We give a conceptually simple necessary condition such that a separable quantum operation can be implemented by local operations on subsystems and classical communication between parties (LOCC), a condition which follows from a novel approach to understanding LOCC. This necessary condition holds for any number of parties and any finite number of rounds of communication and as such, also provides a completely general sufficient condition that a given separable operation cannot be exactly implemented by LOCC. Furthermore, it demonstrates an extremely strong difference between separable operations and LOCC, in that there exist examples of the former for which the condition is extensively violated. More precisely, the violation by separable operations of our necessary condition for LOCC grows without limit as the number of parties increases.