SyllabCalifornia State University, Northridge
College of Business and Economics
Department of Systems and Operations Management
SOM 306 Operations Management,Honor Students Spring 2014
Ticket # 13017 & 12867 ; M3:30-6:20, JH 1230
Dr. Ardavan Asef-Vaziri
aa2035@csun.edu
Office: JH 4129, Tel: 818-677-3637
Office hours: MW 10-12, and by appointment
Count what is countable.
Measure what is measurable.
What is not measurable, make it measurable.
Galileo Galilei, 1564 -1642.
Prerequisites. To enroll in SOM 306, the student must have passed SOM 120 (or
an equivalent statistics course at another institution) with a grade of “C” or
higher. Alternatively, the student must have passed both Math 140 and Math 103.
Students who fail to provide proper proof of prerequisites are required to drop
the course, or risk receiving an F as their final grade. It is your responsibility to
make sure that you have passed the necessary prerequisites.
Operations Management. Operations, Marketing, and Finance are the three
primary functions of business organizations. Operations management focuses on
how managers can design and operate processes in business settings with discrete
flow units. Examples include the flow of cars in a GM assembly plant, flow of
customers in a Wells Fargo branch, flow of patients at the UCLA Medical Center,
flow of cash in Fidelity Investments, and flow of students during their two-to-five
year program at CSUN. In all these systems, flow units (natural resources, semifinished goods, products, customers, patients, students, and cash) flow through a
set of processes (formed by a network of activities and buffers) using Human
resources and Capital resources (such as equipment, buildings, tools) to become a
desired output. The reason for the being of operations management is structuring
(designing), managing, and improving processes to achieve the desired output as
defined in a four-dimensional space of quality, cost, time, and variety. We will
learn to implement the process view as the unifying paradigm to study the core
concepts in operations of these settings. We employ a structured, data-driven
approach to discuss the core operations management concepts in three steps. (i)
Model and understand a business process and its flows. (ii) Study causal
relationships between the process structure and operational and financial
performance metrics. (iii) Formulate implications for managerial actions by
filtering out managerial levers (process drivers) and their impact on operational
and financial measures of process performance. The objective is to show how
Operations Management, Asef-Vaziri, Spring 2014
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managers can structure and manage processes and process drivers to improve the
performance of any business process with discrete flow units.
Making a factory [or the service system] operate for the company just like the
human body operates for the individual. The autonomic nervous system responds
even when we are asleep. The human body functions in good health when it is
properly cared for, fed and watered correctly, exercised frequently, and treated
with respect. Taiichi Ohno, Toyota Production System.
SOM 306 is an introductory course into operations management. The goal is to
acquaint students in Business Administration and Economics with the scope of
this field. In this course, students are introduced to classic and contemporary
terminology, concepts, ideas, models, techniques and tools in design and
operations of manufacturing and service enterprises. Operations management
techniques, such as short term and long term forecasting, process flow analysis,
waiting line analysis, capacity planning, inventory management, linear
programming, aggregate planning, quality management, and lean operations are
introduced. These techniques are integrated on the basis of analysis, design, and
management of process flows in environments such as production and assembly
plants, supply chains, healthcare systems, educational institutes, and financial
enterprises. Students will be able to perform both quantitative and qualitative
analysis of basic operational situations and decisions. Students will also improve
their ability to effectively communicate to management the results of their
operational analysis problems.
Specific Features of the Course. One of the most binding constraints of business
school students – from when they are admitted to college as raw material from high
school to when they graduate and leave college as the final product – is their low
quantitative and analytical skills. According to the CEO of American Express in his
2011 interview with Fareed Zakaria on CNN, the low level of quantitative
capabilities of our graduates has kept us from excelling beyond the graduates of
rising countries such as China and India. Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD) Skills Outlook (2013) compares the literacy, mathematics
and computer skills of U.S. residents with other OECD countries. In mathematics,
U.S. trailed 18 countries and beat Italy and Spain.
