What are the Levels of Operations Management

The organization of operations management can be categorized into three specific levels:

• strategic/top level/longterm management
• Tactical/functional/medium term/middle level management
• Operational/short-term management

What is Strategic Management?

Strategic management is high-level management of the organization. It generally encompasses long-term decisions. Some examples include:

• Products to make (product development)
• Make or buy decisions
• How to make products (process and layout decisions)
• How much to procure
• Production site location
• How much capacity is needed. (high level capacity decisions)

What is Tactical Management?

Functional management concerns the specific functions or departments within the organization. It generally has mid-term implications (1-3 years). Examples include:

• labor resources and planning
• inventory production and capacity planning
• inventory logistics

What is Operations-Level Management?

Operational-level management concerns the lower-level decisions that affect daily operations.