By Si-hyuk Chong

Operation Management is critical importance of organization and business nowadays. It

is the management of manufacturing, production, and services operations. Operation
Management is diverse. It may be defined as the design, operation, and improvement of
the production systems that create the firm's primary products or services. However, the
role of Information Technology is the most effective tool, strategy, and techniue of
Operation Management functions and support decision!ma"ing process of Operation
Management. Information Technology is increasing in every business functions,
especially in Operation Management function. This research supports how Information
Technology affects to Operation Management from many perspectives, such as #ecision!
ma"ing process, $ommunication, %roduction &ystems and Management.
Decision-Making Process
's a matter of fact, Information Technology has a role to decision!ma"ing process of
e(ecutives, managers, decision!ma"ers, investments, employers, and employees.
Managers use Information Technology to be a tool to gain solutions, alternatives, and the
best decisions cause of their values. The component of Information Technology, for
e(ample, hardware, software, telecommunication and networ", database, people, and
procedure affected to facts and information that are factors and solutions for e(ecutives
and managers to consider business operations, mar"eting, and competitors, etc. If
managers do not receive the inaccurate and complete information, poor decisions can be
made. They might cost the organization of those mista"en thousands, or even millions, of
dollars. )or e(ample, if an inaccurate forecast of future demand indicates that sales will
be very high when the opposite is true, an organization can invest millions of dollars in a
new plant that is not needed.
*asically, e(ecutives and managers have data. #ata consists of raw facts. #ata can be
anything such as an employee's name and number of hours wor"ed in a wee", inventory
part number, employees' addresses, or sales orders. #ata is not valuable and it has no
meaning of itself. To be valuable, data change to information. Information is a collection
of facts organized in such a way that they have additional value beyond the value of the
facts themselves. The characteristics of valuable Information are accurate, complete,
economical, fle(ible, reliable, relevant, simple, timely, verifiable, accessible, and secure.
Thus, managers use information to solve the problems, provide the best alternatives, and
ma"e opportunities and progresses to their business. Information Technology is the
effective tool that helps e(ecutives, managers, and decision!ma"ers to receive valuable
information. Most businesses and organizations realized the importance of information.
+ith this reason, the new information technology has been creating and developing all
the times to improve the ways to gain the most accurate and valuable information in
timely.
The provided e(amples are the valuable of information. )or e(ample, manager has the
number of sales for each individual sales representative data on hand. #ata on his hand is
no value and no meaning. ' particular manager could gain the "nowledge of total
monthly sales to be more suited to his purpose and more valuables than the number of
sales for each individual sales representative data.
'nother e(ample is that managers have employee's name and number of hours wor"ed in
a wee" or month. To be more valuable and purpose, managers use Information
Technology tools to ma"e data more valuable, such as using $O*O, %rogramming to
process payroll of employees. Thus, managers will receive payroll information more
valuable that the facts of employee's name and hours wor"ed.
Production System -
)or %roduction &ystems, Information Technology influences to every unit of
production. The products might be tangible goods or services. 'dvanced Information
Technology leads to highly capacities of production systems and highly productivity.
.ew technology tools always create to increase capacity of production, such as Hardware
&ystems and &oftware &ystems, etc. )irst of all, Hardware consists of computer
euipment used to perform input, processing, and output activities, such as .umerically
controlled machines, Machining centers, Industrial robots, 'utomated material handling
systems, fle(ible manufacturing systems, etc. In Operation Management, Hardware
&ystems is very important issues that the company should consider carefully because
hardware systems affect to the capacity of production and highly productivity.
Information Technology for consideration hardware systems is primarily to operate
euipment associated with the system as well. The highly technology is the important
factor to get the best hardware systems and highly products and services. The effective
and ualified hardware systems leads to reduce the costs of operating and maintenance,
produce the highly uality of products and services, shorter cycle times, and speed up
operating, delivery fle(ibility, new product introduction speed, etc.
&econdly, &oftware &ystems are also affected to %roduction. &oftware using for Operation
Management consists of programs for the computer. &oftware &ystems in Operation
Management are such as $omputer!aided design, 'utomated manufacturing planning and
control systems, and $omputer!aid manufacturing, $omputerized Maintenance
Management &oftware, T%M/$ontinuous Improvement program, Overall 0uipment
0ffectiveness, Technical #ata Management, %roduction #ata Management, and &tatistical
1uality $ontrol $harting and 'nalysis, etc. &oftware &ystems support the production
activities and businesses processing. )or e(ample, some software helps designing and
development of products and services. &ome software are provided methods for planning
and scheduling the inputs and outputs of a manufacturing and control system, purchasing,
material reuirements planning, ad2usting plans and schedules based on performance,
supporting 3IT strategy, safety provision, find solutions and alternatives, and creating
opportunities of new products and services, etc.
Information Technology affects to business because it changes the industry to become
more favorable to the company and consumer demands. It provides solutions,
alternatives, and business production opportunities. The company could gain more power
over suppliers and customers. Highly Information Technology in both hardware systems
and software systems lead the company to achieve high uality products and services and
"eep it up in the face of restrictions. It also supports developing fle(ible production
systems to enable mass customization of products and services. Moreover, it could affect
the developing and integrating new productive technologies into e(isting production
systems and improve e(isting product lines and services. The highly of Information
Technology increase capacity of the production and drive down the cost of operating,
reduce time and effort to complete manual tas"s, improve organizational effectiveness,
develop, and support the fundamental business strategy of enterprise.
Management:
)or Management, Information Technology has affected to management of business and
organization. .owadays, Information Technology affected mar"et leading to global
mar"eting. Thus, mar"ets open widely and rapidly growing. It affects e(ecutives and
managers to change the strategies of Management as globally, because it is not only local
mar"et or domestic mar"et emerges, but also global mar"et. Information Technology
helps supporting e(ecutives, managers, and decision mar"ets to manage and control
business and environments in many ways. The most common types of information
technology used in business organizations are such as transaction processing systems,
management information system, decision support systems, and e(pert systems, database,
and other information technology tools.

Conclusion -
In summary, Information Technology is important to Operation Management because it
is the effective tool to help and support the efficiency and effectiveness of Operation
Management. High uality and leading of Information Technology could gain the
effective of production system, better business processing, high ualities of products and
services, better management, and the effective communication in the organization and
business, etc. One of the information technology ris"s are the highly costs of technologies
and the new rapidly technology. Thus, businesses and organizations should consider
about technologies carefully and reasonable, such as problems, costs, investments, and
opportunities in the future, etc.
44444444444444444444444444444444444.