This half-term course introduces students to problems and analysis related to the design, planning, control, and improvement of manufacturing and service operations. Class sessions involve explaining concepts, working examples, and discussing cases. A wide range of topics are covered, including: process analysis, quality management, supply chain design, procurement, and product development. Toward the end of the course, students work in teams to manage a virtual factory in a web-based simulation exercise.

This course is a survey of analytic tools, approaches, and techniques which are useful in the design and operation of logistics systems and integrated supply chains. The material is taught from a managerial perspective, with an emphasis on where and how specific tools can be used to improve the overall performance and reduce the total cost of a supply chain. There is a strong emphasis on the development and use of fundamental models to illustrate the underlying concepts involved in both intra- and inter-company logistics operations. The following topics are covered: Demand Forecasting Tools, Inventory Control Algorithms, Transportation Operations and Management, Vehicle Routing, Scheduling, Fleet Dispatching Algorithms and Approaches, Optimization of Transportation Carrier Operations, Supply Chain Network Design, Procurement, Sourcing, and Auctions (including Combinatorial Auctions), Management and Minimization of Supply Chain Uncertainty and Supply Contracts and Collaboration. In addition to model development, the course uses examples from industry to provide illustrations of the concepts in practice. This is not, however, a case study course.

Provides ways to conceptualize and analyze manufacturing systems and supply chains in terms of material flow, information flow, capacities, and flow times. Fundamental building blocks: Inventory and Queuing Models, Forecasting and Uncertainty, Optimization, Process Analysis, Linear Systems and System Dynamics. Factory Planning: Flow Planning, Bottleneck Characterization, Buffer and Batch-Size Tactics, Seasonal Planning, Dynamics and Learning for Various Process Flow Topologies and for Various Market Contexts.

This course covers the fundamentals of operations management as they apply to both production and service-based operations. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: explain the role of operations and its relationship with the other functional areas of a business organization; analyze operation processes from a variety of perspectives such as productivity, workflow, and quality; apply the Transformation Model as a construct for understanding the relationship between the inputs, processes, and outputs of an organization; explain techniques and methodologies for managing an organization's productive resources; apply basic design principles to determine appropriate facility location and layout; explain quality management and apply quality management principles to continuous improvement in operations management; discuss the goal of Supply Chain Management and its application in a variety of organizational settings; identify the critical factors involved in inventory control systems; identify the operational processes in the student's own organization. (Business Administration 300)

Introduces students to problems and analysis related to the design, planning, control, and improvement of manufacturing and service operations. Includes process analysis, project analysis, materials management, production planning and scheduling, quality management, supply chain management, reengineering, design for manufacturing, capacity and facilities planning, and operations strategy. This course will introduce concepts and techniques for design, planning and control of manufacturing and service operations. The course provides basic definitions of operations management terms, tools and techniques for analyzing operations, and strategic context for making operational decisions. We present the material in five modules: Operations Analysis Coordination and Planning Quality Management Project Management Logistics and Supply Chain Managemen.

In this activity, students investigate the life cycle of an engineered product and how the product impacts the environment. They analyze a product using a simple life cycle assessment that assigns fictional numerical values for different steps in the life cycle. They use their analysis to compare the impacts of their product to other products, as well as suggest ways to reduce the product's environmental impact based on their analysis.