Operations Management refers to those activities which are more or less directly concerned with the creation and delivery of goods and services. The course is intended to give you a theoretical framework for thinking about operations in both manufacturing and service contexts and to describe some practical applications of operations management. In the course we will address key aspects of design, planning and control of operations systems, and to provide an understanding of the operations function in a global context.
Subject specific knowledge and skills including:
• Understand the history of Operations Management as a subject and consider the challenges facing Operations in future with particular reference to service operations, value adding and sustainable competition.
• Understand the need for an Operations Strategy to operate with a Business Strategy
• Describe Operational strategies in terms of Fit, Sustainability and Risk
• Assess the choices and trade-offs inherent in developing an operations strategy (assessment of alternative strategies)
• Describe the nature of operations as an integrative function and the significance of information, change management, innovation and management of systems
• Understand the issues of integration of the operations with other management functions; the different approaches which may be taken in the design of products, services and processes
• Know the strengths and weakness of a range of operational performance measures both hard and soft measures
• Appreciate Supply Chain Management as an integration of three subjects - from scope and strategies to competitive advantage
• The use of IT in managing operations
Cognitive abilities and non-subject specific skills including:
• Creativity - ideas generation and Problem Solving - prepare an operations strategy which complements an organisation's business strategy either real or case material introduced in class
• Critical Thinking - dealing with ambiguity and tread offs- critically analyse an organisation's approaches to the design of its products, services and processes
• Group Interaction - make appropriate measures to determine an organisation's key performance measurements (Indicators) - referred to as KPI's (working on cases)
• Presentation and Communication - develop quality plans, and implement appropriate means of quality control with particular reference to service operations - using approaches such as 6 Sigma.