Operations for Competitive Advantage

Student Learning Outcomes, Goals, Objectives:

Students successfully completing this course will be able to:

• Elaborate on various operations strategies for service/manufacturing firms and discuss various Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), also called performance measures for those organizational strategies.
• Use project management techniques to plan and execute a project.
• Explain the role played by total quality management (TQM) in enhancing the performance in organizations and utilize various process control charts.
• Explain the factors that influence the location, layout, and capacity planning of service and manufacturing facilities.
• Select appropriate production/operations systems for different types of product mixes (i.e., high volume standardized products vs. low volume specialty products) for different markets.
• Critique the role of forecasting in the operations of an organization.
• Describe the typical objectives and constraints in medium range (aggregate) planning related to both manufacturing and service organizations.
• Differentiate the inventory management concerns between dependent demand items and independent demand items in manufacturing and service organizations and define the impact of JIT/TQC (Just-in-Time (JIT)/Total Quality Control) philosophies.
• Differentiate between alternate methods of securing a competitive advantage with the operations function focusing on the appropriate order winner(s) and qualifiers required for various operations strategies.
• Elaborate on and develop opportunities for sustainable operations in both services (logistics, banking, warehousing, transportation, retail, etc.) and manufacturing environments.
• Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the tactical and strategic role of the operations function and its inter-relationship with other functional areas (such as marketing, finance, etc.) to effectively lead a multi-functional task force in building a global organization.

Course Grading Information:

Activity/Performance Measure	Percentage/Points
Discussion Forums	10%
Three Exams (10% each)	30%
Chapter Homework	25%
Mini Case Sustainability	10%
The Cool Connection Simulation	25%

The letter grade will be based on the following distribution:

Grading Scale

Percentage	Letter Grade
93-100%	A
90-92.99%	A-
87-89.99%	B+
84-86.99%	B
80-83.99%	B-
77-79.99%	C+
73-76.99%	C
70-72.99%	C-
<70%	F

Late work is generally not accepted. If there are extenuating circumstances, please contact me before the due date. Please note that I do not need doctors’ notes or any disclosure of illness that may be affecting a submission. We are all professionals here and your privacy is important.

Attendance/Participation:

Attendance/participation is not a graded component included in the student's final grade for this course.

Course Materials Purchased by the Students:

This course is paired with McGraw Hill’s Connect Site. This course is part of the campus’ course material delivery program. The digital required materials for this course have been integrated with Canvas and can be found in the McGraw Hill link in your Canvas course. Please sign into Canvas to access your course and course materials. The access for this game is included in your first day complete fee for the course. Your instructor will deliver more direction to access this game. Critical: If you opted out of First Day Complete, contact the bookstore to secure the resources needed for this course.