Operations and
Information Systems
Fall 2009
Syllabus
Instructor:
Holmes E. Miller (homiller@muhlenberg.edu)
Instructor Home Page URL:
http://www.muhlenberg.edu/depts/abe/business/miller/miller_1.html
Office Hours: I keep "open office hours" - other than classes and meetings I am always in my office so please drop in; scheduled office hours are Monday & Wednesday from 2:00 to 3 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday from 1:30 to 3 p.m., or by appointment
Overview Operations is the
management function responsible for producing and distributing goods and
services in the manufacturing and service sectors of our economy. We constantly
experience the effects of operations in our everyday lives - when we buy a
product, have a meal at a restaurant, call an 800 number for information, use a
credit card, or purchase gasoline at a self-serve pump. All of these acts
involve operations. This course will introduce you to the management of
operations. In the course we will study many of the methodologies that have led
to advances in today's business world:
Service operations management, lean production; supply chain management;
capacity planning; quality management; yield management; and using information
technology to support business strategy.
One of the things
we will find is that many operations decisions are complex. Thus, we also shall
study some quantitative methodologies that can be used to address these
decisions. This should give you an appreciation both of the power of the
methods, and the potential quantitative methods have for helping managers
analyze information and alternatives in order to make better decisions.
Objectives This course has four broad
learning objectives:
1. To become better
acquainted with the operations function and the issues that it faces.
2. To better understand: How
operations decisions relate to other business decisions; how operations
decisions can be analyzed quantitatively; and various approaches many firms use
for achieving operations excellence.
3. To become better
acquainted with basic issues underlying information systems and the Internet.
4. To learn how to use
several quantitative methodologies used to support operations decision-making.
Evaluation Evaluation will be
asfollows:
35% - Two midterm examinations (in-class &
take home portions)
25% - Final examination (in-class & take home
portions)
7% - Quizzes on cases
8% - Case Study Presentation and responses
10% - Final Project Presentation and Paper
10% - Attendance
5% - Class Participation
100% - Total
Individual Assignments Throughout the course, you
will work on problem sets where you will use the methodologies discussed in the
text to solve quantitative problems. Although these assignments will not be
collected and graded, they will be discussed in class and will serve as a basis
for the some questions on the exams. If you find the problems to be difficult,
do not be discouraged. Try to do them
prior to reviewing the answers in class because the process of trying them is
beneficial even when you do not get the correct answers. Doing homework assignments in groups also is
fine.
Quizzes
and Supplementary
Nine quizzes will be given corresponding to the
nine cases. Your quiz grade will be
based on the seven highest individual quiz grades. If you do poorly on a quiz, and/or miss a
class the two “drops” provide a safety valve.
Text
The text
is Operations and Supply Chain Management: The Core
by Jacobs and Chase published by Mc-Graw-Hill
Irwin (2007). In addition there is a
course pack of selected cases.
Class
Notes Many
of the class lectures will include PowerPoint slides which can be downloaded from
the web page. In addition to PowerPoint slides, other items can be downloaded
from the web page include: Excel spreadsheets that may contain examples we work
on in class, and Excel spreadsheets that may contain answers to homework
problems. Note that much material
covered in class and on the examinations need not appear on the PowerPoint
slides so be warned -- focusing only on downloaded slides might be detrimental
to your grade.
ClassExercises
During
class we will do some individual and some group exercises. Participating in class exercises ispart of
your class participation grade.
Examinations Each examination will consist of: A quantitative problem component; a take-home
essay component; and a multiple-choice/true-false component. The in-class questions will be taken from the
lectures and/or the text and the take home essay will involve responding to a
question for an assigned article. For
the examinations you will be allowed to use one side of one 8 ˝ x 11 “formula
sheet.”
Presentations The case presentations will involve a group
analyzing the case and responding to (as apropos) the questions posted on the
Group Case Studies link on the course web page.
Focus on answering these using material presented in the case and the
case appendices, and your own insightful analysis. Do not spend time regurgitating facts from
the case unless they are necessary to support your answers. For each presentation, the presenting team
will submit a short paper (bullet points are ok) summarizing your answers and
recommendations. In addition to the
paper, outside references also should be included (i.e., often information from
external sources can help you to more effectively answer the questions).
Course
Project The course project is a group
project. The deliverables will be a
10-15 minute PowerPoint presentation with an accompanying 3-4 page paper and an
annotated bibliography of sources (for more details, see: http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill28.htm
). For a topic, each group will discuss an issue
of their choosing in operations management, in information systems, or how a specific
company or industry is using operations management/information systems to
support its business objectives -- the scope is broad. As an alternative, you may also conduct an
operations management project of your own using the college or another organization
that your have worked in and have access to.
Prior to the project (see the schedule) your team must submit a one page
project proposal.
Class
Participation Participate
in class discussions - you will learn more and make the class more interesting.
Also,feel free to ask questions whenever you need
clarification or are confused. In
addition to helping you understand the material, participation also is factored
into the attendance and participation grade, increasing or, in some cases,
decreasing it.
Attendance Policy There are two reasons why you should attend class. First and most importantly -- you learn more –and that result repeatedly is reflected on exams. Second, I look around to see who is in class and who is not. At the end of the semester these records are translated into an attendance and participation percentage, which is 15% of your grade. The attendance portion of the grade is based on a non-linear formula (you probably don’t want to know the details but if you are interested, see me after class for the equation) so if you have 100% attendance you may receive a grade higher than 100, whereas if your attendance is poor -- say 50% -- your grade may actually be a 20 or 30 out of 100. Poor attendance also negatively affects the raw and adjusted participation grades – i.e., you can’t participate when you are not in class! Good attendance is a way to increase your grade but poor attendance is a certain way to decrease your grade -- perhaps by as much as 1/3 to 2/3 of a grade. Every semester some students receive higher grades because of good attendance and a few receive lower grades because of poor attendance.
One final note -- since the room is equipped with computers at every desk, students often have the urge to surf the web, e-mail friends, or check Facebook. This process -- especially when involving typing and clicking -- distracts other students as well as the instructor. If you are seen constantly typing at your PC during class, you will be marked absent, even if you are present, since in spirit, your mind is elsewhere. For an article on how multitasking decreases effectiveness (and increases stress) see: Stress Management - How Multi-Tasking can Decrease Effectiveness ...
Academic Behavior Code Follow the Academic
Behavior Code for all in-class and take-home examinations. This includes
following all rules against cheating and plagiarism. You may work with others
on problem sets and all non-graded assignments.
Students with Disabilities or
Special Needs Students with disabilities requesting classroom or
course accommodations must complete a multi-faceted
application/approval process through the Office of Disability Services prior to
the development and implementation of an Accommodation Plan. Each Accommodation
Plan is individually and collaboratively developed with the Directors or staff
of the following Departments, as appropriate: