Fall, 2015
BADM 701 -- OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
Thursday
7:00-9:45
AB 107
Dr. Ron Lembke
Office:
BB310D
Phone:
(775) 682-9164
Email:
ronlembke@unr.edu
Office Hours: Tues, Thurs 12:15-1:00, Thurs 6:15-7:00, other times by apt.
Homepage: http://business.unr.edu/faculty/ronlembke
COURSE PREREQUISITES: The student must have passed the necessary prerequisite course in Statistics. Concepts
covered in that course such as marginal analysis, probability distributions, and spreadsheets, are the foundations of
the methods and concepts used to analyze and build many of the management decision models in production and
operations management. Students are expected to bring to the course a current knowledge of these basic concepts.
The schedule of the course does not provide time to review concepts and methods already presented in the
prerequisite courses.
Course Materials:
1. TEXT: Operations and Supply Management: The Core, 3rd Edition, Jacobs and Chase, Irwin McGraw-Hill,
2012. ISBN 9780073525235 (SEE NOTE below e-books.)
2. PPT: Powerpoint lecture notes will be available for download at the URL listed above.
http://business.unr.edu/faculty/ronlembke
3. WebCampus: There will be a number of supplemental things for you to read on the WebCampus page.
http://wcl.unr.edu These surveys are a part of your course grade, and we will often discuss them in class.
4. K drive: Any spreadsheets we make in class will be available immediately after class on the CoB “K drive.”
Which can be found at http://www.business.unr.edu/labs/cvfs/cvfs.html
5. “Benihana of Tokyo,” W. Earl Sasser, Jr., John R. Klug, Harvard Business School Press, available at
www.hbsp.com , product no. 673057-PDF-ENG, $3.95, https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/access/40555107
e-books:
Exams will be open book, but NO iPADS, OR LAPTOPS WILL BE ALLOWED. That means that if you buy an electronic
version of the book, you will not be able to view the book on an iPad, or laptop during the exam, so you would need
to print out any pages that you think you are going to need for the exam, because NO iPADS, OR LAPTOPS IN THE
EXAM. Got that? No iPads, no laptops during the exam. Coursesmart.com (http://bit.ly/1td3akp ) offers an
electronic version of the electronic book.
Amazon will sell you a Kindle version (http://www.amazon.com/Operations-Supply-Chain-Management-Mcgraw-Hillebook/dp/B008K9TYMS/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1390270473&sr=11&keywords=jacobs+and+chase+the+core). Since an old-school Kindle doesn’t give you the same kind of internet
functionality an iPad or laptop would give you, you MAY use a Kindle in the exam, but no Kindle Fires, iPads or
Laptops.
PPT FILES AND PODCASTS:
Powerpoint slides for each class are on the website from Day 1, however, they are leftover from last semester. By
4:30 each week, I will have the final version on the website that I will be using that night.
An audio recording of each week’s lecture will be made, and made available for you to download and listen to later as
an .mp3 file, in case you were unable to come to class, or if there is something you want to listen to again. To
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download the podcasts, login to the K drive, and login using your NetID. Click on the K drive, and then find BADM
701, and find “Podcasts.”
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Students will learn how to measure, track, and improve operations in a variety of ways, including:
1. Estimating future sales using trend and seasonality and evaluate the quality of their forecast
2. Optimal inventory purchasing quantities, including purchasing quantities with discounts
3. Optimal inventory levels, including safety stock levels for random demands
4. Creating, solving and interpreting linear programming models of maximization and minimization problems
5. Managing a project, estimating completion times, and cheapest way to speed to a project
6. Monitor the quality of processes, and improve the quality using tools of Six Sigma.
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students will be able to analyze operations for opportunities to make processes more efficient and/or effective.
STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC HONESTY
Cheating, plagiarism or otherwise obtaining grades under false pretenses constitute academic dishonesty according
to the code of this university. Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated and penalties can include canceling a
student's enrollment without a grade, giving an F for the course or for the assignment. For more details, see
the University of Nevada, Reno General Catalog.
Academic Dishonesty: A uniform policy across MBA courses has been adopted.
"Any form of cheating in assignments, projects and exams will result into an automatic grade of F in the course. This
may warrant further disciplinary action in consultation with the Director of MBA program and the Chair of the
Department."
UNR has developed the following definitions, posted on the UNR website:
Academic dishonesty is defined as: cheating, plagiarism or otherwise obtaining grades under false pretenses.
Plagiarism is defined as submitting the language, ideas, thoughts or work of another as one's own; or assisting in the
act of plagiarism by allowing one's work to be used in this fashion.
