CLASS SCHEDULE (PRELIMINARY, SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

Transcription

1 CLASS SCHEDULE (PRELIMINARY, SUBJECT TO CHANGE) The following is the tentative schedule of topics to be covered during the Semester. It is possible that there will be changes in the schedule as the course progresses. Changes to this schedule will be announced during class in advance of the class periods that will be affected. 1 Wednesday February 19, 2014 Operations management Introduction What is operations management? Operations management is important in all types of organization The input transformation output process The process hierarchy Operations processes have different characteristics The activities of operations management 2 Friday February 21, 2014 Operations management Summary answers to key questions Case study: Design house partnerships at Concept Design Services Problems and applications 3 Wednesday February 26, 2014 Operations strategy Introduction What is strategy and what is operations strategy? The `top down' and `bottom up' perspectives The market requirements and operations resources perspectives The process of operations strategy 4 Friday February 28, 2014 Operations strategy Summary answers to key questions Case study: Long Ridge Gliding Club Problems and applications 5 Wednesday March 5, 2014 Social, environment and economic performance Introduction Operations performance is vital for any organization The quality objective The speed objective The dependability objective The flexibility objective The cost objective Trade offs between performance objectives Summary answers to key questions Case study: Operations objectives at the Penang Mutiara 6 Friday March 7, 2014 The design of products and services Introduction Why is good design so important? The stages of design from concept to specification The benefits of interactive design 7 Wednesday March 12, 2014 The design of products and services Summary answers to key questions Case study: Chatsworth the adventure playground decision Problems and applications 1

2 8 Friday March 14, 2014 Process design Introduction What is process design? What effects should process design have? Process types the volume variety effect on process design Detailed process design 9 Wednesday March 19, 2014 Process design Summary answers to key questions Case study: The Central Evaluation Unit Problems and applications 10 Friday March 21, 2014 Location, layout and flow Introduction What is layout? The basic layout types What type of layout should an operation choose? Detailed design of the layout 11 Wednesday March 26, 2014 Location, layout and flow Summary answers to key questions Case study: Weldon Hand Tools Problems and applications 12 Friday March 28, 2014 Supply network management Introduction What is supply chain management? The activities of supply chain management Types of relationships in supply chains Supply chain behaviour Supply chain improvement 13 Wednesday April 2, 2014 Supply network management Summary answers to key questions Case study: Supplying fast fashion Problems and applications 14 Friday April 4, 2014 Capacity management Introduction What is capacity management? Measuring demand and capacity The alternative capacity plans Choosing a capacity planning and control approach Capacity planning as a queuing problem 15 Wednesday April 9, 2014 Capacity management Summary answers to key questions Case study: Holly Farm Problems and applications Selected further reading Useful web sites 2

3 16 Friday April 11, 2014 Inventory planning and control Introduction What is inventory? Why is inventory necessary? Some disadvantages of holding inventory The volume decision how much to order The timing decision when to place an order Inventory analysis and control systems 17 Wednesday April 16, 2014 Inventory planning and control Summary answers to key questions Case study: Trans European Plastics Problems and applications 18 Friday April 18, 2014 Planning and control Introduction What is planning and control? Supply and demand affect planning and control Planning and control activities 19 Wednesday April 23, 2014 Planning and control Summary answers to key questions Case study: Air traffic control a world class juggling act Problems and applications 20 Friday April 25, 2014 Lean synchronization Introduction What is lean synchronization? Eliminate waste Lean synchronization applied throughout the supply network Lean synchronization and other approaches 21 Wednesday April 30, 2014 Lean synchronization Summary answers to key questions Case study: Boys and Boden (B&B) Problems and applications 22 Friday May 2, 2014 Quality management Introduction What is quality and why is it so important? Diagnosing quality problems Conformance to specification Total quality management (TQM) 23 Wednesday May 7, 2014 Quality management Summary answers to key questions Case study: Turnround at the Preston plant Problems and applications 24 Friday May 9, 2014 Operations improvement Introduction Why improvement is so important Elements of improvement Approaches to improvement Improvement techniques Summary answers to key questions Case study: Geneva Construction and Risk Problems and applications 3

4 25 Wednesday May 14, 2014 Experiment; The design of products and services Quality function deployment can be relatively complex to use in practice. However, a simple exercise is to choose a service (services work better than products for this exercise) and ask the students to draw up a QFD matrix for it. An obvious service is the course on which the students are registered. Try to guide students into distinguishing clearly between the whats (what you want the service to achieve) and the hows (the design factors that can be manipulated in order to achieve the service s objectives). 26 Friday May 16, 2014 Experiment: Process design There are many games and exercises available that can be used to demonstrate the reality of process behaviour and the issues that must be tackled in process design. Most of these involve students being formed into teams with a set task to perform. Sometimes this can be a series of arithmetic calculations (useful if many of the students come from financial services). Others involve making simple greetings cards. More complex games may involve using constructions toys such as Lego. Generally, one can find a colleague who has some experience of these games. However, do not dismiss the idea of making one up yourself. Sometimes it is better to have confidence in ones own game than go through a (sometimes embarrassing) learning curve with a game that you have copied from someone else. 27 Wednesday May 21, 2014 Experiment: Location, layout and flow Try discussing with the students how their layout might change for a simple task such as making a sandwich, as volume and variety change. So, for example, ask the question, If you were making a sandwich for a friend how would you do it? Discussion would then centre around the kind of sandwich they want (limited only by the availability of ingredients in the kitchen), when they wanted it (it could be made to order), and how much it could be customised (more salt and pepper?). Then ask, If you were making sandwiches for a whole group of friends who were due to arrive in an hour s time, how would your process change? (You would butter all the bread together, standardise the products to some extent, and so on). Then ask, If you were making 5,000 sandwiches a day for a supermarket, how would you wish to organise the production system? (Assembly line process, etc.). 28 Friday May 23, 2014 Experiment: Supply network management The role of the internet in all supply chain management, but particularly the purchasing activity, is a useful and interesting topic to investigate. Find a supplier interface by searching the websites of 4

