The University of Texas at Dallas

Executive MBA Program

Operations Management

Professor Contact Information

Nick Hassan Phone: (972) 529-5612 noha@purelyonline.com

Course Description

The objective of this course is to introduce students to operations management.

Operations management involves systematic planning, design, operation, control and
improvement of business processes. We will establish a fundamental understanding of
how every organization uses processes to transform inputs into goods and services and of
the importance of careful design, operation, and improvement of business processes. We
will also examine the challenges of operations management and the competitive potential
of sound operations management. Students are introduced to operations research and its
successful applications. The class will also examine how quantitative analysis techniques
can be applied to enhance the decision making process and achieve improved/optimum
results.

Student Learning Objectives/Outcomes

• Explain how every organization uses processes to transform inputs into goods and
services.
• Identify the challenges and competitive potential of operations management decisions.
• Use project management and quantitative analysis to enhance decision making.

Text: Operations Management

William Stevenson, McGraw-Hill, 2004, 8th edition

Readings: The Goal

Eli Goldratt, The North River Press, 1992.

Software: LINDO software can be used – but, is not required - for solving linear
programming optimization problems.

Other: Notes and case studies are discussed in the audios, slides and the textbook.

Class Attendance, Format, and Preparation:

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GLEMBA OPRE 6260 Spring 2004

• You may miss only one class session without penalty, given proper justification.
Late arrivals and early departures are considered as missing a session. Any additional
missed sessions will result in a 1-letter-grade deduction on the course grade. The
reason for this policy is that much of the learning for this course comes from the class
discussions. Your participation in the class discussions is essential in serving this
purpose.

• For case studies and assignments, we will use short & focused cases. This course
involves a lot of reading and work outside of the class. It is an important and valuable
course in the MBA program. Most of what you learn in this course is very likely what
most managers need to know to perform well in their role and to more effectively
interact with other managers in the organization.

• Students are required to read the assigned chapters, including the “Case Studies”,
“Operations Tours”, and “Readings”, prior to the class meeting. Students are
expected to attend class fully-prepared to discuss questions noted in the textbook for
these case studies.

• During the class discussions, you are required to work only on material for this course
and are required to turnoff and put away your computers, PDAs, etc.

Evaluation and Grading

• There are three assignments in this class: two of them are individually written take-
home, open-book/notes assignments; and one is a team assignment.

• Assignments serve two purposes: (1) they are a learning/teaching tool to help
establish a fundamental understanding of the concepts, and (2) measure the students’
grasp of the subjects.

• Feedback on the assignments will be e-mailed to each student on a feedback-form.

• Individual assignment grades will be in the form of A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C- or F. The
operations management course grade will be in the form of A, B, C or F.

• The operations management course grade will be based on:

o Individual Assignment-1: 25%
o Individual Assignment-2: 25%
o Team Assignment/Project: 35%
o Participation in class discussions: 15%

• Evaluation of the assignments will be based on organization and quality as well as the
actual problem solution. Problems should be neatly laid out with the answers
highlighted. For incorrect approaches and solutions, the number of points lost depends
on the number of points for the problem and the severity of the mistake.
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GLEMBA OPRE 6260 Spring 2004

Format for Assignments and Submission

Written assignments should be MS Word, Excel, or PDF documents (no html formats).
• Submit one document per assignment. List the problems in order.
• Word documents:
o Double-spaced, 12 pt. Arial or Times New Roman font
o Citations properly formatted in MLA style
• For Excel files, each problem should have one worksheet.
o All answers should be highlighted in yellow.
o Type your comments into the worksheet.
• Assignment reports need to have the student name on the first page of the report AND
as part of the filename. The filename should be in the form of:
OM_Last Name_First Name_Assignment#, i.e. OM_Smith_John_Assignment1.doc.

Late Assignments
• Assignment reports must be submitted as an e-mail attachment by the due date.
• There will be a 1-letter-grade deduction for each week that an exam-report is overdue.
• On rare occasions, a due date extension may be granted for an exam report, without
penalty. Any extension will need to be discussed and approved in advance of the due
date with a specific delivery date agreed on.

Course Evaluation
The completion of a course evaluation is a course requirement.

UTD Policy on Cheating:

Students are expected to be above reproach in all scholastic activities. Students who
engage in scholastic dishonesty are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the
possibility of failure in the course and dismissal from the university. "Scholastic dishonesty
includes but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism, collusion, the submission for credit of
any work or materials that are attributable in whole or in part to another person, taking an
examination for another person, any act designed to give unfair advantage to a student or
the attempt to commit such acts." Regents' Rules and Regulations, Part One, Chapter VI,
Section 3, Subsection 3.2, Subdivision 3.22. Professors randomly use “Turnitin.com” to
screen papers against other published works on the web to insure against plagiarism.

Schedule
________________________________________________________________

Session 1: Introduction to Production / Operations Management

Productivity, Competitiveness and Strategy

Date: October 14

Readings: Chapters 1 and 2 in the textbook, and the Goal.

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GLEMBA OPRE 6260 Spring 2004

_________________________________________________________________

Session 2: Forecasting

Date: October 28

Readings: Chapter 3 in the textbook, and the Goal.

________________________________________________________________

Session 3: Product and Service Design

Capacity Planning

Date: November 3

Readings: Chapters 4 and 5 in the textbook, and the Goal

________________________________________________________________

Session 4: Process Selection and Facilities Layout

Design of Work Systems
Location Planning and Analysis

Date: November 4

Readings: Chapters 6, 7 and 8 in the textbook

________________________________________________________________

Session 5: Quality Management

Project Management

Date: November 18

Readings: Chapters 9, 10, 17 in the textbook, and the DataTran case study
________________________________________________________________

Date: December 2

Assignment Due date: Reports on Individual Assignment #1 are Due.

________________________________________________________________

Session 6: Inventory Management

Aggregate Planning

Date: December 2

Readings: Chapters 11 and 12 in the textbook

________________________________________________________________
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GLEMBA OPRE 6260 Spring 2004

Session 7: Supply Chain Management

Material Requirement Planning

Date: December 16

Readings: Chapters 13 and 16 in the textbook

________________________________________________________________

Session 8: Linear Programming & Transportation Models

Queuing Theory and Waiting Lines
Date: TBD

Readings: Supplement to Chapter 6, and Chapter 18 in the textbook

________________________________________________________________

Date: TBD (Two weeks after the Session #8 date)

Assignment Due date: Reports on individual Assignment #2 are Due.

________________________________________________________________

Session 9: Presentation and Review of Team Projects

Date: TBD
________________________________________________________________

Session 10: Presentation and Review of Team Projects

Date: TBD
________________________________________________________________