Operations as a Transformation Process
The input–transformation–output model, and the two kinds of resource every operation uses.
8 min
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Every organisation exists to deliver something. A bakery delivers bread. A hospital delivers treatment. A logistics company delivers parcels. A bank branch delivers account services. The part of the organisation that actually produces and delivers these products and services is called operations.
Operations management is the work of planning, organising and improving the resources and processes that produce those products and services. Every organisation has an operations function, even if nobody uses that name. In a factory it may be called production. In a hospital it is clinical services. In a call centre it is the contact centre floor.
The idea at the centre of the subject is simple: an operation transforms inputs into outputs.
The input–transformation–output model
- 1
Input
Resources come in
Materials, information, customers, staff, equipment, buildings and energy.
- 2
Transform
The process changes them
Flour becomes bread. A patient becomes a treated patient. A customer order becomes a packed and shipped parcel.
- 3
Output
Products and services go out
Goods, services, or most often a mix of both, delivered to a customer.
- 4
Feedback
Results are checked
Customer complaints, quality checks and performance figures go back to the operation so that it can adjust.
Transformed and transforming resources
The inputs to an operation fall into two groups.
- Transformed resources are the things that are changed by the process. They are materials (steel, flour, medicine), information (an application form, a design file) or customers themselves (a passenger, a patient, a hotel guest).
- Transforming resources are the things that do the changing. They are facilities (buildings, machines, vehicles, computer systems) and staff (the people who run, maintain, plan and manage the process).
Transformed resources pass through the operation. Transforming resources stay in it and are used again and again. A truck is a transforming resource; the parcel in it is a transformed resource.
Three operations, one model
Transformed: flour, water, yeast, packaging. Transforming: ovens, mixers, bakers. Output: packed bread delivered to shops.
In a hotel, which of these is a transforming resource?