5 retail companies, choose a supplier interface, and ask the class (in groups) to draw up a list of advantages and disadvantages (from both the supplier and the customer perspective) of such mechanisms. The Tesco Information Exchange is one such interface. It is also a useful example to encourage debate. The increasing importance of customer oriented internet based trading (B2C) provides a good discussion point to demonstrate the importance of supply chain management in order fulfilment. Get students to look at examples of web sites (Amazon, etc.) and then discuss the implications of this way of retailing on the whole supply chain. Ask the students to use the table in the chapter to work through the arithmetic of supply chain fluctuations. A blank table is included in the PowerPoint slides for this chapter. Put on the OHP and work through it with the students. By getting them to calculate exactly how much needs to be produced at each stage in the supply chain during each period, they can get the idea of the amplifications in activity levels. This is increasingly referred to as the bull whip effect. Supply chain dynamics also lends itself to simple gaming. Just separating out groups of students into teams, each of which is a stage in the supply chain, imposing rules around order lead times and inventory levels, and then changing demand at the end of the supply chain can lead to a very vivid example of the bull whip effect. The well known Beer game is an ideal example of this type of game. (Just Google beer game.) 29 Wednesday May 28, 2014 Experiment: Capacity management Try instructing groups to select an industry (preferably one where at least one of the group has some experience). Ask each group to explore how companies in that industry learn how to cope with seasonal fluctuations, and how might they adopt other approaches. 30 Friday May 30, 2014 Experiment: Inventory planning and control An exercise which we have found useful is to set the class the task of investigating how much money is tied up in stocks in various companies. The easy availability of company accounts on the internet now makes this task much more feasible. Get them to compare different types of company and thus identify the kinds of organisation where stock control is particularly important from a financial point of view. The dynamics of stock control lend themselves to very simple classroom based games. For example, give a forecast to the class of how many goods are likely to be sold period by period. Also indicate the costs of placing an order and holding stock. Devise a simple form which allows the class (in groups) to make ordering decisions and keep track of their stock levels and costs. Then (fairly rapidly) simulate a period of time, usually 20 or 30 periods, by taking values around the forecast for each period (but not exactly as forecast of course). The winner is the group with 5

6 the lowest costs and the highest customer service. (It may be necessary to put an artificial cost on stock outs to make evaluation simpler.) 31 Wednesday June 4, 2014 Experiment: Quality management It is particularly important that students come to understand the nature of variation in process performance and how it can affect quality. We have found the best way to do this is to devise games to demonstrate the choices that need to be made when dealing with variability. Fortunately it is not difficult to devise games of this sort. Here are two options. Game 1 Find some easily available product that contains pieces, supposedly of the same size. We use the small wooden blocks that are used in some children s building sets and games. Instruct groups of students to measure successive blocks using a micro measuring device (available at specialist and hardware stores). Get them to plot on an SPC chart the variation in the size of the blocks and from that calculate the central and control limits for mean and range. Game 2 Do something similar but select an Internet search site such as one that searches for cheap flights or hotel accommodation. Get the students to time the variance in response time and calculate limits as before. The advantage of this approach is that one can ask students to sample from the same site at different times to check whether the process is getting out of control. Game 3 Use a short case study (an appropriate is shown at the end of this section) and ask the students to draw process charts. Then show them new data period by period and ask them to tell you when the process is out of control. 32 Friday June 6, 2014 Experiment: Operations improvement A Swedish hotel and restaurant group has been developing self-managed improvement groups within its hotels. At one hotel reception desk, staff were concerned about the amount of time the desk was left unattended. To investigate this staff began keeping track of the reasons they were spending time away from the desk and how long each absence kept them away. Everyone knew that reception desk staff often had to leave their post to help or give service to a guest. However, no one could agree what was the main cause of absence. After three months the data was reviewed, as shown in the table. Table: Summary of data showing the various services performed that require staff to leave reception unattended. Services performed Average frequency per shift Average time taken to perform service (minutes) Faxing documents 5 4 Providing extra keys 3 2 Providing drinks 6 2 6

7 Relaying messages to 4 8 meeting rooms Making photocopies 8 5 Arranging computer 2 10 wireless connection Locking / unlocking 4 4 meeting rooms Providing extra linen Arranging rooms Showing guests to rooms Providing medication (a) Draw a Pareto diagram of the reasons that staff leave the reception desk. (b) Do you think it was wise to spend so much time on examining this particular issue? Isn t it a trivial issue? (c) Should the Pareto diagram be used to reflect improvement priorities? 7