Syllabus
Course Title: Operations
Credit Units: 3
Course Number: MBA3305
Term Offered: Winter 2023
Modality: Hybrid & Weekend
Section: 1
Office Hours: By Appointment
Course Start/End Dates: January 9, 2023 – March 19, 2023
Time and Location: On the Sofia University Canvas System
Course Clock: Pacific Time
Course Description
Today, companies are competing in a very different environment than they were only a few years ago. Rapid economic changes such as global competition, e-business, the Internet, and advances in technology have required businesses to adapt their standard practices. Operations management is the critical function through which companies can succeed in this competitive landscape.
This course offers learning to view Operation Process as a working system across different industries and identify various operation models according to the functions. This course provides a foundation of operational concepts and techniques with an integrated approach to Operations Management. Topics include process identification, performance measurements, capacity planning, forecasting, and operations strategic management.
Students will gain the skills to improve operational processes in services or in manufacturing by learning how to increase productivity, conduct capacity planning and integrate forecasting in operation management to deliver optimal outputs. Students will learn to build a “practical change” mindset and develop operational strategies to a real-world business challenge.
Course Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Explain the basic terms and concepts associated with the field of operations.
- Acquire the basic skills in both qualitative and quantitative analysis of operations management issues and challenges.
- Develop the operation improvements strategies considering capacity planning and risk in manufacturing and service businesses.
- Apply an integrated approach to operations management from input resources to output standards.
Required Textbook(s)
Dan Reid, Nada Sanders (2013). Operations Management – An Integrated Approach. Wiley.
ISBN 978-1-118-47589-8 (pdf)—ISBN 978-1-118-12267-9.
Note: Required readings from this textbook are linked in each online module. Students do not need to purchase a hard-copy textbook, unless they wish to do so.
Course Overview: Five modules and week-by-week study schedule
Operations WEEK Topic
Module I – Introduction Week1 What is Operation?
Week2 Process Identification and Selection
Module II – Process Measures Week3 Quality and Productivity
Week4 The link between Operations and Finance
Module III – Capacity Planning Week5 Capacity Planning
Week6 Facility Layout
Module IV – Forecasting Week7 Forecasting
Week8 Resource Planning
Module V – Capstone Week9 Capstone: Aggregate Planning
Week10 Ops Improvement and Risk Management
Assignment Descriptions and Grading
At the end of each week, we will have different types of assignments. Altogether:
- Discussions x4;
- Knowledge Exercises x3;
- Operational improvement project x1 in 3 steps.
Discussions
The discussion response is a more casual discussion about the topic each week. Your initial post is due by Thursday 11:59PM PST. You must make minimum two substantive comments on classmates’ discussion posts by Sunday 11:59PM PST. A table below shows the assignment schedules and due date by module.
The discussion opens on Monday and closes Sunday at midnight PST. If you consistently wait until the last minute, it defeats the purpose of a discussion, and you will not receive full credit.
I recommend stopping by the discussion board a few times during the week and making one or two comments in response to whatever’s going on each time, e.g. M-W-F or T-TH.
In Person Course Engagement & Participation
During the progression of the course, we will meet in person for three full day sessions, Campus Date 9:30 AM- 2:30 PM as below. Attendance and engagement in the activities at each in-person session is required.
| Operations | WEEK | Topic | Start Mon | Due on Thursday Recommended | Campus Date | End Sun | Due on Sunday |
| Module I – Introduction | week1 | What is Operation? | 1/8 | Discussion 1 | 1/14 | Discussion 1 and Peer Review | |
| week2 | Process Identification and Selection | 1/15 | 1/21 | Knowledge Ex.#01 | |||
| Module II – Process Measures | week3 | Quality and Productivity | 1/22 | Jan 20, 2024 | 1/28 | Knowledge Ex.#02 | |
| week4 | The link between Operations and Finance | 1/29 | 2/4 | Group Signature Assignment Part 1 | |||
| Module III – Capacity Planning | week5 | Capacity Planning | 2/5 | Discussion 2 | 2/11 | Discussion 2 and Peer Review | |
| week6 | Facility Layout | 2/12 | Feb 17, 2024 | 2/18 | Group Signature Assignment Part 2 | ||
| Module IV – Forecasting | week7 | Forecasting | 2/29 | Discussion 3 | 2/25 | Discussion 3 and Peer Review | |
| week8 | Resource Planning | 2/26 | 3/3 | Knowledge Ex.#03 | |||
| Module V – Capstone | week9 | Capstone: Aggregate Planning | 3/4 | March 16, 2024 | 3/10 | Group Signature Assignment Part 3 | |
| week10 | Ops Improvement and Risk Management | 3/11 | Discussion 4 | 3/18 | Discussion 4 and Peer Review |
Knowledge Exercises
Knowledge Exercise is with essay discussion and practice of metric measures in the process management. Takeaways under each model is a good reference for you to recap the contents in the textbook reading and module learning.
Course Project
The project aims to guide the student apply the concepts and techniques covered in the modules to conduct the operation improvements for the business. We separate the project work into three steps, that is, two signature assignments and one final presentation.
- Group Signature Assignment Part 1: the assignment is based on the learning of process identification and productivity and other performance measures from week 1, 2, 3, and due on week 4 Sun Feb 4.
- Group Signature Assignment Part 2: the assignment is based on the learning of capacity planning and finance budgeting from week 4, 5, and due on week 6 Sun Feb 18.
- Group Signature Assignment Part 3: consolidate the work from Part 1, Part 2, plus the forecasting and aggregate planning (learned from week 6, 7, 8, 9) and put them into a final slide, due on week 9 Sun March 10. We will have an in-person presentation during the third campus class on March 16.
For the group project, you can choose the business of interest from these three: restaurant, museum and movie center. More details will be released in the first campus class on January Saturday. We will do the team grouping that day. The final presentation is scheduled on March 16 Saturday, a third campus class date. Please make sure you and your group members can make it on these days.
**Reminder: the three campus class dates are Jan 20, Sat, Feb 17, Sat, and March 16, Sat.
All assignments are due on Sun. If you cannot turn in the assignments or present in the campus class, let me know beforehand.
Graded-Activity Weighting
Participation: weekly attendance, in-class engagement and final project presentation etc.
| Item | Single Weight | # | Total Weight |
| Discussion Threads | 4% | 4 | 16% |
| Knowledge Exercises | 8% | 3 | 24% |
| Group Signature Assignment | 15% | 3 | 45% |
| Course Participation | 15% | 1 | 15% |
| Total Score | 100% |
Letter Grade Conversion Scale
| Grade | Range | |
| A | 100 % | to 93.0% |
| A- | < 93.0 % | to 90.0% |
| B+ | < 90.0 % | to 87.0% |
| B | < 87.0 % | to 83.0% |
| B- | < 83.0 % | to 80.0% |
| C+ | < 80.0 % | to 77.0% |
| C | < 77.0 % | to 73.0% |
| C- | < 73.0 % | to 70.0% |
| D+ | < 70.0 % | to 67.0% |
| D | < 67.0 % | to 65.0% |
| F | < 65.0 % | to 0.0% |
Attendance Policy
Attendance is represented (and taken each week by your professor) by active engagement over the course of the week in the weekly Discussion, unless otherwise specified. Attendance and engagement at in person classroom is required.
Contact:
If you have questions, feel free to post on Canvas or send me an email. If you have some specific topic to discuss in the campus class, it will be better if you can send me an email detailing the topic. I will allocate a time accordingly. Welcome to MBA 3005 Operations.
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