Introduction
UNIT 5
Operations Management
UNIT 5: Operations Management
In this unit, students return to the fundamental rationale of business management: to make goods and services that meet consumers’ needs and wants. Without efficient operations leading to products and experiences customers are satisfied with, success
in the other business functions is unsustainable.
In unit 5, students learn how organizations manage their operations, whether in terms of achieving an optimal cost – quality ratio or the shortest supply chain; using the most ethical means or the latest innovative techniques; or applying the highest
levels of quality assurance.
Conceptual understandings (by the IBO):
• Change in operations impacts other business activities
• Creative production process can disrupt the market
• Operational business changes may affect its ethical stance
• Sustainability ensures efficiency in business operations
Suggested business management tools to integrate (proposed by the IBO) :
Decision trees, descriptive statistics, circular business models
Gantt chart (HL only), critical path
analysis (HL only), contribution (HL only), simple linear regression (HL only), Hofstede’s cultural
dimensions (HL only)
Tip! At the beginning of each presentation there are links to the proposed business management tools. However, it is just a recommendation, it is up to each teacher to decide on that.
Suggested inquiry statements to explore (by the IBO)
• How high standards in operations management could make a business more sustainable.
• Why outsourcing could result in lower quality.
• Why research and development could enhance creativity in a business.
• How technology may improve business productivity.
• How digital technology enables new business models to flourish.
• How circular business models can lead to greater resource efficiency.
Suggested theory of knowledge questions (by the IBO)
• To what extent can the human sciences provide accurate predictions?
• How might the methods used in Research and Development be limited by ethical considerations?
• Should we hold companies responsible for the applications of products they create?
• Are there new ethical challenges emerging from the increased use of data analytics in business
decision-making?
• To what extent do the classification systems we use in data analytics affect the conclusions that we
reach?
• How might personal prejudices, biases and inequality become “coded into” customer loyalty
programmes?
•To what extent is big data changing what it means to know your customers?
•Does artificial intelligence allow knowledge to reside outside of human knowers?
• What are the moral implications of possessing large amounts of information about consumer
behaviour?
Please note that the label Restricted means that some content is restricted to some of your students
(depending on if they are SL or HL or if they have completed a required activity), but of course, it is available to you as a teacher.