Department of Systems and Operations Management
SOM 686 Operations Management, Summer 2017
Dr. Ardavan Asef-Vaziri
Office: JH 4129, Tel: 818-677-3637
Office hours: MW 10:45-11:45, W 5.30-6.30, and by appointment
Tentative Syllabus- Subject to Revision (revision date-5/1/217)
Count what is countable.
Measure what is measurable.
What is not measurable, make it measurable.
Galileo Galilei, 1564 -1642.
Unassailable components to success in this class are:
§ Reading (or watching) the lectures before coming to class.
§ Individual and preferably group-work on troubleshooting and solving the pre-solved assigned problems before coming to class.
§ Understanding the meaning of the Carnegie hours. According to this standard, the students are expected to spend 45(50)3 = 6750 minutes net-of-break instructor-led, individual or group study for a 15-weeks 3-unit course. Given 6 weeks of summer,an average student needs a total of 1125 minutes (18.75 regular hours) plus break per week. Below average students, perhaps need more.
Operations Management. Operations, Marketing, and Finance are the three primary functions of business organizations. Operations management focuses on how managers can design and operate processes in business settings with discrete flow units. Examples include the flow of cars in a GM assembly plant, flow of customers in a Wells Fargo branch, flow of patients at the UCLA Medical Center, flow of cash in Fidelity Investments, and flow of students during their two-to-five year program at CSUN. In all these systems, flow units (natural resources, semi-finished goods, products, customers, patients, students, and cash) flow through a set of processes (formed by a network of activities and buffers) using Human resources and Capital resources (such as equipment, buildings, tools) to become a desired output. The reason for the being of operations management is structuring (designing), managing, and improving processes to achieve the desired output as defined in a four-dimensional space of quality, cost, time, and variety. We will learn to implement the process view as the unifying paradigm to study the core concepts in operations of these settings. We employ a structured data-driven approach to discuss the core operations management concepts in three steps. (i) Model and understand a business process and its flows. (ii) Study causal relationships between the process structure and operational and financial performance metrics. (iii) Formulate implications for managerial actions by filtering out managerial levers (process drivers) and their impact on operational and financial measures of process performance. The objective is to show how managers can structure and manage processes and process drivers to improve the performance of any business process with discrete flow units.
Making a factory [or the service system] operate for the company just like the human body operates for the individual. The autonomic nervous system responds even when we are asleep. The human body functions in good health when it is properly cared for, fed and watered correctly, exercised frequently, and treated with respect.
Taiichi Ohno, Toyota Production System.
SOM 686 is an introductory course into operations management. The goal is to acquaint the students in Business Administration and Economics with the scope of this field. During this semester, you will be introduced to classic and contemporary terminology, concepts, ideas, models, techniques and tools in design and operations of manufacturing and service enterprises. Operations management techniques, such as short term and long term forecasting, process flow analysis, waiting line analysis, capacity planning, throughput improvement, theory of constraints, flow time reduction, inventory management, linear programming, aggregate planning, and lean operations are introduced.
If we want to define OM in one line, OM is the set of concepts and models and methods enabling us to create flow in an operational system. By-products of smooth flow are short cycle time, short flow time, balanced flow, bottleneck relaxation. If we are going to add a second line to this definition, OM is the set of concepts and models and methods enabling to understand trade-off. By-product of understanding trade-offs is a balance between customer-wait (physical or virtual waiting lines), product-wait (safety inventory), and process-wait (safety Capacity). If we are compelled to add a third line, OM is the set of concepts and models and methods enabling us to reduce variability (variability in lead times, throughput, costs, quality, etc.). Finally, OM is the set of concepts and models and methods enabling us to align product attributes with our customer value propositions, and to align our customer value proposition with process competencies.
Specific Features of the Course. One of the most binding constraints of business school students – from when they are admitted to college as raw material from high school to when they graduate and leave college as the final product (or customer if you wish) – is their low quantitative and analytical skills. The low level of quantitative capabilities of our graduates has kept us from excelling beyond the graduates of rising countries. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Skills Outlook (2013) compares the literacy, mathematics and computer skills of U.S. residents with other OECD countries. In mathematics, U.S. trailed 18 countries and beat only Italy and Spain (not in soccer of course).
