OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT MANA110028.

01
Spring 2009
General Information
Instructor:

Tianjun Feng, Ph.D., University of California, Irvine

M.S. and B.S., Fudan University
Room 503, Siyuan Building of Faculty
Office Phone: 86-21-25011182
Email: fengtj@gmail.com
Classroom:
H6102
Meeting Time: Monday, 6:30-9:05 P.M.
Office Hours: by appointment
Course Description
Operations Management (OM) plans and coordinates all activities in the process of
producing and delivering products (goods and services).
Effective operations
management is a key ingredient of success in most industries. Achieving operations
excellence is one of the most essential strategies to improve efficiency and to gain a
competitive advantage. The goal of this course is to introduce students to the
fundamental concepts, problems, and strategies in the operations function of a firm. This
course will cover a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods that provide the necessary
tools to make intelligent decisions in operations.
The course will offer a broad survey of concepts and techniques in managing operations,
with particular emphasis on a number of major operations management issues that can
significantly affect the competitive position of a firm in the marketplace. You'll hear
from invited guest speakers from the industry, and benefit from an interactive learning
experience through discussions, case studies, anecdotal learning, simulation games, and
industry best practices.

Course Materials
Required text:
Operations Management (Spring 2009) course packet.
As expected, the book does not provide a thorough coverage of all OM-related subjects.
Hence, if you wish to enrich your knowledge of particular course subjects, I will be
happy to direct you to additional references. An electronic version of lecture notes will
be available online, as well as supplemental and optional readings.
Grading Policy
There are five components to your final grade:
Class participation
In-class quizzes (4*3%)
Group case reports (2*5%)
Final Exam
Total

8%
12%
10%
70%
100%

Class Participation
Class participation is based on the quality of comments, questions, and presentations each
student offers during a class. You are expected to attend all sessions and actively
participate in class discussion. Bring your name card to class, so that I can accurately
assess your participation. If for some reason you need to miss a class, please email the
instructor in advance. Course ethics must be maintained for all classes. For example, use
of cellular phones is not permitted in class.
Quizzes
There will be four quizzes in this course. The quizzes will take approximately 15
minutes at the beginning of the scheduled sessions. Make-up quiz will not be offered
unless there is a documented serious illness or extreme personal circumstances.
Group Case Reports
You will need to form a group with some of your class members to work on case reports.
Groups must consist of three to five members each. Sharing ideas and discussing issues
in a group frequently produces insights that a person would not gain by studying alone.
Further, the case reports (described below) will be turned in and graded on a group basis,
thus, it behooves you to work with your group throughout the course.
2

Groups should be formed by the third class session. Please hand in one hardcopy of your
report per group in class. Your group will need to submit a written report on the
following two cases:
1. National Cranberry Cooperative
2. L.L. Bean, Inc.
The case reports should be concise (no more than 5 pages, 1 inch margins, 12 point font,
double spaced, exhibits excluded) and focus on the preparation questions. State clearly
your assumptions, analysis and recommendations. Specific case preparation questions
will be posted online two weeks in advance of a case due date. Please do not tell us what
we can read in the case. Add value and get to the point from the first line.
Practice Problem Sets
Practice problem sets will be distributed in this course. The feedback from these
exercises should help you evaluate your progress in understanding the course materials.
You are free to discuss all the practice problems with other students. However, the
problem sets will not be graded and the solutions will be posted online.
Exams
There will be a final exam in this course. A review session will be provided for the
exam. Make-up exams will not be offered unless there is a documented serious illness or
extreme personal circumstances.

Operations Management Course Schedule (Spring 2009)*

Session

Date

Topic

Readings

Feb. 16

Course Overview and Introduction

Chapters 1,2

Feb. 23

Process Fundamentals

Chapters 4,5

Mar. 2

Process Performance and Quality

Chapter 6

Mar. 9
Constraint Management

Chapter 7,
Video

Mar. 16

Mar. 23

Toyota Production System

Chapter 9,
Video

Mar. 30

Waiting Line Models

Supplement C

Apr. 6
Inventory Management

Chapter 12

Forecasting

Chapter 13

Newsvendor Model

Supplement D

Apr. 13

10

Apr. 20

11

Apr. 27

12

May. 4

13

May. 11

14

May. 18

Revenue Management

15

May. 25

Sales and Operations Planning

Chapter 14

16

Jun. 1
Supply Chain Strategies

Chapter 10,
Video

17

Jun. 8

18

Jun. 15

Events

Case Report 1 Due

Case Report 2 Due

Course Wrap-up

19

Final Exam

*subject to minor modification

Beer Game