Productivity and Operations Management

Assignment #1

MGT 215 Operations, Logistics and Supply Chain Management

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A Master’s Research Paper

Presented to the University of Management & Technology

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August 29, 2011

PRODUCTIVITY AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Operations Management (OM) is the part of business that is responsible for ensuring the resources and processes used to create the goods and services to meet a customer’s needs as well as ensuring the production process is efficient. Production is the process of converting a variety of resources such as raw material, semi-finished goods, and even thoughts, and ideas into goods and services. In this assignment, I will;

* Discuss how oil drilling technology has increased the production of crude from oil wells.

* Identify the transformation that takes place in a restaurant.

* Discuss what I believe will be the “next big thing” to have a major impact on national and global productivity.

* Define the role of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and discuss if I see it as primarily good or bad for the U.S.

* Identify one discipline and one technology that I think will contribute in a major way to the future development of OM and describe why they will contribute.

Oil Drill Technology and it’s Affect on Oil Production

Production technology is any advancement in technology that improves production and productivity. Machine technology is an area of technology which involves a variety of machinery that performs cutting, drilling, boring and milling. Advancements in the machinery used to drill for oil has led to significant increases in oil production. The oil industry’s form of production refers to the quantity of crude extracted from reserves, not the literal creation of the product.

Man’s earliest recorded effort to use oil wells to drill for oil is attributed to China in 347 CE. They used a...