Believing that managers cannot go far if their quantitative and analytical capabilities are below a threshold, we have tried to improve these qualifications through our Operations Management (OM) classroom. In a typical traditional OM class, at least 50% of the class time is spent on delivering the content, and the rest on problem solving, case studies, and term projects. We have tried to improve the situation through flipping our OM class. By delivering the lectures using screen capture technology, the students can learn the material at a time and location of their choice, when they are in control to pause, rewind, and fast-forward the professor. The class time is no longer spent on teaching the basic concepts, but rather on problem solving, answering questions and troubleshooting, as well as real life applications, collaborative exercises such as case studies, and virtual world applications such as web-based simulation games. A flipped classroom is an online course because its online components must compete with the best of the online courses. A flipped classroom is also a traditional course because not even a single class session is purposely cancelled while all the lectures are delivered online. A network of resources and learning processes, ensuring a smooth, lean, and synchronized course delivery system, reinforces this core concept.
Links to Program Mission. The specific features of the course and their relative importance are depicted below.
Quantitative and Analytical. We use OM as a tool to improve the quantitative and analytical capabilities of our students. You will learn to develop a structured, data-driven, analytical, and quantitative approach to discuss the core OM concepts.
Systems Thinking. We will improve systems thinking capabilities of our students by teaching the basic OM concepts not as isolated islands, but as a total system designed towards improving quality, cost, lead time, and variety of the outputs. These encompass strategic long-range decisions such as process design, facility layout, and capacity planning, as well as operational decisions such as flow time reduction, throughput planning and scheduling, productivity assurance, and inventory management. You will learn to implement the system view as the unifying paradigm to study the core OM concepts. You are encouraged to watch the following short videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17BP9n6g1F0&t=36s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxMPt0LBHOo.
Spreadsheet Modeling. We enhance the knowledge of the students in spreadsheet modeling. We have learned that understanding the knowledge behind these models and developing small pilot spreadsheets leads to a better understanding of the course material. Through data visualization cases and web-based games, the stage is set to motivate the students to improve their spreadsheet competencies. Excel in fully embedded in this course. Improving your excel skills is as important as improving your operation management skills. You are encouraged to watch the following examples to have a taste on the level of the excel skills needed in this course.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OZRbgA82vU&t=14s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kprgEigJO1g&t=357s
Visualization of Data and Information. Besides quantitative representation (translating long writings into symbols and mathematical relationships), you will have a chance to practice tabular representation (translating long writings into tables) and schematic representation (translating several pages of writing and tables into a graphs or figures). In addition, you will exercise how to deal with large, unorganized, or erroneous big data sets. You are encouraged to watch the following lecture as an example of replacing writing by much higher-quality communication skills such as Tabular, Schematic, and mathematical representations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LfUyT0351U&t=1320s
Teamwork. We encourage collaborative learning and creative thinking. The first day of the class is not spent on the syllabus, but rather on the importance of teamwork and collaborative learning. I highly encourage you to have weekly team meetings to go over the already solved assignments, and gain new insights in the web-based games and case studies. Remember, while incorrect in mathematics, as long as its go to teamwork 2 is greater than 1+1, due to the link created between two independent nodes, and the associated synergy.
MKT/FIN/OM Interfaces. We address interfaces of OM with Marketing, Finance (the three basic function in all operational systems) concepts throughout the semester.
Learning Goals. There will be two games and several learning goal specific problems in the exams to enable the college to assess your knowledge in the following areas: (a) to provide definitions or short explanations of concepts and issues related to the area of operations management. (b) To be familiar with a basic set of standard operation problems. (c) To interpret quantitative analysis of various operational problems and present the results to management.
Text Book. There is no mandatory textbook. The main reference book is
Managing Business Process Flows, 3rd Ed. 2012. Anupindi, Chopra, Deshmukh, Van Mieghem, and Zemel. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2012. ISBN: 978-0-13-603637-1. ebook ISBN:
Other Recommended Reference Books
Building Lean Supply Chains with the Theory of Constraints. 2012. Srinivasan. McGraw-Hill. ISBN: 978-0-07-177121-4. This book also has a Kindle edition available on the Amazon web site.
