Operations Management

ROLE OF MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
The role of materials management is to “direct and control the movement of goods in an efficient manner through the hospital (Langabeer, 2008, p.242).”   Within this role is also the function of logistics management.   This is commonly referred to as “that part of supply chain management that plans, implements, and controls the efficient, effective forward and reverse flow and storage of goods, services and related information between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet customers’ requirements (Langabeer, 2008, p.242).”   All of this is to say that it requires many individuals and proper coordinating to ensure that materials, supplies, as well as patients are directed and seen to their respective locations within the facility.    
In order to operate and successfully manage the hospital supply chains, the materials management department needs to have a solid foundation of skills focused on customer service, logistics, finances, human resources, and finally business analysis.   However, within many organizations and hospitals this is not the case; the employees do not fully understand their role and significance to the organization due to the lack of proper training and education.  
ROLE OF OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT WITHIN MATERIALS MANAGEMENT
Operations management is typically referred to as an area of business processes that are focused on the production of goods/services, and requires that the business operations are effective in using resources as well as meeting customer needs/demands.   Healthcare Operations Management is a discipline that integrates scientific principles of management to determine the most efficient and optimal methods to support patient care delivery (Langabeer, 2008).   There are many roles and goals of health care operations managers that must be reviewed on a daily basis.
The primary role of operations management is to convert inputs to outputs.   Inputs are defined as the...