Operations and materials management are some of the most important and interesting functional activities that take place within a company. Today, changes in global competition and advances in IT are making OMM one of the most challenging tasks facing companies, managers, and employees. This chapter made the following major points:

1. Operations are the value-creation activities that transform inputs into outputs, or goods and services.
2. Materials management is the control of the flow of resources into and out of a company's operating system.
3. The functional activities involved in operations and materials management take place at three stages: the input, operations, and output stages.
4. How well a company controls its OMM activities is an important determinant of the profitability of a company's business model.
5. The five main sources of operating costs are the costs of raw materials and components, plant, labor, inventory, and distribution.
6. Three main types of operating system are small-batch production, mass production, and flexible production.
7. Small-batch production is an operating system designed to make one-of-a-kind or small quantities of customized products that closely match the needs of individual users.
8. Mass production is an operating system based on the use of machines and standard operating procedures to control the work process. Companies that use mass production systems are able to reduce their operating costs and lower their product prices.
9. Flexible production is an advanced, computer-based operating system that combines the benefits of mass production and small-batch production. This is achieved by the use of computer-integrated manufacturing and flexible employees and work teams.
10. Total quality management is an operations technique whose goal is the continuous improvement of a company's operating system to increase quality and reduce costs.
11. Three other materials management methods often used to create a competitive advantage are computer-aided materials management, global supply chain management, and just-in-time inventory systems.