History and Future of Operation Management free essay sample

School of Economics and Business Administration Research Paper Jens-Antti Andersen, Tallinn, Estonia, 2013 Table of Content 1. History3 1. 1 Industrial Revolution3 1. 2 Scientific Management – Ford and Taylor4 2. Future4 2. 1 Future Trends – Bitcoins and 3D Printing4 3. Discussion4 1. History 1. 1 Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution started in 1770 in England, and spread from there to the rest of the Europe and North America around the 19th century. During this time it was common that the production consisted of single and simple products, made by one skilled handcraft man from its beginning to its end. Later on during the 18th century some remarkable innovation transferred the way of production forever. Steam machine which was the most revolutionizing, because it provided a source of power to operate machines in factories. Followed by the spinning Jenny and the power loom. Production moved from costly and time taking production of single handcraft men to faster production with a bigger volume. Craft production had major shortcomings. We will write a custom essay sample on History and Future of Operation Management or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Because products were made by skilled craftsmen who custom fitted parts, production was slow and costly. And when parts failed, the replacements also had to be custom made, which was also slow and costly. A major change occurred that gave the Industrial Revolution a boost: the development of standard gauging systems. This greatly reduced the need for custom-made goods. Factories began to spring up and grow rapidly, providing jobs for countless people who were attracted in large numbers from rural areas. 1. 2 Scientific Management – Ford and Taylor Observation, measurement, analysis and improvement of work methods, and economic incentives, those were the factors that Frederick Winslow Taylor believed in a scientific management. Taylor is referred as the father of scientific management. He studied the methods of working by detail and identified the most efficient way to progress. The relation between employee and employer was essential. The management should be responsible for planning, carefully selecting and training workers, finding the best way to perform each job, achieving cooperation between management and workers, and separating management activities from work activities. . Future 2. 1 Future Trends – Bitcoins and 3D Printing Thus it is the future, or if it is already a reality of today can be discussed 3. Discussion I came across with an interesting lecture about the accelerating speed of technology. Inventor, entrepreneur and visionary Ray Kurzweil explains in abundant, grounded detail why, by the 2020s, we will have reverse-engineered the human brain and nanobots will be operating your consciousness. Ray Kurzweil is an engineer who has radically advanced the fields of speech, text, and audio technology. Hes also one of our finest thinkers, revered for his dizzying yet convincing writing on the advance of technology, the limits of biology, and the future of the human species. I checked out his speech of the accelerating speed of technology on ted. com. Lot of interesting statements made which also covers this topic. H describes how he managed to build a mathematical model to keep track where technology would be in different points in time. One of his statements is that people tend to think of the development of technology in a linear way. They assume they’re going to develop a problem  or address a problem using todays tools,  at todays pace of progress,  and fail to take into consideration this exponential growth. He showed a few examples of how pervasive this phenomenon is. For example that it took almost half a century to develop the telephone. Cellphone was adopted in 8 years. Both Technology an biology are evolutionary process – it accelerate. They work through interaction they create a capability,  and then it uses that capability to bring on the next stage. Imaging what this means in order for the operation management. The technology development will increase exponentially. The capacity will be there, but the mindset to engage this new found capacity is simply not there, maybe there it is, but here it is nowhere to be found in the scope of things. An entrepreneur seeks the solution which results in maximal increase of revenue. It is simply rational behaviour. Weither it is green technology, 3D printing, the entrepreneur of the revolutionary innovations will always direct it towards where the money is. As the steam power where primarly owned by the church, because they where the one with power and money at that time, not the agriculture that probably wouod have been the one with largest demand. That is something to take in account in future also. New innovations that revolutionize the production line will be where the money is. Then the question is how much of the possible capacity wiol be able for the whole public? And for what price? 3D printing is a pretty nascent technology and reviews I have seen say the output can be quite rough.