COP introduction

We had over 80,000 participants enrolled in last course

Over 80% were in business; not students, but running real operations

As a professor, I believe that everyone benefits from the academic content of m

This is supported by our first offering

But: the needs for somebody running an operation and a student new to the ar
- different reason to be here in this course
- desire for clean theory vs desire to change a business tomorrow
- Student might be better at math / formulas
- Some of the formulas might not easily fit the world of business

Coursera Operations Challenge

Source: submissions from the Coursera Operations Challenge

The Coursera Operations Project My Vision

Take this to the next level

A project with multiple deliverables that mirror a true operations improvemen
Peer feed-back along the way
Community level problem solving on some of the things that emerge as comm
The reward: we will rewrite the books of business; almost like a Wikipedia, this
a library of operations projects across industries and across the world
So, here is how it works

The Coursera Operations Project Outline

Problem Solving
step
Sense the problem
broadly

Collect data to
analyze the status
quo
Define a specific
outcome you want to
achieve and define
the performance gap

Consider
opportunities for
improvement

Question to be answered

Potential tools

What type of operational problems

Four dimensions of performance
do I have access to?
Efficient frontier
Where do I sense a performance
gap?
What does the process flow look like? Process flow diagram
I, R, T
What specific outcome measure are
you trying to improve? What does
success look like?
What is the status quo; does this
measure vary over time?
How far are you from the target?
What are the inhibitors to
improvement?
What alternatives are there to the
current process flow?

Three system inhibitors; variability

lecture
Labor content; Flow time efficiency
(% value add time from customers
perspective)
Where are waste, variability, and
inflexibility?
Responsiveness module: service blue
print
Staffing to demand / takt time
Make-to-stock
Create flexibility
KPI tree
Problem solving loop (from problem,
to abstraction, now back to reality)

Understand the
What would be the value of an
benefits of
improvement
improvements;
What can you learn about the most
Pick one opportunity promising alternative in 1 day and
and create a small
with $100?
Generic
Process should work across industries
experiment

Linked to the course / course material

For each milestone, I will provide you with detailed instructions
Example calculations for two local businesses here in Philadelphia

The Coursera Operations Project An Alternative Way of Taking the

Course

With Course
Project

Without
Course Project

With HW/Exam With Distinction

Ops Certificate

Without
HW/Exam

Audit

Ops Certificate