Production is the transformation or conversion of a set of inputs, such as raw
materials, labor, knowledge, into one or more outputs such as tables, cars, and
banking services.

The main purpose of production systems is to produce goods and/or servives.

Inputs, process, outputs and feedback are the main elements of a production system.

The production system has the following characteristics:

• Production is an organized activity; thus every production system has an objective.
• The system transforms the various inputs to useful outputs.
• It does not operate in isolation from the other organizational systems.
• There exists a feedback about the production activities, which is essential to control and improve system performance.

During the transformation process, the production function in the company involves four specific sub-functions which are design, scheduling, operation, and transformation control

The selection of a process structure is determined by many factors. Some
of the most important ones are as follows:

• The expected volume and demand pattern for the products.
• The number of different products manufactured by the system and
the processing type that each one requires.
• The type of the customer order, which defines whether the product
is made to stock or made to order.
• The physical characteristics of the products and the specific technologies required to produce them.

There are three types of flow processes:

continuous flow process;

repetitive or discrete flow process; 

disconnected or batch flow process.

The job-shop process is used when a company manufactures several different
products that require different types of processing and processing for different
products is performed in different sequences.

Contemporary production management has its roots in the Industrial Revolution that occurred during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in England.

Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776) proposed the division of labor in which the production process was broken down into a series of small tasks, each performed by a different worker.

Lean production emphasizes flexibility and quality

The ultimate goal of production management is to provide high-quality
goods and services instantaneously in response to customer demand by the lowest possible cost.

A part family is defined as a number of parts with similar dimensions, geometric features, and tolerances or processing requirements or both.

Just-In-Time (JIT) production is a Japanese management philosophy applied
in manufacturing which involves having the right items of the right quality and quantity in the right place and the right time.

Mass customization means tailoring products to meet the needs of a large number of individual customers

High competition, technological improvements, the structure of the business, source of capital, social developments, and industrial relations bring pressure on companies for paying more attention to production management.

Different factors can affect location decisions such as proximity to customers, transportation, source of labor, community attitude, proximity to suppliers, proximity to raw materials, government law and regulations, taxes, and culture.

Production function includes many interrelated activities such as forecasting, capacity planning, scheduling, managing inventories, assuring quality, motivating employees, and more.

The major objectives of an MRP system are to simultaneously:
1. Ensure the availability of materials, components, and products for planned production and for customer delivery,
2. Maintain the lowest possible level of inventory,
3. Plan manufacturing activities, delivery
schedules, and purchasing activities.

Supply chain management main flows are the product flow, information flow, and finances flow.

In 1890, statistician Herman Hollerith designed the Punch Card tabulating System to record that year’s U.S. census

Knowledge technology (KT) adds a layer of intelligence to filter appropriate
information and deliver it when it is needed

The effectiveness of management information depends on four characteristics:

Quality,

Completeness,

Timeliness, 

Relevance.

A data warehouse is a single, complete and consistent store of data obtained from different sources made available to end users in what they can understand and use in a business context.

Information technology includes hardware, computer networks, and software.

Computer software provides the instructions that enable users to tell the
computer what to do.

Information system (IS) is any organized combination of people, hardware, software, communications networks, data resources, and policies and procedures that stores, retrieves, transforms, and disseminates information in an organization.

Management Support Systems are classified as Management Information
Systems and Decision Support Systems.

Operations Support Systems are classified as Process Control Systems and Transaction Processing Systems.

Most successful management support systems are one aspect of a distributed, enterprise information system that enables flexible and integrated information
sharing and communication with both internal and external stakeholders.

Management information system (MIS) broadly refers to a computer-based system that provides managers with the tools to organize, evaluate, and efficiently manage departments within an organization.

The characteristics of decision support systems are:
1. An easy-to-use interactive interface,
2. Models that enable sensitivity analysis,
what-if analysis, goal seeking, and risk
analysis,
3. Data from both internal databases and
external sources added to by the decision
maker, who may have insights relevant to
the decision situation

Some of the most important benefits of the DSS are to improve the efficiency and speed of decision-making activities, increase the control, competitiveness and capability of futuristic decision-making of the organization, facilitate interpersonal communication, encourage learning or training, and help automate managerial processes.

An expert system is a software that uses artificial intelligence technologies to simulate the judgment and behavior of a human or an organization that has expert knowledge and experience in a particular field.