Preamble - Welcome to Operational Chaos

So, without saying anything about how I always wanted a blog and so I got one made for myself a few years ago but could not figure out what to write in it and so I put it off until now, let me welcome you to Operational Chaos.

Don't worry if the name does not make much sense to you right now, because trust me, I just whipped it out of the top of my mind by combining two random words that I thought would be unrelated enough to make the name sound interesting. Pardon me if I did not succeed. But anyways, it is what it is now. So what is Operational Chaos all about?

As a student of mechanical engineering, contrary to what my college grades say, I do hold some interest in the manufacturing technology. I was reading about the famed Toyota Production System (more on that later) when I noticed that the words - operations and supply chain appeared in almost every other line. Now, I did have an idea about what they meant and what their significance was, but only superficially. A little googling startled me.

The operations and SCM sector was huge. I did not know that -

•  US expenditure on operations was about $1.3 trillion in 2011 which is more than the GDP of all but 12 countries in the world.
• As of today, operations in India is a Rs. 12 trillion industry (about 13% of GDP) and is a 7 trillion yuan industry in China (about 16% of GDP)
• This sector employs over 45 million people in India alone.

I also did not know that - 

• I was tremendously interested in both of them.

So, I downloaded a few books, issued some from a nearby library, signed up for a few online courses and started off my journey in Operations and Supply Chain Management (SCM). It has been just a week since I started and I am completely hooked on to them. Moreover, as I delved deeper, I realized that everybody would be better off knowing the basics of these two disciplines. Be it in college, at a job, in a start-up or at the helm of a big multi-national. They will help you whatever you do, wherever you do it. Trust me, they are everywhere.

But why the blog, you ask? Let me take you through some purposes that this blog will serve. This blog will,

• Allow me to document and share all that I have learnt, read, found
• Serve as a valuable resource on Operations and SCM for beginners like me
• Give you the interesting basics that you should know irrespective of the field you work in
• Astound you as to how these two seemingly ordinary disciplines affect our entire lives
• If nothing else, fulfill my intense longing to have a blog!

As to what exactly will be the content of my posts, well, you'll have to wait and watch. More about it in my next post. So, all that said, here I begin. To a long lasting blogger-reader relationship between you and me.

By the way, the name makes sense now? No? Okay.