Believing that managers cannot go far if their quantitative and analytical
capabilities are below a threshold, we have tried to improve these qualifications
through our Operations Management (OM) classroom. In a typical traditional OM
class, about 2/3 of the class time is spent on delivering the content. The rest is
mainly spent on problem solving and also on case studies, term projects, and
simulation games. We have tried to improve these capabilities through flipping
Operations Management, Asef-Vaziri, Spring 2014
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our Operations Management classroom. By delivering the lectures using screen
capture technology, the students can learn the material at a time and location of
their choice, when they are in control to pause, rewind, and fast forward the
professor. The class time is no longer spent on teaching basic concepts, but rather
on more value-added activities such as problem solving, answering questions,
creative-thinking, systems-thinking, as well as real world applications and
discussions, potential collaborative exercises such as case studies, and virtual
world applications such as web-based simulation games. A flipped classroom is
an online course because its online components must compete with the best of the
online courses. A flipped classroom is also a traditional course because not even a
single class session is cancelled while all the lectures are delivered online. This
core concept is reinforced by a network of resources and learning processes,
ensuring a smooth, lean, and synchronized course delivery system.
The specific features of the course and their relative importance are depicted below.
Quantitative
and Analytical
Interdisciplinary
Team Work
Systems
Thinking
Information
Visualization
Information
Technology
Quantitative and Analytical. We use Operations Management as a tool to
improve the quantitative and analytical capabilities of our students. The students
will learn to develop a structured, data-driven, analytical, and quantitative
approach to discuss the core Operations Management concepts.
Systems Thinking. We try to improve systems thinking capabilities of our
students by teaching the basic concepts of operations management not as isolated
islands, but as a total system designed towards improving process flow. The
students will learn to implement the process view as the unifying paradigm to
study the core concepts in the operations management (extracted from Anupindi,
et al., 2012).
Operations Management, Asef-Vaziri, Spring 2014
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Visualization of Data and Information. Besides quantitative representation
(translating long writings into mathematical relationships), the students practice
tabular representation (translating long writings into tables) and schematic
representation (translating several pages of writing and tables into a graph, flow
chart, or picture). The students also exercise how to deal with large, unorganized,
or erroneous big data sets.
Information Technology. We try to enhance the knowledge of the students in
spreadsheet modeling. We have learned that understanding the knowledge behind
these models and developing small pilot spreadsheets leads to a better
understanding of the course material. Through case studies, as well as web-based
games, the stage is set to motivate the students to develop spreadsheet-based
models.
Teamwork. We encourage collaborative learning and creative thinking. The first
day of class is not spent on the syllabus, but rather on the importance of teamwork.
The students are encouraged to have weekly team meetings to go over the already
solved assignments, and gain new insights in the web-based games and case
studies. Academic integrity and ethics are also implicitly addressed in the course.
Interdisciplinary. We address interfaces of Operations Management with
Accounting, Finance, Economics, and Management concepts through case studies.
Learning Goals. There will be two games and several learning goal specific
problems in the exams to enable the college to assess your knowledge in the
following areas: (a) To provide definitions or short explanations of concepts and
issues related to the area of operations management. (b) To be familiar with a
basic set of standard operation problems. (c) To interpret quantitative analysis of
various operational problems and present the results to management.
Text Book and Reference Books.
Text Book
Managing Business Process Flows, 3rd Ed. 2012. Anupindi, Chopra, Deshmukh,
Van Mieghem, and Zemel. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2012. ISBN: 978-0-13-6036371.
Matador prices
New
$130.25
Used
$97.75
New Rental
$84.66
Operations Management, Asef-Vaziri, Spring 2014
Used Rental
$62.52
Digital
$62.25
Page 4
References
Building Lean Supply Chains with the Theory of Constraints. 2012. Srinivasan.
McGraw-Hill. ISBN: 978-0-07-177121-4. This book also has a Kindle edition
available on the Amazon web site.
Supply Chain management: Strategy, Planning, and Operation. 5th edition, 2010.
Chopra and Meindl. PEARSON Prentice Hall. Print ISBN: 978-0-13-274395-2
eText ISBN:
Introduction to Management Science. 5th edition, 2014. Hillier and Hillier. Mc
Graw-Hill ISBN: 0078024064. eBook is available through CourseSmart
(www.coursesmart.com). The eBook ISBN is 978-0-07-749893-1.
The books do not replace the teaching material covered during the semester.
Nothing will replace (i) Listening to the recordings and reading the lectures,
and printing the PowerPoint lectures before coming to class. (ii) Completing
the assignments before coming to class. (iii) Coming to class and being on time,
not leaving the class early, remaining focused in class, and writing the required
notes.
