Final answer:
Operations in a business are responsible for assessing customer needs and the production of goods or services. They also manage production costs and evaluate cost patterns to determine potential profit.
Step-by-step explanation:
The role of operations in a business encompasses a variety of functions essential to the creation and delivery of products and services. Operations personnel are involved in assessing customer needs to ensure that what is being produced meets market demand. A key aspect of operations is to produce goods and/or services, which involves decisions related to production processes, resource allocation, and quality control. While securing financial resources for projects and analyzing investment proposals are also important to a business, they are typically associated with the finance department rather than operations. Operations focus on the efficient and effective execution of the company's value creation processes.
Operations teams must also understand the relationship between production and costs, including learning how to analyze short-run costs in terms of total cost, fixed cost, variable cost, marginal cost, and average cost. Additionally, calculating average profit and evaluating patterns of costs are critical in determining potential profit, and ultimately, the success of the business's operations.