Cheating is defined as
1. obtaining or providing unauthorized information during an examination through verbal, visual or
unauthorized use of books, notes, text and other materials;
2. obtaining or providing information concerning all or part of an examination prior to that examination;
3. taking an examination for another student, or arranging for another person to take an exam in one's place;
4. altering or changing test answers after submittal for grading, grades after grades have been awarded, or
other academic records once these are official.
http://www.unr.edu/student-conduct/policies/university-policies-and-guidelines/academicstandards/resolving-charges
Statement of Disability Services: Any student with a disability needing academic adjustments or accommodations is
requested to speak with me or the Disability Resource Center (Thompson Building, Suite 101) as soon as possible to
arrange for appropriate accommodations.
Statement for Academic Success Services: Your student fees cover usage of the Math Center (784-4433
or www.unr.edu/mathcenter/ ), Tutoring Center (784-6801 or www.unr.edu/tutoring-center ), and University Writing
Center (784-6030 or http://www.unr.edu/writing-center). These centers support your classroom learning; it is your
responsibility to take advantage of their services. Keep in mind that seeking help outside of class is the sign of a
responsible and successful student.
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Statement on Audio and Video Recording: Surreptitious or covert video-taping of class or unauthorized audio
recording of class is prohibited by law and by Board of Regents policy. This class may be videotaped or audio
recorded only with the written permission of the instructor. In order to accommodate students with disabilities,
some students may have been given permission to record class lectures and discussions. Therefore, students should
understand that their comments during class may be recorded.
GRADING POLICY:
Tests: There will be two exams during the semester, plus a final, which may include some comprehensive material.
Each exam is worth 23% of your final grade. Exams will always be handed back the lecture following the exam.
Therefore, any make-ups must be completed and returned to me before the exams are returned the next week. Makeups will only be allowed if you make arrangements with me prior to the exam. The instructor reserves the right to give
pop quizzes, worth an as-yet-unspecified portion of the final grade.
Exams will last for 2 hours. I could put 50% more questions on the exams, if you would like them to last the full three
hours. Exams will be open book, but with only 2 hours, you will not be able to “study during the exam.” If you don’t
know the material before the exam starts, you will not be able to learn it during the exam. I will plan for up to 30
minutes at the start of class, the night of the exam, to go over any questions that anyone may have regarding the
material, which still leaves plenty of time for a 2 hour exam.
Exams will be open book, open notes, and students may use calculators, but no computers, and definitely not the work
of another student.
Most test questions will be in problem form, with exact solutions. Partial credit will be given in cases where the error
was computational and not conceptual. There will be some true / false, multiple-choice, or short written questions.
If you can only parrot back answers exactly like the problems from the book, you won’t necessarily do well on the tests,
because you don’t really understand the problems and/or the solutions. But if you really understand the problems and
why the solutions are right and how they work, you should be in pretty good shape. You may disagree, but my goal is
for you to understand these topics, not just to be able to pass a test on them.
Grading for the exams will conform to the +/- grading system approved by the Board of Regents: 100-93 (A), 92-90 (A), 89-87 (B+), 86-83 (B), 82-80(B-), 79-77(C+), 76-73(C), 72-70 (C-), 69-67 (D+), 66-63 (D), 62-60 (D-), 59-0 (F).
Homework: Because we will be studying so many topics, over such a wide area, homework is an important way of
reinforcing the topics. You do not need to turn in answers to the homework problems. I will provide solutions to the
homework problems, and you should make sure you know how to do those problems, because they will be fair game
on the test. For some problems, I have created screencam, Camtasia-type solution videos. They are fairly detailed
about the steps involved, since I assume if you’re interested enough to look at the solution, you must be in need of
some detailed presentation of the solution.
Some weeks, we will discuss one or more of the previous week’s discussion questions at the beginning of class, so
you should look at those, at a minimum.
Extra Credit: Just because you do badly on a test, or choose to not participate in class or do an assignment, I will not
give you any extra credit opportunities that are not available to the rest of the class.
Operations Improvement Project
Presentations are an important skill for your future success. Each group will make a brief (10-12 minute) presentation
about how operations could be improved at a company. Presentations will be done in groups of 3. If you have a bad
work schedule that makes it hard to discuss the project with your teammates, now is a good time to practice that skill.
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Most students in the MBA program have very tough work/school/family schedules, but figuring out how to make that
work is also an important skill.
In the presentation, you will need to discuss how a company you are familiar with (maybe a current, past or potential
employer, or maybe just a company you are interested in) could or should change some part of its operations to make
them more effective or efficient. If your proposal includes outsourcing, I expect you to give us the name of at least one
possible outsourcing partner, and to give reasons for and against the outsourcing, including the following.
 Describe the operations to be changed, describing the process in at least enough detail so that the class can
get an understanding of the challenges involved. A couple of pictures of the process, or partially finished goods
can be very helpful, if it’s a production process. (Pictures of accountants in cubicles, probably not so helpful.)