Composition of marks
Assignment and Peer Evaluation...................12.5%
Topic Preparation..............................................12.5%
Simulation Web-based Games.......................12.5%
Quizzes ..............................................................32.5%
Final ....................................................................30%
Assignment. Class Participation, and Peer Evaluation. Please post your photo
on Moodle by the end of the first week (if you have concerns regarding posting
your photo, that is fine). Only the students who profoundly help Dr. Asef in
creating a learning environment will get full marks for class participation. What
do we partially mean by creating a learning environment? During the last two
semesters, I have had innumerous complaints from the students regarding
continuous whispering of other students at their side. When you talk during my
lectures (a) you cannot follow the material, (b) Dr. Asef loses his concentration,
and more importantly, (c) you do not allow your classmates to understand the
material. In order to get 100% of the class participation mark, please do not
disturb the learning environment by creating background noise. Sending text
messages and surfing unrelated sites are also instances of disturbing the learning
environment. All students are expected to turn off their cell phones during class
sessions – except due to unexpected emergencies when they will need to inform
Dr. Asef in advance. Students are expected to use their laptops and tablets strictly
for presentation slides or computations. Thank you for helping us to create an
efficient learning environment. Please come to class, be on time, do not leave the
class early, and remain focused in class. Being focused in class, reading the
Operations Management, Asef-Vaziri, Spring 2014
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PowerPoint slides, and solving the assignments play the most important role in
your success in SOM 306. If you intend to leave the class early, you need to
leave a note at the beginning of class and explain the reason. Otherwise, if a
student leaves the class after she/he has been marked present for that session,
her/his overall class participation grade and peer evaluation grade will be set to
0.
You also need to evaluate your teammate. This evaluation is mainly based on
how much efforts do you think they put into solving (or going through) the presolved assignments. The second and third factor are topic presentation and
games. You need to assign 1, 2, 3, 4 to your team members (including yourself).
You cannot assign the same numerical values (1,2,3,4) to two persons.
We expect all students to go into State 0 at least one minute before the class
starts. State 0 means absolute meditation mode. Born in Moscow in 1863,
Constantin Sergeyevich Stanislavsky had a more profound effect on the process of
acting than anyone else in the twentieth century. It was his assertion that if the
theater was going to be meaningful it needed to move beyond the external
representation that acting had primarily been. Over forty years he created an
approach that fore fronted the psychological and emotional aspects of acting. The
Stanislavsky System, or "the method," as it has become known, held that an
actor’s main responsibility was to be believed (rather than recognized or
understood). Today in the United States, Stanislavsky’s theories are the primary
source of study for many actors. Among the many great actors and teachers to use
his work are Marlon Brando and Gregory Peck. Many artists have continued
experimentation with Stanislavsky’s ideas. Among the best known of these
proponents is the Actors Studio, an organization that has been home to some of
the most talented and successful actors of our time. Stanislavsky saw that the
difference between the good actor and the great actor was the ability to be
relaxed, and to be private in public. We learn from Stanislavsky: As the students
relax before the lecture starts, they clean the slate, going to a zero state, being
ready for the best performance in the learning process.
Topic Preparation. A part of a chapter. Prepare a word file from recording. Add
problems similar to mine but designed by you- (in other words, replace my
problems with yours). Try real life applications. Each team is composed of four
students. Teams of less than or greater than 4 are not allowed. Students should
register their teams within the first two weeks of the course.
If you decide to drop a member from your team (due to the problems with the
assignments, topic presentation, or game) , you need to email him/her and state
your reasons.
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Quizzes. Our flipped classroom needs to be (1) smooth (the work-load is
uniformly spread over the semester due to well-paced lecture captures), (2) lean
(the students do not have the opportunity to postpone watching the lectures due
to after-lecture-before-class quizzes ), and (3) synchronized (online resources
facilitate learning processes and live face-to-face in-class problem solving and
troubleshooting reinforce the online material). Dr. Asef has prepared screen
captures of the lectures using software such as Camtasia Studio. Each student can
learn the basic concepts at flexible times fitting his/her schedule. If students do
not know the basic concepts – streamlined through screen captures – there will be
no basis for active problem solving, troubleshooting, creative thinking, and real
world applications in our face-to-face class times. The students will learn the
basic concepts via screen captures at a time that best fits their schedule, and when
they are focused. They will then take a simple online quiz (on Moodle) to assess if
they have listened to the lectures. Then, they will start solving the assigned
problems. When they come to class, the students will be in an excellent position to
overcome their weaknesses throughout the class discussions. In a quantitative
and analytical course, it is the problem solving and profound face-to-face
discussions, rather than delivering the basic concepts, which requires presence of
the teacher. After the class discussions, the students will take another online quiz
on Moodle - but this time more advanced. Comparing the performance of the
students on simple quizzes with that of the more advanced quizzes after class
discussion provides basis for assessment. Students are encouraged to have group
discussions on the lecture material, as well as on the solved assignments.
