GRA 6753 Operations Management
GRA 6753 Operations Management
The field of operations management and logistics necessitates a strong understanding of optimization methods and principles for cost minimization, service level enhancement and efficient resource utilization. In this course, students will acquire knowledge on making effective and efficient operational decisions in logistics, as well as evaluating their consequences, by exploring predictive and prescriptive techniques and models. The course will focus on diverse approaches to optimize supply chains and their practical implementation in real-world scenarios. Moreover, in today's business landscape, where sustainability is a fundamental tenet, the ability provided by this course to effectively and efficiently plan the use of scarce resources, is crucial for attaining significant sustainability goals.
The main objective of this course is to enable students to recognize, formulate, devise solutions, analyze, and interpret a range of optimization, planning, and decision-making problems within the realm of supply chain management. Additionally, the course aims to provide means of incorporating sustainability considerations throughout these processes.
- To formulate and solve optimization decision making models in Excel Solver
- To analyse capacity and find bottlenecks in sequential processes
- To predict future demand and sales in supply chains
- To formulate, create and optimize aggregate plans for production planning
- To generate pricing and overbooking plans for multiple market segments
- To create and optimize inventory control plans for cycle and safety stock
- To understand the significance of decision support systems in Supply Chain Management
- To recognize and contemplate the potential and constraints of optimization models
- To tackle and navigate the daily challenges encountered in logistics and supply chain management
- To develop business analytics models, specifically focusing on operational decisions
- To engage with topics pertinent to business, economy, production, transportation, environment, and society as aligned with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals 8, 9, and 12
- Introduction to operations management and optimization
- Understanding the supply process and capacity evaluation process
- Optimising the flow through a supply chain
- Demand Forecasting
- Aggregate production planning
- Cycle Inventory management
- Discounts in inventory management
- Safety inventory management
- Optimal service levels
- Pricing and revenue management
For each topic of the course, first, a short theoretical and practical background is given. Then, it is mainly delivered in a learning-by-doing manner in Microsoft Excel environment. Students will make different models in Excel during the class and do exercises on extensions of those models outside of the class.
It is necessary that the students have a computer with them (with Excel installed on it) during the lectures.
It is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class.
All courses in the Masters programme will assume that students have fulfilled the admission requirements for the programme. In addition, courses in second, third and/or fourth semester can have specific prerequisites and will assume that students have followed normal study progression. For double degree and exchange students, please note that equivalent courses are accepted.
Disclaimer
Deviations in teaching and exams may occur if external conditions or unforeseen events call for this.
It is necessary that the students are familiar with the basics of Microsoft Excel, especially, how to enter and copy formulas and use relative and absolute addresses.
Basic Excel courses are offered at BI, but the students can also find free online tutorials including videos and exercises here: https://excelexposure.com/lesson-guide/.
| Assessments |
|---|
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 100 Grouping: Individual Duration: 5 Hour(s) Comment: The assessment is in the form of open-book home exam due to use of Excel. Exam code: GRA 67531 Grading scale: ECTS Resit: Examination when next scheduled course |
| Activity | Duration | Comment |
|---|---|---|
Teaching | 24 Hour(s) | participation in the class |
Student's own work with learning resources | 12 Hour(s) | Asynchronous lectures |
Student's own work with learning resources | 48 Hour(s) | Reading textbook and lecture notes and watching uploaded videos |
Individual problem solving | 60 Hour(s) | Solving/completing given exercises at home |
Examination | 5 Hour(s) | |
Prepare for teaching | 12 Hour(s) | Go through lecture notes and selected textbook sections before the synchronous lecture in the class |
A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of at least 160 hours.