Then, another, and probably the most obvious, application of operations management is that of achieving cost reductions. Richard Stylves offers the most conclusive example of Henry Ford, who sought to integrate assembly lines using the most cost effective commodities, including labor force. The aim of operations management is then that of reducing expenditure and increasing operational efficiency. Its applications are present at all organizational levels, from resource allocation to product distribution. Amazon.com has successfully integrated these principles by establishing its warehouses in adequately chosen locations which allow it to efficiently and automatically distribute its products to worldwide consumers.

Carter McNamara agrees with most of the previous findings, but his article is more of a generalist one, in which the author simply states that operations management has applications in "purchasing, control and coordinating function of management, product and service management, quality management, inventory management, logistics and transportation management, facilities management, configuration management [and finally], distribution channels."

4. Conclusions

Today's managers are faced with the difficult challenge of internationalized competition and customers revealing modifying and incremental demands. In order to cope with these modifications, organizational leaders implement numerous theoretical concepts, such as operational management. The notion is rather complicated to define simply because it is extremely complex and has countless applications at all organizational levels. In a most crude form, operations management could be defined as the totality...