Nevertheless, quizzes are individual tasks and any type of collaboration on the
quizzes is prohibited. Usually, you have 20-50 minutes to take the quizzes.
Time window for some quizzes on Mondays is from 11:30 am to 11:30 pm
Tuesday, and on Fridays from 11:30 am to 11:30 pm on Sunday. Students who
share their information on quiz with the other students who have not taken the
quiz yet, or provide them with supporting materials, may get a grade of zero for
one quiz or for all quizzes.
Games. Two web-based games will be played. Each game takes one week.
During these games, the student will examine the capabilities of the quantitative
and analytical tools that they have learned in the course. In the first game they
exercise their knowledge on Forecasting Models, Process Flow Analysis, and
Waiting Line Models. In the second game, in addition to these techniques, they
also exercise their knowledge on Inventory Models and Revenue Management
models. The student’s grade in the computer games will be determined by the
financial position of their company at the end of each game. where Game 1
ended. The team in the best cash/Asset position gets 100 and the last team gets
60. If a team’s financial position is exactly the same as the do-nothing team, their
grade is set to 0. We have experienced that the students, after playing the first
Operations Management, Asef-Vaziri, Spring 2014
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game, realize that knowing the course material plays a profound role in their
standing, and therefore, they allocate more time to learn the course material
related to the second game.
Please read the following documents to become familiar with the nature of the
games.
Overview of the Games
Game 1
Game 2
To Purchase. Students can purchase an individual code from the bookstore or
online at http://mgr.responsive.net/Manager/ShowClient . Our institution
name is "Cal State Univ. Northridge". The product is titled "Littlefield Code for
SOM 306". The online price will be $18, payable by MasterCard, Visa, Discover or
American Express cards’
To Register. Students can register their teams at
http://sim.responsive.net/lt/csun2/start.html. To register, they need BOTH the
individual code they purchased and the course code which is 'california' (without
' '). The most common problem is entering the code you have bought at the
bookstore when you are supposed to be using registration code. On the page you
get after entering your registration code, make up a team name and a password
and enter both. This is for the first student (the second, third and forth student
must follow the team name and password initiated by the first person). On the
page after that, you enter your names and individual access codes. Please have
your last name first, then a space, then your first name, exactly the same as your
last and first name on Portal/DPR. Thanks.
To Play. Once the simulator has started, students can access their teams from
http://sim.responsive.net/lt/csun2/entry.html
Exams. There will be a midterm exam, and an “almost” cumulative final exam.
Exams are closed book and closed notes, and are a combination of problems and
short questions. Please carefully check the dates and times of the midterms and
the final exams. No make-up exam is allowed except for medical reasons, and for
unexpected situations. Such circumstances must be supported by written
evidence. During the exam you may be asked to change your seat. This by no
means indicates that you have conducted any act of academic dishonesty.
Nevertheless, you must comply immediately. Please note that you cannot have
your cell phone at your approach during the exam. An ”on” and approachable
cell phone, can make you unqualified to finish your exam. Thanks for your
cooperation.
Grading
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(A)
(A-)
(B+)
(B)
(B-)
(C)
(D)
(F)
93-100
88-92
86-87
83-85
80-82
70-79
60-69
0-59
Academic Integrity. Academic integrity is a core value at CSUN. As such,
students are expected to perform their own work (except when collaboration is
expressly permitted by the professor). When practiced, academic integrity ensures
that all students are fairly graded. Academic dishonesty, however, undermines
the educational process and must not be tolerated. Simply stated, academic
dishonesty is the intentional use or attempted use of unauthorized material,
information, or study aids on academic exercises. Academic dishonesty
demonstrates a lack of respect for oneself, fellow students, and the professor. It
can ruin the university’s reputation and the value of the degree it offers. We all
share the obligation to maintain an environment which practices academic
honesty.
All students need to sign and date the last page of this syllabus and submit it to
Dr. Asef in the first week of classes.
SOM Tutoring Room JH 4120 Schedule.
