We prove that local operations that preserve all symmetries, as e.g. dual, truncation, ambo, or join,, as well as local operations that preserve all symmetries except orientation reversing ones, as e.g. gyro or snub, preserve the polyhedrality of simple embedded graphs. This generalizes a result by Mohar proving this for the operation dual. We give the proof based on an abstract characterization of these operations, prove that the operations are well defined, and also demonstrate the close connection between these operations and Delaney-Dress symbols. We also discuss more general operations not coming from 3-connected simple tilings of the plane.