Supply Chain management: Strategy, Planning, and Operation. 5th edition, 2010. Chopra and Meindl. PEARSON Prentice Hall. Print ISBN: 978-0-13-274395-2 ebook ISBN:
Introduction to Management Science. 5th edition, 2014. Hillier and Hillier. Mc Graw-Hill ISBN: 0078024064. Ebook is available through CourseSmart (www.coursesmart.com). The ebook ISBN is 978-0-07-749893-1.
Operations Management Science. 12th edition, 2014. Stevenson. Mc Graw-Hill ISBN: 978-0078024108.
INFORMS Video Learning Center at
https://www.informs.org/Apply-Operations-Research-and-Analytics/Video-Learning-Center/
The Applied Business Analytics Casebook, DRAKE, 2014. Pearson. ISBN: 978-0133407365.
Spreadsheet Modeling and Decision Analysis: A Practical Introduction to Business Analytics, 7th Edition, 2015. Ragsdale, Cengage Learning, ISBN: 978-1285418681.
Modeling the Supply Chain, 2nd edition, 2007. Shapiro. ISBN: 9780495126096.
An Introduction to Management Science-Revised: A Quantitative Approach to Decision Making, 13th Edition-Revised, 2012. Anderson, Sweeney, Williams, Camm, and Martin, South Western/Cengage Learning, ISBN: 978-1-111-53222-2.
The books do not replace the teaching material covered during the semester. Nothing will replace (i) Listening to the recordings and reading the lectures, and printing the PowerPoint lectures before coming to class. (ii) Completing the assignments before coming to class. (iii) Coming to class and being on time, not leaving the class early, remaining focused in class, and writing the required notes.
Our class has a flipped format. You may read Characteristics of our Flipped Classroom
Our flipped classroom needs to be (1) smooth (the work-load is uniformly spread over the semester due to well-paced lecture captures), (2) lean (the students do not have the opportunity to postpone watching the lectures due to before and after class quizzes ), and (3) synchronized (online resources facilitate learning processes and live face-to-face in-class problem solving and troubleshooting reinforce the online material).
Composition of marks:
Class Participation……………..5%
Term Project ……………………15%
Simulation Games ...... 15%
Online Quizzes ………………..22.5%
In-class Quizzes ...... 12.5%
Final Exam ...... 30%
Potential Extra Point……………2%
Class Participation. Please post a clear portrait on Moodle by the end of the first week. If you have specific concerns regarding posting your photo that is fine, just come to my office and let me know. Please note that it is very important to create a learning environment. During the last two semesters, I have had innumerous complaints from the students regarding continuous whispering of other students at their side. When you talk during my lectures (a) you cannot follow the material, (b) Dr. Asef loses his concentration, and more importantly, (c) you do not allow your classmates to follow and understand the material discussed. In order to get 100% of the class participation mark, please do not disturb the learning environment by creating background noise, sending text messages and surfing unrelated sites. All students are expected to turn off their cell phones during class sessions and not have the cell phone at their approach, but in a backpack or in a not easily approachable pocket. The only exceptions are (i) unexpected emergencies or (ii) using the cell phone for teaching material. In both cases the student must inform Dr. Asef in advance. Students are expected to use their laptops and tablets strictly for presentation slides or computations. Any other utilization is considered as interruption in the learning environment. Thank you for helping us to create an efficient learning environment. Please come to class, be on time, do not leave the class early, and remain focused in class. Being focused in class, reading the PowerPoint slides, and solving the assignments play the most important role in your success in this course. If you intend to leave the class early, you need to leave a note at the beginning of class and explain the reason.
I encourage all students to go into State 0 at least one minute before the class starts. State 0 means absolute meditation mode. Born in Moscow in 1863, Constantin Stanislavsky had a more profound effect on the process of acting than anyone else in the twentieth century. Over forty years he created an approach that fore fronted the psychological and emotional aspects of acting. The Stanislavsky System, held that an actor’s main responsibility was to be believed (rather than recognized or understood). Today in the United States, Stanislavsky’s theories are the primary source of study for many actors. Among the many great actors and teachers to use his work are Marlon Brando and Gregory Peck. Many artists have continued experimentation with Stanislavsky’s ideas. Stanislavsky saw that the difference between the good actor and the great actor was the ability to be relaxed, and to be private in public. We learn from Stanislavsky: As the students relax before the lecture starts; they clean the slate, going to a zero state, being ready for the best performance in the learning process.