Is the process that converts inputs into outputs that can be sold as goods or services?

Is the process that converts inputs into outputs that can be sold as goods or services?

The idea of the value chain is based on the process view of organisations, the idea of seeing a manufacturing (or service) organisation as a system, made up of subsystems each with inputs, transformation processes and outputs. Inputs, transformation processes, and outputs involve the acquisition and consumption of resources - money, labour, materials, equipment, buildings, land, administration and management. How value chain activities are carried out determines costs and affects profits.

Most organisations engage in hundreds, even thousands, of activities in the process of converting inputs to outputs. These activities can be classified generally as either primary or support activities that all businesses must undertake in some form.

According to Porter (1985), the primary activities are:

  1. Inbound Logistics - involve relationships with suppliers and include all the activities required to receive, store, and disseminate inputs.
  2. Operations - are all the activities required to transform inputs into outputs (products and services).
  3. Outbound Logistics - include all the activities required to collect, store, and distribute the output.
  4. Marketing and Sales - activities inform buyers about products and services, induce buyers to purchase them, and facilitate their purchase.
  5. Service - includes all the activities required to keep the product or service working effectively for the buyer after it is sold and delivered.

Secondary activities are:

  1. Procurement - is the acquisition of inputs, or resources, for the firm.
  2. Human Resource management - consists of all activities involved in recruiting, hiring, training, developing, compensating and (if necessary) dismissing or laying off personnel.
  3. Technological Development - pertains to the equipment, hardware, software, procedures and technical knowledge brought to bear in the firm's transformation of inputs into outputs.
  4. Infrastructure - serves the company's needs and ties its various parts together, it consists of functions or departments such as accounting, legal, finance, planning, public affairs, government relations, quality assurance and general management.

A business is also known as an enterprise, a company, a corporation or a firm. It is a decision-making organization that is involved in the production process of goods and/or services and trading them to consumers. The production process is the process of turning inputs into outputs. Inputs are resources and outputs are final products: goods and services.

Businesses provide goods and services for consumptions, not only to private individuals, but also to other firms or governments, such as transportation services, security guards or storage services.

Inputs are all the resources that a business uses in the production process, e.g. land, raw materials, components, machinery, equipment, labor, etc. Outputs are final tangible goods such as cars, clothes or furniture, or intangible services such as education, business consulting and healthcare. 

When the inputs are being processed into outputs, the business incurs Fixed Costs (FC) and Variable Costs (VC). Fixed Costs (FC) added to Variable Costs (VC) give Total Costs (TC):

Total Costs (TC) = Fixed Costs (FC) + Variable Costs (VC)

After the outputs are sold out to final customers, the business generates Sales Revenue:

Sales Revenue = Price x Quantity

By subtracting Total Costs (TC) from Sales Revenue, the company generates Profit, the ultimate goal of most of the businesses:

Profit = Sales Revenue – Total Costs (TC)

The success of a business will depend on many factors, but most importantly, whether the business supplies products and services that consumers desire to buy. In the end, businesses must satisfy needs and wants of consumers profitably to be successful. Otherwise, they will get out of business. 


In this video, I am talking about ‘Why Companies Exist? Turning Inputs into Outputs’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeAaY8M1eKQ

3.2 Inputs

Some inputs are used up in the process of creating goods or services; others play a part in the creation process but are not used up. To distinguish between these, input resources are usually classified as:

  • transformed resources – those that are transformed in some way by the operation to produce the goods or services that are its outputs

  • transforming resources – those that are used to perform the transformation process.

Inputs include different types of both transformed and transforming resources.

Three types of resource that may be transformed in operations are:

  • materials – the physical inputs to the process

  • information that is being processed or used in the process

  • customers – the people who are transformed in some way.

Many people think of operations as being mainly about the transformation of materials or components into finished products, as when limestone and sand are transformed into glass or an automobile is assembled from its various parts. But all organisations that produce goods or services transform resources: many are concerned mainly with the transformation of information (for example, consultancy firms or accountants) or the transformation of customers (for example, hairdressing or hospitals).

Galloway (1998) defines operations as all the activities concerned with the transformation of materials, information or customers.

The two types of transforming resource are:

  • staff – the people involved directly in the transformation process or supporting it

  • facilities – land, buildings, machines and equipment.

The staff involved in the transformation process may include both people who are directly employed by the organisation and those contracted to supply services to it. They are sometimes described as ‘labour’. The facilities of an organisation – including buildings, machinery and equipment – are sometimes referred to as ‘capital’. Operations vary greatly in the mix of labour and capital that make up their inputs. Highly automated operations depend largely on capital; others rely mainly on labour.

Activity 4

Identify the principal inputs (both transformed and transforming resources) used by each of the following organisations, and their principal outputs.

OrganisationInputsOutputs
Restaurant
University
Doctor's surgery
Nuclear fuel reprocessing plant

Discussion

The transformed resources of a restaurant include food and drink, and its transforming resources include equipment such as cookers, refrigerators, tables and chairs, and the chefs and waiters. In a university, the transformed resources include students and knowledge and the transforming resources include lecturers, tutors and support staff, as well as classrooms, books and instructional materials.

Is the process that converts inputs into outputs that can be sold as goods and services marketing production mechanization specialization operations?

Production converts inputs into outputs by changing the inputs in some way.

Is a transformation or conversion of resources or inputs into goods and services?

Operations management is systemizing the direction and control of a business process in transforming resources, which are called inputs, into finished goods or services for consumers or clients (outputs).

What is the management of the production conversion process for both goods and services?

Operations management (OM) is the administration of business practices to create the highest level of efficiency possible within an organization. It is concerned with converting materials and labor into goods and services as efficiently as possible to maximize the profit of an organization.

What do you mean of production is that process where inputs are converted into outputs?

Production is a process in which economic resources or inputs (composed of natural resources like land, labour and capital equipment) are combined by entrepreneurs to create economic goods and services (also referred to as outputs or products).