 It may not be possible to estimate the potential financial savings, but if you can do that, it would be very
interesting. Assumably, financial savings would be a key reason for the change. Even if you can’t get any data,
you can often get a ballpark figure on the labor savings, and that can be quite interesting.
 Also discuss the impact on customer service, lead-time, and quality. These considerations may outweigh the
financial ones.
 Finally, give a recommendation for whether you believe the company should proceed with your proposed
change, taking into account all considerations.
Your recommendation should be realistic. If it all sounds great on paper, but there are other political reasons that
would make it impossible, discuss those, because those can be deal-breakers.
Do NOT feel like you have to force a decision tree or some other tool from the class into the presentation. If it makes
sense to do some kind of breakeven method, or calculate inventory holding costs, by all means, do it. But don’t try to
see how many things you can force into your analysis.
This is a lot of ground to cover in 10-12 minutes, so you must use Powerpoint, and you will need to practice giving the
presentation. I will take off at least 2 points for every minute you go over 12. You are going to have to practice actually
giving the talk, in order to do it well in the time.
The presentations will be videotaped, and the videos will be placed on the class website. Students must watch the
videos of their presentations, and give me written feedback on their presentation. A list of questions that must be
answered will be posted on the class website.
Presentations will be given in weeks 12-16. A signup sheet will be made available mid-semester. You may work and
do the presentations individually or in pairs, but either way, you only have 10-12 minutes, for the whole group, not
for each speaker. Did I mention you only have 10 minutes?
You do not need to turn in a written report. Instead, you just have to make sure that you make it clear to all of us
exactly what you considered in your analysis, how you did the work, and what you concluded, and why.
Participation: 10% of your grade will be based on participation. This will be based on your participation in classroom
discussions, and your participation in the WebCT-based case studies (which we will discuss at the start of each class).
The WebCT cases must be completed before 6pm Tuesday, so I can collate your responses for the classroom discussion.
Regarding in-class participation, the important thing to remember about this is that Quality is much better than
Quantity. You don’t need to worry about fighting for points because I am not counting each comment with a stopwatch,
but if you don’t contribute to the classroom discussion, you won’t do well in this part of your grade. I want you to
actively participate in class, not sit there waiting for me to spoon feed you or wake you up. If you sit there every week
checking your email in the back of the room (thinking I will never know) and never raise your hand and open your
mouth, you can expect below a 50. If you offer a couple of good questions or relevant comments per week, you’ll get
something closer to 100. Your grade will depend on how close you are to either extreme.
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Benihana Case: A written analysis of the Benihana Case study must be turned in at the start of the last class, before
our discussion of it in class. I will not accept papers turned in after the start of the last class.
You may do “field research” by visiting a Benihana restaurant (although the closest one is in Citrus Heights, 97 miles
away), or discuss the case with other students, but each person must write his or her own analysis of the case. The
case is worth 6% of your final grade, and should be typed. How long does it need to be? Long enough to cover all of
the things outlined below. It would be hard to do it in under say, 4-5 pages, but it’s hard to see you could stretch it
past 10. I’d like to suggest you single-space, with a blank line between paragraphs (like this syllabus).
The primary focus of your analysis should be the operational details of the restaurant chain that have contributed to
its success. Look at the case from an operations perspective: what strategic role do operations play in the company’s
success? How have operational decisions contributed to the efficiency and effectiveness of the restaurant? You can
potentially look at the company from the perspective of all of the topics we have studied this semester: layout, location,
inventory management, job design, etc., etc.
Do not worry about how the restaurant has changed since the case was written. Yes, many things have changed
since then. I will bring you up to speed on all of those changes when we discuss the case. You just need to focus on
the issues raised above, as they appear in the case. However, in addition to the issues I’ve asked you to consider, if
you have visited a restaurant, and want to comment on any changes you have observed, and speculate on the
reasons for the changes, that is fine. But those observations should be the “side dish” in your paper, not the entrée.
COURSE GRADING:
Final grades for the semester will be determined by converting the letter grades earned on each exam into a 4 point
scale, which will be converted to percentiles. Homework and participation will also be evaluated as numerical scores
and weighted as follows:
Test 1
Test 2
Final Exam
Operations Improvement project
Benihana Case Study
Class Participation
WebCT
100 pts.
100 pts.
100 pts.
60 pts.
30 pts.
25 pts.
25 pts.
22.7 %
22.7 %
22.7 %
13.6 %
6.8 %
5.7 %
5.7 %
Homework Due by week 2:
1. Email me your info
2. Login to your WebCT account
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Preliminary course Schedule, as of week 1. Current schedule can always be found on the course website.
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