of the successful management of a business. Operations management is the management of productive resources that are used to create salable products or services. It is that sale of products and services that provides an opportunity for profitability.

The Resource/Profit Model was introduced as an organizing framework of operations concepts. The model provides three primary elements. The first, foundations for success, consists of value, strategy and value, and processes. The second, components of value, consists of cost, quality, and timeliness. The third, managing resources used to create value, consists of demand forecasting, followed by inventory, logistics, capacity, facilities, and workforce. These resource management topics are enhanced by three integrative frameworks: supply chain management, lean systems, and constraint management.

An overview of the Resource/Profit Model shows that profitability results from the creation of value and a strategy for maintaining a link to the customers who define it. The creation of value at a level that exceeds the cost of creating it provides the potential for profitability. Operations management has responded to and will continue to respond to four dominant environmental forces: competition resulting from the globalization of business, increasing levels of communication and competition brought about by the Internet and other disruptive technologies, the impact of the natural environment, and regional pressures that have varying impacts on business decisions.

Two business outputs—products and services—are critical to the management of operations resources. Effective operations management must acknowledge the differences and similarities of those environments. Two different types of customer—B2B and B2C—must be recognized because of the differences in their expectations and needs.

Last, but certainly not last in importance, the importance of operations familiarity— and familiarity with all aspects of the enterprise—is discussed as an important way for the business student to differentiate himself or herself from other students. It is an employee's ability to make the best decisions for the business, after all, that is most highly prized.