Page 204 - Cambridge IGCSE Business Studies

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Section 4:

Operations management

All businesses in the private sector have profit as their main objective. They
cannot achieve this objective if they don’t produce and sell products. In this
section you will learn about the production process and how businesses
combine inputs to produce a saleable output. Before a business can begin to
produce goods and services they must decide on a location. Factors aff ecting
location decisions, including the role of legal controls, are considered in this

section. There are different methods of production a business may use and the
decision as to which is best is something you will consider.
The importance of productivity and how this might be improved through the
development of workers or use of technology is also something you will learn

about in this section. Efficient production requires management to carefully
control business costs. The classification of costs and how this might be used in
break-even charts and in making production decisions is an important element
of your learning in this section. You will also learn about the importance of

quality and how this might be achieved in different sectors of business activity.