The processing part of the operations system is made up of al the activities involved in changing or combining resources to produce a good or service. Processing involves transforming raw materials into finished products so that value is added. Steel, glass, plastic, and fabric become a recreational vehicle. Styling tools, hair products, and skills of a barber can create a new hairstyle. In each case, the finished product has more value than the sum of the value of its raw materials . Managers decide what kind of processing is required to produce a good or service. It a factory makes electric guitars, managers must decide how to assemble them, finish them, and ship them. They must also decide how best to use their facilities in the manufacturing process. This may require building an new plant or an addition to an existing plant, retooling the plant's machinery, or reassigning workers to different tasks.
If a company makes products such as automobiles for customers in different parts of the world, managers may decide to standardize designs and parts. By standardizing, or making designs and parts the same, companies can save money. For example, if an auto manufacturer produces a standard kind of windshield for a standard car design, it can use that windshield in cars sold in Europe, Asia, or the United States. It is less expensive to produce a large quantity of one kind of product that to produce smaller quantities of an item that can be sold only in certain markets.
However businesses producing goods or services for other countries must consider the laws there. For example, other countries may have restrictions on such things as the use of pesticides, additives in foods, and auto emissions. Much United States beef cannot be sold in Europe because of the antibiotics we routinely feed out cattle. Patents and copyrights too, need to be considered. At one point, Coca-Cola stopped its operations in India when government there demanded Coke's secret, patented formula.