Admission requirements
3rd year bachelor students
Description
Operations Management (OM) is a broad area of research. It consists of traditional research areas, such as inventory management, as well as recently emerging research trends like revenue management. The OM research literature is huge and spans more than 5 decades of an exciting blend of theory and application. In recent years there has been an increasing awareness among large corporations and academic institutes of the potential of high quality theoretical and applied OM research in improving fundamental business processes across many sectors. Undoubtedly, operational problems can affect stock prices and shareholder wealth and the value of an effective operations strategy is tremendous. The key question is then how to determine the effective operations strategy which allows firms to significantly increase the likelihood of success, and what are the principles, frameworks, and processes that companies can follow to determine such a strategy?
Course objectives
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to some of the fundamental aspects of OM. These aspects include inventory management, facility location planning, capacity management, pricing, technology, etc. More specifically, the course will:
i. Make students conversant in the language of OM and expand their knowledge in this field.
ii. Help students develop modeling skills and provide them concepts and problem-solving tools, which are applicable to OM. We will cover a broad range of mathematical and analytical techniques in both traditional application domains, such as inventory control, capacity, transportation and production planning, and emerging application domains, such as product assortment and portfolio optimization.
iii. Give students 'hands-on' feel of how OM decisions are made in practice and why they are so complex.
Timetable
Semester 1:
Course: October 5th – October 30th 2018
Exam: November 7th, 14:00 – 17:00 hrs
Retake: January 31st 10.00 – 13.00 hrs
Mode of instruction
The course will be a mix of in-class lectures, online lectures, case discussions and computerized applications.
Course Load
8 3-hour lectures
Preparation for each lecture
Final 3-hour exam
Assessment method
There are individual assignments, paper-based mid-term quizzes, group assignments and a final closed book exam. For the detailed weight, please check the syllabus on Blackboard.
Note that one needs at least 55% of the points in each component to pass the course. In order to pass students must have a total grade of at least a 6 (six). The final grade is rounded off to the nearest half or integer.
Blackboard
Yes (students will be enrolled in Blackboard one month before the start of the course).
Reading list
We recommend the following book, and suggest complementary readings throughout the class:
- Simchi-Levi, Kaminsky and Simchi-Levi, Designing and Managing the Supply Chain, Irwin McGraw Hill, 3rd edition, 2008.
A study pack with course readings and case studies can be purchased at the start of the course. More information will follow on Blackboard after registration.
Registration
Students have to register for the course in uSis. The registration in uSis for 2018-2019 will open two months before the start of the academic year. Click here for instructions.
This course is part of the SBB minor. If you would like to follow this course as an elective, please contact the programme coordinator to discuss the possibilities.