Introduction to technologies in operations

Technology plays a crucial role in operations. It enhances operational efficiency, drives innovation, improves customer experience, and enables organizations to effectively address challenges such as disruptions. In this introductory chapter, we first present the historical remarks and give a definition for the concepts of operations and technology, respectively. After that, we categorize the chapters of this book section into various areas based on the technologies discussed in the featured chapters, they are: artificial intelligence (AI), additive manufacturing (AM), augmented reality (AR), blockchain technology (BT), digital twins (DTS), digital technologies (DT), other generic technologies (OGT), and metaverse (MV). Based on each technology, we discuss the featured chapters and highlight key insights. Finally, we present the summary of takeaways, to both practitioners and operations management (OM) researchers, from the featured chapters of this book section.