Prof. Seema Menon

 Production is the creation of goods and services  Operations management (OM) is the set of activities that creates value in the form of goods and services by transforming inputs into outputs.  Essential functions:  Marketing – generates demand  Production/operations – creates the product  Finance/accounting – tracks how well the organisation is doing, pays bills, collects the money

Value-Added: The difference between the cost of inputs and the value or price of outputs.

 This area of business ethics usually deals with the duties of a company to ensure that products and production processes do not cause harm.  Some of the more acute dilemmas in this area arise out of the fact that there is usually a degree of danger in any product or production process and it is difficult to define a degree of permissibility, or the degree of permissibility may depend on the changing state of preventive technologies or changing social perceptions of acceptable risk. ◦ Defective, addictive and inherently dangerous products and services (e.g. tobacco, alcohol, weapons, motor vehicles, chemical manufacturing. ◦ Ethical relations between the company and the environment: pollution, environmental ethics, carbon emissions trading ◦ Ethical problems arising out of new technologies: genetically modified food, mobile phone radiation and health. ◦ Product testing ethics: animal rights and animal testing, use of economically disadvantaged groups (such as students) as test objects.

 Developing and producing safe, quality products  Maintaining a clean environment  Providing a safe workplace  Honouring community commitments

 The Bhopal disaster (also referred to as the Bhopal gas tragedy) is the world's worst industrial catastrophe. It occurred on the night of December 2–3, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. A leak of methyl isocyanate gas and other chemicals from the plant resulted in the exposure of hundreds of thousands of people. Estimates vary on the death toll. The official immediate death toll was 2,259 and the government of Madhya Pradesh has confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas release. Other government agencies estimate 15,000 deaths. Others estimate that 3,000 died within weeks and that another 8,000 have since died from gas-related diseases. A government affidavit in 2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries.  UCIL was the Indian subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation (UCC). Indian Government controlled banks and the Indian public held 49.1 percent ownership share. In 1994, the Supreme Court of India allowed UCC to sell its 50.9 percent share. The Bhopal plant was sold to McLeod Russel (India) Ltd. UCC was purchased by Dow Chemical Company in  Civil and criminal cases are pending in the United States District Court, Manhattan and the District Court of Bhopal, India, involving UCC, UCIL employees, and Warren Anderson, UCC CEO at the time of the disaster. In June 2010, seven ex-employees, including the former UCIL chairman, were convicted in Bhopal of causing death by negligence and sentenced to two years imprisonment and a fine of about $2,000 each, the maximum punishment allowed by law. An eighth former employee was also convicted but died before judgment was passed.