Page 1 University of Alberta, Alberta School of Business
Department of Accounting, Operations and Information Systems
Course Outline – Spring 2020 OM 502 (X01) Operations Management
Lectures: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6:00 – 9:00 PM, Off Campus - C19Remote (via Zoom) Instructor: Angela Brugger Email: [email protected]
Office Hours: By appointment, online Required Textbook and Course Materials:
1. Managing Business Process Flows, 3rd Ed. by Anupindi, Chopra, Deshmukh, Van Mieghem, and Zemel, Prentice Hall, 2012.
2. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, 30th Anniversary Edition by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, North River Press, 2014.
3. Course Package: A course package containing the cases will be available for online purchase.
Lecture notes are placed on the course web site (https://eclass.srv.ualberta.ca) prior to topics being discussed in class. Note that the lecture notes are not an adequate substitute for class attendance.
Course Description:
Businesses use processes to produce and deliver goods and services to customers. This course is about the conceptual and quantitative analysis of business processes. The emphasis is on strategic and tactical decision making about operations so to create competitive advantage for the organization. The topics covered include process flow analysis, inventory management, queuing, and quality. The topics will be illustrated through discussion and analysis of several case studies. The topics and techniques selected for this course are applicable to a wide variety of industries.
Topics:
● Process view of organizations
● Operations strategy
● Process flow analysis
● Inventory management
● Queuing analysis
● Process control
● Lean operations Student Learning Outcomes:
This course is designed to develop an understanding of the following key areas and their interrelationships:
● The core concepts in operations management
● The key drivers of the process performance
● Analytic methodologies for operations management analysis
This course incorporates the Learning Goals of the MBA Program, in particular: business fundamentals, critical thinking and problem solving, communication skills, and quantitative and information processing skills. For complete descriptions of the Learning Goals of the MBA program, see:
http://business.ualberta.ca/programs/the-alberta-mba/curriculum/learning-goals
Page 2 Course Components:
This course will be driven by the textbook material, cases, and ‘in-class’ exercises (delivered through live, online Zoom lectures). Therefore, attendance and active participation during lectures are important. We will follow the textbook reasonably closely so the chapters in the book will give you a rough roadmap for the semester. Course materials will be posted on the eClass website prior to each lecture. We will use this website extensively, so make sure you check it frequently.
● Case Studies: We will discuss the cases in the course pack during our lectures. Students must come to class prepared for the case discussions. A detailed course schedule containing the tentative dates and titles of case study discussions is provided at the end of this syllabus. The dates are subject to change, but such changes will be announced in advance. Homework and exams may contain questions based on our case study discussions.
● The Goal: This is a textbook disguised as a novel. As a novel, it is not going to win any prizes. As a textbook it is quite effective. Every week you will be required to read eight chapters from this book and answer a few multiple choice and/or short answer questions to test whether you read the book. These are online quizzes to be answered out-of-class at any time prior to the deadline.
Each quiz must be completed within one hour of being started and only one attempt is permitted.
● Midterm Exam: There will be a midterm exam to be completed at home during class time and submitted through eClass. It will be an open book, 1.5 hour exam and cover all material from lectures 1-6 and assignments 1-2.
● Final Exam: There will be a final exam to be completed at home during our last class and submitted through eClass. It will be an open book, 3 hour exam and cover all material from lectures 1-11. Please note that the final exam schedule is determined by the Office of the Registrar and, therefore, I am unable to change its date and time.
Evaluation:
Assessment Weight Comments
Class Participation* 6% Active participation, lectures 1-11
Web Quizzes 10% 5 web quizzes based on The Goal, 2% each Midterm Exam 20% 1.5 hour, open book exam, lectures 1-6
Assignments 24% 4 assignments, 6% each
Final Exam 40% 3 hour, open book exam, lectures 1-11
Total 100%
*The class participation grade will be based on active participation throughout the course. This will be graded at the end of the semester based on the quality and frequency of your contributions, questions, and responses in response to all class discussions and exercises. For our online course, this might involve comments during a Zoom lecture (via chat or microphone) or contributions to a class discussion board.
Page 3 Notes:
Policy about course outlines can be found in §23.4(2) of the University Calendar.
Students who require accommodations in this course due to a disability affecting mobility, vision, hearing, learning, or mental or physical health are advised to discuss their needs with Specialized Support and Disability Services (SSDS), 2-800 Students' Union Building, 492-3381 (phone) or 492-7269 (TTY).
Recording is permitted only with the prior written consent of the professor or if recording is part of an approved accommodation plan.
The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty.
Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the Code of Student Behaviour (online at www.governance.ualberta.ca) and avoid any behaviour which could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University. All assignments (except for the group activities) are to be completed individually. However, I recognize the value of studying together and comparing notes when working on assignments. To help you judge what I consider acceptable and non-acceptable
collaboration, consider the following:
Do:
● Discuss the course material with other students
● Ask classmates for help when you are stumped
● Offer help to other students
● Do your own work Don’t:
● Discuss numerical answers with other students
● Use someone else's words without proper attribution
o The best way to avoid using another student's words is to never look at another student's written answers to an assignment
o If you cite an article, book, web page, or any other source in your project report, then you must include complete information about that source
● Copy another student's spreadsheet file, sql file, or any other computer file
o There are no exceptions to this rule. Copying another student's file for an assignment (or another group's work, for the group project) is not acceptable, under any circumstances.
It is irrelevant whether the copying is done electronically or manually
Page 4 Tentative Schedule:
Note: This is a general guideline for the semester. Topics will be covered in sequence; however, it may be necessary to go faster or slower than indicated.
Assignments and web quizzes are due at 11:59 PM on the corresponding day. Late submissions will not be accepted.
Lecture Date Textbook Chapter Case Discussion Assignment Due Quiz Due
1 May 5 1,2 – Intro
3 – Process Flow
2 May 7 3 – Process Flow Oz TV Quiz 1
(SUN, May 10) 3 May 12 4 – Flow Time
4 May 14 5 – Capacity Kristen’s Cookie Co.
Assignment 1 (SUN, May 17)
Quiz 2 (SUN, May 17) 5 May 19 6 – Inventory I
6 May 21 7 – Inventory II (Safety Stock)
National Cranberry Co.
Assignment 2 (SUN, May 24)
Quiz 3 (SUN, May 24)
7 May 26 Midterm Exam
8 May 28 7 – Inventory III (Safety Stock)
Assignment 3 (SUN, May 31)
Quiz 4 (SUN, May 31)
9 June 2 8 – Queueing Pancho’s
Burritos
10 June 4 8 – Queueing
9 – Process Control
Assignment 4 (SUN, Jun 7)
Quiz 5 (SUN, Jun 7) 11 June 9 9 – Process Control
10 – Lean Operations Final Exam Review 12 June 11 Final Exam