What is the difference between a production manager and an operations manager?

A production manager is usually responsible for some aspect of the life cycle of a product or products. The specific role will depend upon the size of the company, the organisation structure and the type of products that are produced. The production manager works very closely with the engineering manager and the marketing department. A production managers role can be summarised as essentially bringing products to market.

An operations manager is responsible for the business operations not related to individual products, projects or programmes, such as facilities management (buildings, desks and meeting rooms), stores management (booking items in), IT (computers, desk phones, mobile phones, servers, backups), transport (pool cars, taxis). Depending on the company the role may include supply chain elements, commercial and finance, project support office and shipping/export. The operations manager is responsible for ensuring the overall efficiency of these services to the rest of the business.