SUMMER 2009

OPRE 6302
Operations Management
Th 6:00-10:00 P.M.
at SOM 2.802

Instructor : Nagihan Comez

Office : TBA
Phone : TBA
E-mail : nagihan@utdallas.edu
Office Hours : Wednesday afternoon and by appointment
TA: TBA
Office Hours: TBA

Course
Operations management concerns the efficient transformation of inputs into outputs to
Description:
suitably satisfy customer demands. Inputs are materials, labor, capital and management.
Outputs are products or services, which customers want and often pay for. The course
provides an introduction to the operations and the related management concepts. The
level of discussion varies from strategic to daily control of business processes.
This course aims to provide the knowledge and the tools necessary to develop,
implement, and sustain strategies for managing operations. We will focus on both
developing conceptual frameworks and analytical tools for operations management.
Business case analyses will be used to develop the problem identification, critical analysis,
and solution and recommendation formation skills in operational issues. Problem
formation and solution techniques will be introduced and exercised on various
operational issues for the students to gain knowledge and practice on analytical tools.
Required Matching Supply with Demand by Gerard Cachon and Christian Terwiesch, McGraw-Hill.
Textbook :
Supplementary Case package is available at the UTD Bookstore. It contains the required cases:
Material: -CRU Computer Rentals, Northwestern Case available as HBS 9-KEL-017.
-Toyota Motor Manufacturing, U.S.A, Inc., HBS Case 9-693-019.
-Hewlett-Packard Co.: Desk Jet Printer Supply Chain (A), Stanford Case available as HBS
GS3A.
Prerequisites: Familiarity with basic concepts of probability, calculus, and spreadsheet applications
(Excel).
Grading : Performance is evaluated based upon following assessments:
Attendance and Class Participation 5%
Individual Article Presentation 5%
Homework 15%
Group Case Preparations 15%
Exam 1 30% June 25th
Exam 2 30% July 30th
Attendance Students are expected to attend each class, be prepared to discuss the material assigned
and Class before the class, and ask questions if something covered is unclear.
Participation
Individual By the beginning of the semester, a list of keywords related to the course content will be
Article provided to students, among which each student will select one. Each student is required
Presentations to find two recent (dates between 2006 and 2009) articles and/or news related to the
selected keyword and make a 3 minute presentation in class. Information sources can
include magazines, journals, and company websites, but not discussion forums.
Presentations should include a clear reference slide. Presentation dates will be
announced, as soon as the topics are selected.
Homework To help developing students’ understanding of the material, there will be 3 homework
assignments on both concepts and analytical problems. Students are encouraged to
discuss the assignments with their friends before they actually prepare and write up
individually by themselves. Homework assignments are due to the beginning of the class
on the given submission date. Verbal answers should be typed, while answers including
the numerical/symbolic expressions can be handwritten. Students submitting similar
homeworks will be violating university regulations and will not receive credit.
Throughout the class, we will analyze and discuss 3 business cases in various subjects and
Case
industries to learn about firms’ real experiences, criticize their actions, and generate
Preparation in
alternative solutions. Students will work in groups and each group will prepare a report
Groups
for each of 3 cases during the semester each to be submitted before the discussion of the
case in class. Preparing a case means analyzing the case building on the structure that will
be given by the instructor and preparing a written report of these analyses. Each student
is also responsible of contributing to the case discussion in class. Students should form
groups of at least 3 and at most 4 people and post the list of group members on WebCt
latest by May 29th.
Exam 1 & 2 The exams will include both qualitative and quantitative questions. Both exams will be in
class. Please plan your schedule for the given exam dates.
For the final letter grade, I look for natural breakpoints between grades. The particular grade depends on
respective class performance.
Use of WebCT: All assignments, grades, and updated information regarding the class will be posted on
WebCT. Students are responsible to check WebCT frequently to learn about the recent
course related announcements and posted information. In addition, it is the students’
responsibility to report if any information on WebCT does not match their own record
(e.g., missing or wrong grade for any assignment) within one week after the date the
information is posted.

Academic Integrity:
The faculty expects from its students a high level of responsibility and academic honesty. Because the
value of an academic degree depends upon the absolute integrity of the work done by the student, it is
imperative that a student demonstrate a high standard of individual honor in his or her scholastic work.
Scholastic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, statements, acts or omissions related to applications
for enrollment or the award of a degree, and/or the submission as one’s own work or material that is not
one’s own. As a general rule, scholastic dishonesty involves one of the following acts: cheating,
plagiarism, collusion and/or falsifying academic records. Students suspected of academic dishonesty are
subject to disciplinary proceedings. Please visit UTD website to see the university’s policy on plagiarism.
 COURSE TIMELINE

Week Date Topic Readings

(According to Cachon 2nd Ed.)
 Introduction to Operations Management Chapters 1 &2
1 May 28
 Supply-demand match
 Process Capacity
2 June 4 Chapters 3 & 4
 Labor requirements
Production/Order Batching
3 June 11 Chapter 6
Case: CRU Computer Rentals
4 June 18 Quality Management Chapter 9

5 June 25 Exam 1
Lean Operations
6 July 2 Chapter 10
Case: Toyota Motor Manufacturing, U.S.A.
7 July 9 Linear Programming
 The newsvendor problem
8 July 16  Service Levels Chapters 9 & 11
Case: Hewlett-Packard Co.
9 July 23 Revenue management Chapter 13

10 July 30 Exam-2