MBA 2396 Operational Management

MBA 2396 Operational Management

Course code: 
MBA 2396
Department: 
Strategy and Entrepreneurship
Credits: 
4
Course coordinator: 
Dai Yue
Heidi Wiig
Course name in Norwegian: 
Operational Management
Product category: 
Executive
Portfolio: 
MBA China
Semester: 
2020 Spring
Active status: 
Active
Level of study: 
Master
Teaching language: 
English
Course type: 
One semester
Introduction

Operations management is concerned with the production and delivery of goods and services. It encompasses the design of the products and processes, the planning and execution of production, and acquisition and deployment of resources. Efficient operations can provide a firm with major competitive advantages, since the ability to respond to consumer and market requirements quickly, at low coast, and with high quality, is vital for sustained profitability and growth.

The course aims to familiarize you with the problems and issues confronting operations managers and provide you with concepts, insights and tools to deal with these issues in order to gain competitive advantage through operations.

We will see how different business strategies require different business processes, and vice versa, how different operational capabilities allow and support different strategies to gain competitive advantage. A process view of operations will be used to analyze different key operational dimensions such as capacity management, cycle time management, supply chain and logistics management, and quality management. And, we will connect to recent development such as lean or world-class manufacturing, just-in-time operations, time-based competition and business re-engineering.

Learning outcomes - Knowledge
  • to introduce the strategic and operational challenges that operations managers are confront with;
  • to provide frameworks for critically understanding and dealing with these challenges;
  • to introduce process analysis and improvement tools.
  • to develop the capability to analyze problems and support managerial decisions.
     
Learning outcomes - Skills

On completion of this course, students should be able to:

  • Develop knowledge of concepts, principles, and methods in the operations management from a supply chain perspective.  (CLO1)
  • Develop capabilities for understanding, assessing, and resolving technical and administrative issues for operations management. (CLO2)
  • Develop managerial leadership in operations management. (CLO3)
  • Develop capabilities for case study and analysis of contemporary operations management. (CLO4)
General Competence

The candidate has insight into the relevant academic field and further, on professional ethical issues.

Course content
  • Overview the course, Operations management defined; linking operations to corporate strategy
  • Business process re-engineering: a business management strategy focusing on the analysis and design of workflows and processes within an organization.
  • Identification and management of bottlenecks
  • Business process re-engineering: a business management strategy focusing on the analysis and design of workflows and processes within an organization.
  • The "Beer Game"
  • Waiting line models: Why queues form, introduction of queuing models, trade-offs and managerial insights 
  • The "Outsourcing Game"
  • Classification of Products: functional and innovative products
  • Inventory management: the planning and controlling of inventories in order to meet the competitive priorities of the organization.
     
Teaching and learning activities

1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours

The course is conducted as a teaching module, where students have classes all day for four subsequent days, a total of 32 hours.

The course is a part of a full MBA and examination in all courses in the MBA programme must be passed in order to obtain a certificate for the MBA degree.

Software tools
No specified computer-based tools are required.
Additional information

Recommended reading:
In the case folder.

  1. Southwest Airlines 2002: An Industry Under Siege (CP) , Harvard Case 9-803-133
  2. Process fundamentals, Harvard Case 9-696-023
  3. Kristen’s Cookie Company, Harvard Case 9-686-093
  4. Pharmacy service improvement at CVS, Harvard Case 9-606-015
  5. Genentech-capacity planning, Harvard Case 9-606-052
Qualifications

Granted admission to the BI-Fudan MBA programme. Please consult our student regulations.

Assessments
Assessments
Exam category: 
Submission
Form of assessment: 
Written submission
Invigilation
Weight: 
100
Grouping: 
Individual
Support materials: 
  • All printed and handwritten support materials
Duration: 
3 Hour(s)
Comment: 
The students are evaluated through a written School exam, accounting for 4 ECTS credits.
Exam code: 
MBA 23961
Grading scale: 
China
Resit: 
Examination when next scheduled course
Type of Assessment: 
Ordinary examination
Total weight: 
100
Sum workload: 
0

A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 4 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of at least 110 hours.