MBA 2396 Operational Management
MBA 2396 Operational Management
Operations management is concerned with the production and delivery of goods and services. It encompasses the design of products and processes, the planning and execution of production, and the acquisition and deployment of resources. Efficient operations can provide a firm with major competitive advantages, as the ability to respond to consumer and market requirements quickly, at low cost, 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 address these issues in order to gain a competitive advantage through operations.
We will explore how different business strategies require different business processes and, conversely, how different operational capabilities enable and support various strategies to achieve a competitive advantage. A process view of operations will be used to analyze key operational dimensions such as capacity management, cycle time management, supply chain and logistics management, and quality management. Additionally, we will connect to recent developments such as lean or world-class manufacturing, just-in-time operations, time-based competition, and business re-engineering.
- To introduce the strategic and operational challenges that operations managers face;
- To provide frameworks for critically understanding and addressing these challenges;
- To introduce process analysis and improvement;
- To develop the capability to analyze problems and support managerial decisions.
On completion of this course, students should be able to:
- Develop knowledge of concepts, principles, and methods in operations management from a supply chain perspective. (CLO1)
- Demonstrate managerial leadership in operations management. (CLO3)
- Build capabilities for case studies and analysis of contemporary operations management. (CLO4)
The candidate has insight into the relevant academic field and a thorough understanding of professional ethical issues.
- Overview of 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: techniques to identify bottlenecks and optimize process flow.
- Waiting line models: why queues form, an introduction to queuing models, trade-offs, and managerial insights.
- AI in operations management.
- Classification of products: functional and innovative products.
- Inventory management: the planning and controlling of inventories to meet the competitive priorities of the organization.
- The "Beer Game."
- The "Outsourcing Game."
2 of the teaching hours in this course are dedicated to CSR, ethics, social and environmental issues.
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.
In all BI Executive courses and programmes, there is a mutual requirement
for the student and the course responsible regarding the involvement of the student's experience in the planning and implementation of courses, modules and programmes. This means that the student has the right and duty to get involved with their own knowledge and practice relevance, through the active sharing of their relevant experience and knowledge.
Recommended reading:
In the case folder:
- Fasten: Challenging Uber and Lyft with a New Business Model, HBS case 9-616-062
- Process fundamentals, Harvard Case 9-696-023
- The bullwhip effect in supply chains, Hau L Lee, V Padmanabhan, and Seungjin Whang; Sloan management review, Spring 1997, volume 38, issue 3, pp. 93-102
- Body scans and bottlenecks, KEL592
Granted admission to the BI-Fudan MBA programme. Please consult our student regulations.
Disclaimer
Deviations in teaching and exams may occur if external conditions or unforeseen events call for this.
| Assessments |
|---|
Exam category: School Exam Form of assessment: Written School Exam - pen and paper Exam/hand-in semester: First Semester Weight: 30 Grouping: Individual Support materials:
Duration: 3 Hour(s) Comment: The students are evaluated through a written School exam, accounting 30% of the final grade. Exam code: MBA 23963 Grading scale: ECTS Resit: Examination when next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Submission PDF Exam/hand-in semester: First Semester Weight: 70 Grouping: Group (7 - 10) Duration: 2 Week(s) Comment: The students submit a slide presentation in pdf format, count 70% of the final grade Exam code: MBA 23964 Grading scale: ECTS Resit: Examination next semester, thereafter when next scheduled course |
All exams must be passed to get a grade in this course.
| Activity | Duration | Comment |
|---|---|---|
Teaching | 32 Hour(s) | |
Prepare for teaching | 10 Hour(s) | |
Student's own work with learning resources | 32 Hour(s) | |
Individual problem solving | 13 Hour(s) | Case discussion |
Individual problem solving | 20 Hour(s) | Reveiw and prepare for exam |
Examination | 3 Hour(s) |
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.
