Operations management is one of the central functions of all organisations whether producing goods or services, or in the private, public or voluntary sectors. This unit will provide you with a basic framework for understanding this function and discusses the role of operations managers, in particular the importance of focusing on suppliers and customers. This study unit is just one of many that can be found on LearningSpace, part of OpenLearn, a collection of open educational resources from The Open University. Published in ePub 2.0.1 format, some feature such as audio, video and linked PDF are not supported by all ePub readers.