Production & Operations Management

Course details

The course includes a certain amount of quantitative, or perhaps because the course strikes them as “how to run a factory.” Others seem to have very little idea about what operations management is. Most of the firms are having a difficult time competing with foreign firms in both the domestic and international markets. Many of them have grown up using products produced by foreign firms on an everyday basis and they have developed a great deal of respect for the quality of their products. Participants will relate to the fact that companies must be productive in order to be competitive and that to be competitive they must have some well thought out approach, plan or strategy on how to achieve this position. In other words, Participants will be able to understand why it is important to learn what productivity really is, how we measure it, what factors affect it, and how firms can improve their productiveness. Participants will become aware that business firms compete with each other in a variety of ways and will study the key competitive factors which are of primary concern in today’s global business environment. Finally, the Participants focus on operations strategy with special attention being given to some of the newer strategies based on quality, time, and lean production systems.

Course Outline

• Operations as one of the three main functional concerns of most organizations
• The role and job of the operations manager as a planner and decision-maker
• Different ways of classifying (and understanding) production systems
• System design versus system operation
• Major characteristics of production systems
• Contemporary issues in operations management
• Operations as essentially managerial (planning, staffing, etc.)
• The historical evolution of production/operations management
• Manufacturing operations versus service operations
• Product and service design, the Design Process (Designing for mass customization, reliability, robust design, etc.), Research and Development, Standardization, Product Design (concurrent engineering, computer aided design, remanufacturing), and Service Design
• Effective scheduling of company workers and work hours can improve both customer service and efficiency. An effective schedule provides convenient store hours, minimal customer waiting lines and minimal employee idle time
• Higher productivity relative to competitors is very important for a nation because it provides the nation with a competitive advantage in the marketplace
• Forecasting allows the company to plan the workforce levels, purchase quantities, inventory levels and capacity
• Aggregate Planning The process of disaggregation is the beginning of short range planning using master scheduling and operations scheduling. Both master scheduling and operations scheduling are designed to implement the medium range plan on the shop floor
• Capacity planning allows the company to balance the trade-off between shortages and excess inventories and between waiting lines and idle time
• A good location can have a significant impact in attracting customers, thus improving sales