What you're describing is part of my job, and I work in a manufacturing facility.
This book (get a used copy cheap) will give you a better understanding of what it's all about, and an APICS certification will validate your knowledge, if you want to spend the time and money to achieve that.
You'll probably want to read the book twice to really get a feel for it. Someone once said to me that "Orlicky took a simple concept and made it complicated."