The impact of the Internet on e-operations is a central theme; indeed, it can be seen as the Web tying together all the disparate elements necessary for the formation of the new paradigm, and the medium for all the relevant information flows to circulate amongst concerned parties.

Increasingly, the e-business customer is demanding more customized products, faster delivery schedules, and instant access to order status. Whilst taking orders over the Internet is the easy task, the hard part is ensuring that the production and delivery mechanisms function in a way which will mesh well with the orders.

Advances in information technology (IT) – the World-Wide Web, enterprise integration, high-performance computing, transactional data systems – are both facilitating and transforming manufacturing and service operations. IT has enabled companies to avail themselves of both global reach and connectivity at the same time, by reducing barriers to collaboration, compressing information lead times, and vastly increasing the visibility and availability of data for decision making. Information technology helps operations managers improve the efficiency of operations.

However, it is important to heed the message of the wave of failed dotcoms – establishing and managing robust and responsive ‘‘backend’’ e-operations is critical to ensure success in e-business. It is the behind-the-scenes ‘‘guts’’ of the business, but it is certainly as dependent, if not more dependent, on the new technologies to achieve efficient operation.

E-operations must not only seamlessly exchange and integrate information from various players – customers, designers, suppliers, assemblers, distributors, and retailers – but also process and use this information to provide the right product (or service) efficiently at the right time and place.

The fundamental premise is that successful e-operations managers understand the dynamics of multi-stage operations, and can exploit the available information to manage – streamline, plan, and coordinate – activities at various stages of the product realization process. The following questions typify the challenges and opportunities of e-operations.

» What information is available or can be obtained to facilitate operations?

» How can I exploit this information to reduce costs?

» How can information substitute for inventories?

» How do I design and manage my operations to increase product variety and become more responsive to customer needs simultaneously, while maintaining or improving operational efficiencies?

» How can I exploit information technology to compress lead times and eliminate processing steps or parallel activities? » What will be the impact on operations of the emerging organizational trends such as globalization, outsourcing, and dynamic and opportunistic alliances?

Well-tested principles of operations management, such as just-in-time manufacturing, multi-stage coordination and scheduling, process reengineering, flexibility, and mass customization, continue to be the cornerstones for best practice in contemporary operations. However, the impact of e-business means that these tried and tested models need to be upgraded and harnessed for the requirements of the new economy.