University of Alberta Alberta School of Business
Department of Accounting, Operations and Information Systems
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OM 502 Course Outline – Spring 2013
Instructor: Bora Kolfal, Ph.D.
Office: BUS 3-40H Phone: 492-8466
Email: [email protected] Office hours: by appointment (email 3 available times)
Required Texts:
1. Managing Business Process Flows, 3rd Ed. by Anupindi, Chopra, Deshmukh, Van Mieghem, and Zemel, Prentice Hall, 2012.
2. Course Package: A course package containing the cases will be printed and will be required.
Course description: All firms must create and deliver goods or services. This course is about how that is done. The emphasis in this course is on strategic and tactical decision making in this domain so as to create competitive advantage for the organization. Specific modules include process analysis, inventory management, waiting line analysis, lean operations, and quality. A number of case studies will be used.
The operations of firms vary widely by industry and it is not possible to cover all topics associated with a single industry in this course. The topics and techniques selected for this course are applicable to a wide variety of industries.
Approach to the material: In general, we will do at least one case each week. Students must be prepared to discuss each case. In a case driven course preparation, attendance, and participation are important.
We will follow the textbook reasonably closely so the chapters in the book will give you a rough roadmap for the semester. Some sections of the textbook are optional; these sections will be announced on the uLearn website.
Week by week, additional course materials will be posted on the uLearn website. We will use this website extensively in this course, so make sure that you check it frequently.
Timetable:
Lecture Date Textbook Chapters Course Package Case Assessments
1 6-May 1,2 Intro
2 8-May 3- Little's Law Samsung
3 13-May 4- Flowtime
4 15-May 5- Capacity Kristen's Cookie Co. Assignment 1
20-May Victoria Day - No class
5 22-May 6- Inventory National Cranberry
6 27-May Midterm Exam
7 29-May 7- Safety Stock Assignment 2
8 3-Jun 8- Queuing I University Health Services 9 5-Jun 8- Queuing II Logan Airport
10 10-Jun 9- Process Control Donner
11 12-Jun 10- Lean Operations Toyota Assignment 3
OM 502 Course Outline Spring 2013
Page 2 of 3 Evaluation: The course mark will be based on:
Assessment Weight Comments Class Participation 15% Lectures 1 -11 Assignments 1-3 30% 10% each
Midterm Exam 20% 3 hour open book exam Final Exam 35% 3 hour open book exam
Total 100%
Class Participation grade includes 3 elements:
- Attendance: Total attendance mark will be calculated as 100-10log(n2), where n is the number of absents.
- Case questions: Each case will be accompanied by a few discussion questions to let you know what we will be talking about in reference to that case. Students must prepare the questions with an asterisk (*) for turn in at the beginning of class. None will be accepted late. Answer the questions quickly and specifically. Spend your time reading and thinking about the case. Do not spend a lot of time answering the questions. They will be graded as either done or not done and, if they are handed in, they have to be pretty bad to get a grade of not done.
- Active participation: Students are expected to take an active part in the discussion.
Assignments 1-3 are due at 6:30 PM on May 15th, May 29th, and June 12th (beginning of lectures 4, 7, and 11) respectively.
Midterm Exam is a 3-hour in-class, open book exam on May 27th.
Final Exam is a 3-hour open book exam. The date of the exam will be announced on Bear Tracks once the final exam schedule for the Spring term is finalized.
Optional Text:
1. The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, 25th Anniversary Edition by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, North River Press, 2012.
The Goal is not a required text, it is optional. The Goal is a textbook disguised as a novel. As a novel, it won’t win any prizes. As a textbook it is quite effective, if a tad corny. If you read it, you’ll learn something.
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).
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
OM 502 Course Outline Spring 2013
Page 3 of 3 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. The best way to avoid using another student's words is to never look at another student's written answers to an assignment. If you quote an article, book, web page, or any other source in your project report, then you must reference that source.
Copy another student's assignment. There are no exceptions to this rule. Copying another student's assignment (or another group's work, for the group activities) is not acceptable, under any
circumstances. It is immaterial whether the copying is done electronically or manually.
