The Responsibilities and Activities of UK Production Managers.

This article presents the results of a survey of British production managers regarding their responsibilities and activities. It is informed that the objective of this survey was to collect information to help in curriculum design. Data were collected from 45 production managers employed in manufacturing organisations. The findings of the survey suggest that production managers contribute substantially to their organisations' decisions on the use of plant and facilities, and upon the nature and control of production work. Furthermore, they have substantial responsibilities for quality assurance and control, but are less concerned with product design, payment systems, purchasing and supply. They devote rather more of their time than might be expected from their responsibilities, to production scheduling and control. In general, production managers feel the need for effective relationships with specialist industrial relations and personnel finance and accounting, and marketing and sales staffs.