Definition of Production Management. scope of Production Management and functions of Production Management.(Importance)

Production is the basis activity of all industrial units. It involves conversion of one form of materials to another through chemical or mechanical processing to create utility of the products and services. According to economist, production is an activity through which the form utility is either created or enhance. Production Managements is the process of planning, organising, directing, and controlling the activities of production function. Production function is the conversion of raw-material into finished products. 

               According to Prof. H. A. Harding :

"Production Management is concerned with those processes which convert inputs into outputs, Input resources like raw-material, man, machines, methods, etc and outputs are goods and services. "

               According to Prof. E. S. Buffa:

"Production Management deals with decision making related to production process so that the resulting goods and services are producing according to specification, in the amounts and by schedule demanded and at minimum cost. "

                 From the above analysis we conclude that Production Management is the system which concerns with the conversion of inputs into outputs, using the physical resources, so as to provide the desired utilities of form, place, possession or state or a combination there of to the customer while meeting the order organizational objectives of effectiveness, efficiency and adaptability. 

Scope /function /Importance of Production Management. 

      The term scope means subject matter. In other words it means how far the subject is extended, Production Management covers all aspects of a production system. It involves production design and development of production process, production planning and controlling, implementation of production planning, purchasing and inventory controlling. 

1. Production design and production process :

              In this case, Production Management should identify assemble and modify the physical characteristics of the production process or system. Here, Production Management simply joins different parts already processed into sub -assemblies or final assemblies. It is the stage where Production Management design production systems or stage scientifically to process the materials into final products. 

2. Production planning and controlling :

      The product before being produced must be carefully planned to ensure that proper methods are used and every work centre is assigned required amount of work as per the capacity. Production planning involves management decisions relating to how much to produce, what input will be needed, what should be the steps if production process, production controlling the implementation of production plan schedules by co-ordinating different activities. 

3. Purchasing inventory control :

               Production, purchasing and inventory control are closely associated. Purchasing is generally a service concern. However, the Production Management is to satisfy the materials and supplies related requirement of other department because purchasing, supplies and production activities have the close relationships. Moreover inventory control is the technique of controlling the raw-material, V. I. P., finished products, stores, supplies, tools etc. The management of these items is closely related with the production function and so it included in Production Management. 

Function of Production Management:

      Functions of Production Management can be broadly classified into four areas - classification of decision areas :

1. Technology selection and management :

     This function is primarily concerned with long term decision related with technology selection and it's management under this function, Production Management should carefully handle the all aspects of technological advances. Major decisional areas under this function are management of workers, machinery, materials and capacity of operation system etc.  Moreover management should also consider the aspects of :

(a)  Undesirable affects of deterioration. 

(b)  Potentially harmful waste bio-products 

(c) Potential risk which can create disturbance in smooth maintainence of operation system. 

(2) Capacity Management :

              Capacity management is very important for achieving organization objectives of efficiency's, customer service, and over-all effectiveness. While lower than needed capacity result in non-fulfillment of same of the customer services and other objectives of the production system, a higher than necessary capacity result lower efficiency's of the conversion of operations. Hence there should be a flexibility build into the capacity availability, but this depends on technology decisions under nature of the system .

(3) Scheduling 

            Scheduling is another decisional area of Production Management which deals with the timings of various activities like time phasing of the feelings of demands, time phasing of the capacity meet the demand as it keep fluctuating. It is evident that as the span of fluctuation in variety and volumes get wider, the scheduling problems assumes greater importance. Hence, in jobs shop type production system,the scheduling decisions are very important which determine the system effectiveness as well as the system efficiency. 

(4) System maintainence 

       The function of Production Management refer the safeguard that only desired output will be produced in the normal condition of the physical resources and that the condition would be maintained normal.  Here, vigilance is maintained so that not all the good work of capacity creation, scheduling etc is neglected. Further the cheeks on the system performance at the corrective action would enhanced the chances of having the desired output on diluted by other pollutants .