Career in Operations Management

Operations Management Overview: Operations management is the heart of an organization. It involves developing and managing the essential steps of any combination of the following: producing goods, quality control, quality management, managing the supply chain, facilities management, product formulation and design, ordering of goods, warehousing of goods, contacting vendors, and purchasing of external products.

 

Traditionally, operations management was considered to be plant management at a manufacturing organization. This is no longer true. There has been a marked increase in the number of operations people employed in the service sector, and many recent graduates of the Business School operations program have taken jobs in consulting. In addition, recent graduates have also found opportunities as supply chain managers in corporate headquarters.

 

Required skills and attributes: Operations management is an ever-changing and satisfying career for many, but it requires a very broad skill set and isn’t for everyone. below given is the most important qualities  required to be a successful operations manager.

• Technical knowledge (understanding of systems and engineering processes).
• Strong interpersonal skills (the ability to work effectively with and through other people).
• Leadership.
• General business knowledge (multi-disciplinary).
• Strong analytical/problem solving abilities (creativity).
• Negotiation skills (ability to negotiate effectively with different parties, e.g. suppliers, internal customers and unions).
• Presentation skills (a successful operations manager will often interact with corporate senior managers, often in non-engineering, more business language).

Job Prospects: Immense career opportunities are available for the students in Operations management amongst the youth in India and abroad. Wide range of career opportunities is available in the field of Insurance, Consulting Firms, Retail, Information Technology, Financial Institutions, Construction, Hospitality, Manufacturing and Transportation.

 

An individual can work as a Forecasting Manager, Customer Service Support Manager, Operations Planner, Inventory Planner and Control, Scheduling and Control Manager, Project Manager, Process and Methods Planner, Purchasing and Materials Manager, Plant Engineering Manager, Operations Process Manager, Traffic Manager, Quality Manager, Warehouse Manager and Distributor etc.

 

Industries in this field:

• Manufacturing
• Hospitality
• Consulting Firms
• Financial Institutions
• ITES
• Construction
• BPO
• Insurance
• KPO companies
• Retail
• Information Technology
• Transportation and Logistics

Job profiles:

• Retail Operations Manager
• Operations Manager
• Operations Executive
• Assistant Manager Operations
• General Operations Managers
• Plant Manager
• Area Operations Manager
• Process re-engineering Managers
• IT Operations Administrators
• Deputy Manager - Cinema Operations
• Manufacturing consulting Managers
• Channel Manager for GSM operations

The Operations area is a good entry point in the organization in order to move towards more general management positions.