New York University A Private University in the Public Service Class Title Listed as Instructor Contact Information Class Time Course Description Course Objectives Grading Components Instructor Bio Competitive Advantage from Operations Competitive Advantage from Operations C60.9001003 4 points Name: Wan Guohua Monday, 5:00 8:00pm Operations are concerned with the systematic design, management and improvement of the processes that transform inputs into finished goods or services. Operations function is one of the primary functions of a firm. As marketing induces the demand for products and finance provides the capital, operations function produces the product (goods and services). The course introduces to students how firms gain competitive advantage by being the low cost provider of goods and services, by having the best product or service at its price point, by getting new products and services to market quickly and by being able to efficiently balance the demand for its product or service with its supply ability. This introductory course aims to increase students appreciation of the competitive advantage drivers from operations and give them some experience in improving operations efficiency and effectiveness. The specific objectives of the course are to teach you to: Identify the operational capabilities needed to support a business strategy; Define and characterize key business processes; Establish clear performance objectives and process measures; Understand the impact of demand and process variability; Use data and tools to evaluate and improve the efficiency of processes. Class Participation and Attendance: 10% Mid Term Examination: 25% Final Examination: 30% Reading Reports and Term Project (Group work): 20% Homework and Quizzes: 15% Guohua Wan (Ph.D., Hong Kong University of Science and Technology), is a Professor of Management Science at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. His research interests include production planning and scheduling, supply chain management, and management of information
Grading Expectations Activities Attendance Policy technology. He has published more than 40 papers on these topics in such journals as Operations Research, INFORMS Journal on Computing, Naval Research Logistics, European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Production Research, and Computers and Operations Research. He regularly teaches Operations Management, Operations Research and Supply Chain Design and Management to undergraduate, MBA, and Ph.D. students, and received several teaching awards from his institutions. He currently serves as a Senior Editor of Production and Operations Management, the flagship journal of Production and Operations Management Society. A: Excellent performance showing a thorough knowledge and understanding of the topics of the course; all work includes clear, logical explanations, insight, and original thought and reasoning. B: Good performance with general knowledge and understanding of the topics; all work includes general analysis and coherent explanations showing some independent reasoning, reading and research. C: Satisfactory performance with some broad explanation and reasoning; the work will typically demonstrate an understanding of the course on a basic level. D: Passable performance showing a general and superficial understanding of the course s topics; work lacks satisfactory insight, analysis or reasoned explanations. F: Unsatisfactory performance in all assessed criteria. Optional and suggested trips and events will be discussed throughout the semester. NYU in Shanghai has a strict policy about course attendance that allows no unexcused absences. Each unexcused absence will result in the deduction of three percentage points from the final grade. More than two unexcused absences will result in failure of the course. All absences due to illness require a signed doctor s note from a local facility as proof that you have been ill and have sought treatment for that illness. All absence requests and excuses must be discussed with the Academic Support staff. Non illness absences must be discussed with the Academic Support staff or the Program Director prior to the date(s) in question. Students should contact their instructors to catch up on missed work but should not approach them for excused absences. If you must miss class (for any reason), the Academic Support staff will determine whether or not it is an unexcused absence. If your absence is not excusable, you risk missing class as a detriment to your grade.
Students are expected to arrive to class promptly both at the start of class and after breaks. The Academic Assistant will check attendance 15 minutes after class begins. Arriving more than 15 minutes late or leaving more than 10 minutes early will be considered an unexcused absence. Unexcused absences from exams are not permitted and will result in failure of the exam. If you are granted an excused absence from an exam by the Academic Support staff, your instructor will decide how you will make up the exam. This attendance policy also applies for classes involving a field trip or other off campus visit. It is the student s responsibility to arrive at the agreed meeting point on time. Submission of Late Work There will be no adjustment of attendance records after the end of the semester. If you wish to contest a marked absence, you must do so before you leave Shanghai; so if you think that there may be a discrepancy about your attendance in class on a given day, ask the NYU in Shanghai academic staff to let you look at the attendance record. Written work due in class must be submitted during class time. Late work should be submitted in person to the Academic Support staff during regular office hours (9:30 6:00, Monday Friday). The Academic Support staff will mark down the date and time of submission in the presence of the student. Work submitted within five weekdays will be penalized one portion of a grade for every day that it is late (so if it is late by one day, an assignment marked an A will be changed to an A, and so on). Work submitted more than five days after the due date without an agreed extension will be given a zero. Plagiarism Policy Please note that final essays must be submitted on time. Plagiarism: the presentation of another person s words, ideas, judgment, images or data as though they were your own, whether intentionally or unintentionally, constitutes an act of plagiarism. Students must retain an electronic copy of their work until final grades are posted on Albert. They must be prepared to supply an electronic copy if requested to do so by NYU in Shanghai. Not submitting a copy of their work upon request will result in automatic failure in the assignment and possible failure in the class.
Required Text(s) Supplementary Materials Week 1 Monday, February 21 st Week 2 Monday, February 28th Week 3 Monday Makeup Day Friday, March 4 th Week 4 Monday, March 7 th Week 5 Monday, March 14 th Week 6 Monday, March 21st Penalties for confirmed cases of plagiarism are set out in the Academic Guide. J. Heizer and B. Render. Competitive Advantage from Operations (6 th edition). Prentice Hall, 2010. (Customized Text for NYU Stern) Cases: 1. Donner Company (HBS) 2. Toyota Motor Manufacturing, USA Inc. (HBS) 3. L. L. Bean, Inc. (HBS) 4. Zara, Fast Fashion (HBS) Readings: 1. E. Goldratt and J. Cox (2004). The Goal: A process of ongoing improvement (3 rd edition), North River Press, Inc. 2. P. Engardio (2008). Can the U.S. Bring Jobs Back from China? Business Week, June 19, 2008. 3. G. Stalk, P. Evans and L. E. Shulman (1992). Competing on Capabilities: The New Rules of Corporate Strategy, Harvard Business Review, March April, 1992. 4. D. Dickson, R. C. Ford and B. Laval (2005). Managing real and virtual waits in hospitality and service organizations. Cornell Hotel & Restaurant Administration Quarterly, February 2005. 5. H. Lee, P. Padmanabhan and S. Whang (1997). The Bullwhip Effect in a Supply Chain. Sloan Management Review, Spring 1997. Introduction and Overview operations as a source of competitive advantage; processes and process design (Reading 2) Process: Design and analysis (Reading 3, Case 1) The effects of uncertainty waiting lines; queuing theory in action (Reading 4) An introduction to simulation; use of simulation as a problem solving tool for operating systems Quality: its definition and basis for competition; quality analysis, measurement and improvement; statistical quality control Just in time philosophy and Toyota production system (Case 2)
Week 7 Monday, March 28th Week 8 Monday, April 4 th Week 9 Monday, April 11 th Week 10 Monday, April 18 th Study Break Week 11 Monday, May 2 nd Week 12 Monday, May 9 th Week 13 Monday, May 16 th Week 14 Monday, May 23 rd Final Exam Monday, May 30 th Time based competition and project management Midterm Exam Plant tour (to a local manufacturing company) (tentative) Inventory/logistics: concepts and models; inventory management under uncertainty (Case 3) Program study break from Friday, April 22 nd until Sunday, May 1 st Inventory in action; supply chain management (Reading 5, Case 4) Optimal resource allocation: basic linear programming (LP) model; solution techniques of LP Applications of the LP model Final review of course materials Final Exam