SOM Tutoring service is available at the following days and hours in JH4120.
MW 9-6:30
T 9-12 and 1-3
Th 9-12 and 1-6:30
F 9:30 - 1:30
The TA who has the most knowledge about my course is ????, his office hours are
Monday 9am - 1pm
Monday 4:30pm - 6:30pm
Wednesday 9am - 1pm
For topics such as Process Flow and Waiting Line, John is the best one to meet
with. For other topics, all TAs are good.
Business Honors Program Tutoring
Honors students provide free tutoring to students enrolled in COBAE’s lower and
upper division required classes. Tutoring will be offered for Spring 2014 from
Monday, February 3rd to Friday, May 2nd at Juniper Hall room 2131.
Appointments can be made anywhere from 2 to 14 days in advance. Tutors may
Operations Management, Asef-Vaziri, Spring 2014
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be available Monday-Thursday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Friday 9 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Specific times may differ by course since the Business Honors student tutors
volunteer their time based on their own school and work schedules. Please go to
the Business Honors Association’s website at http://www.csun.edu/bha. Click
on the “Book Now” icon on the right side of the webpage and follow the
instructions. Your confirmation email provides you with the link you need to
cancel your appointment. Cancellations are made online. If you cancel, you must
cancel 10 hours in advance of your appointment. Please cancel as soon as possible
so another student can benefit from that time slot and your tutor can plan
accordingly.
Schedule of Classes
Disclaimer: This syllabus is an invitation for students to engage in an exciting and
interactive study of operations management. The intention of the SOM 306 course
is to provide you with information, offer practice with skill sets, and enhance
your capacity to use fundamental concepts of operations management. To that
end, modifications to subjects and dates of this syllabus, except for exam dates,
might be warranted as determined by the professor as he assess the learning
needs of this particular class of students. Due to modifications in this schedule
the students are responsible to check Moodle one hour after each class session.
Session Day Date Topic
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
W
M
W
M
Final Exam
1/27
2/3
2/10
2/17
2/24
3/3
3/10
3/17
3/24
3/31
4/7
4/14
4/21
4/28
5/5
Introduction, Process and Strategy
Job Shop and Flow Shop, Performance Measures
Forecasting
Process Flow
Process Flow
Waiting Lines
Waiting Lines Game 1 Starts
Inventory Models
Reorder Point
Cesar Chavez Holiday; Campus Closed
Spring Recess
The News vendor Problem
Theory of Constraints
Linear Programming -Game 2 Starts
Capacity and Flow Time
5/12/2014, Monday, 5:30PM - 7:30PM
In God we trust; all others must bring data.
W. Edwards Deming 1900-1993.
Operations Management, Asef-Vaziri, Spring 2014
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Statement of Reading and Understanding Syllabus SOM 306 Asef-Vaziri
Last Name
First Name
I acknowledge that I have read and understood the syllabus of the course SOM
306, taught by Dr. Asef, very carefully. I, hereby, commit myself to follow it in its
entirety. I restate the followings:
1. I will not use my cell phone in the classroom, except in the case of an
emergency. In addition, I will not use my laptop or tablet during lectures
except for viewing the SOM 306 lecture and assignment slides provided by Dr.
Asef and their related computations.
2. I commit myself not to create background noise or disturb the learning
environment during the lectures.
3. I understand coming to class just to be marked as present and leaving the class
before the lecture ends is a case of academic dishonesty. If I need to leave the
classroom before the lecture ends (except in case of emergency), I will inform
Dr. Asef at the beginning of the lecture in a written note.
4. I have been informed that Dr. Asef encourages teamwork, especially on
solving the assignments and preparation for quizzes. However, I have been
also informed if I share any information on a quiz to a fellow student who has
not taken the quiz yet, or if I provide such a student with a tool that I have
realized its value after taking the quiz, my grade and the other student(s)
grade could be set to zero for one quiz or for all quizzes.
5. I have read and understood the CSUN Student Conduct Code, printed in the
schedule of classes and the CSUN policy on Academic Dishonesty (2010-2013
Catalog, Appendix E, Student Conduct). I verify that all of the work I submit
in the quizzes and exams will be my own. I understand the Student Core
Values are: Respect, Honesty, Integrity, Commitment, and Responsibility.
____________________________________________________
Signature
Operations Management, Asef-Vaziri, Spring 2014
__________________
Date
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