MGMT 560 – 3R1 – Foundation of Business Process and Operations Management
University of Bridgeport – TM/MGMT Programs
Fall Semester, 2014, Thursdays 3:30 – 6:00 PM, Mandeville Hall Room 320
Dr. Mike Lohle, PMP - email: mlohle@bridgeport.edu, Office: Mandeville Hall Room 304, Office
hours available by appointment
COURSE SYLLABUS
Course Description:
The game has changed. Globalization, e-business, supply chain management, total quality
management, statistical quality control, just-in-time, lean and six sigma are all buzzwords that
have a major impact on business practices. Key concepts including product design and process
selection, forecasting, capacity planning, facility location, work system design, inventory
management, aggregate planning, resource planning and scheduling are the foundation for an
effective operation for both manufacturing and service businesses. Likewise, robust business
processes combine with operations management to enable the delivery of high quality products
and services.
This is a practitioner’s course in operations and business process management. By immersing
the student in operations and business process concepts via lectures, case studies and examples
from industry students gain understanding in a real world context, concepts they can later access
on the job.
The teaching approach consists of lectures, integrative case studies and team facilitation and a
review of current events related to business processes and operations management.
Course Objectives (Learning Outcomes):
The objectives of the course are to:
 Achieve an understanding of how operations management and business processes ensure
high quality delivery and customer satisfaction.
 Apply lessons learned to simulate effective operations and business process management.
 Examine the role of operations management and business processes in key organizational
functions.
 Investigate and analyze effective operations management techniques and their related
business processes.
 Understand organizational and managerial operations management and business process
contexts.
 Improve analytical and facilitation skills via synthesis, writing and oral presentations.
Course Text:
Reid, R. D., & Sanders, N. R. (2012). Operations Management (5th ed.) Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley
& Sons, Inc. ISBN: 978-1-118-12267-9
Course Requirements:
1. Class Attendance, Participation, Punctuality, Cheating and Plagiarism: Attendance
at each class session is expected. Class lectures complement and do not duplicate
textbook information and include relevant discussions. Students are expected to be on
time for class. A significant portion of your learning will accrue through the constructive
and respectful exchange of ideas and search for alternative solutions. You must be
actively engaged in class discussions to improve your thinking and communication skills.
Cheating and plagiarism is absolutely unacceptable. If I catch you cheating or
plagiarizing, I will warn you once. The second offense will result in an F grade for
the course. Cheating and plagiarizing means using the work of others as your own.
Copying homework, using papers from the Internet without citation, talking or looking
MGMT 560 – 3R1 – Operations Management, Fall, 2014 Dr. Mike Lohle, PMP
2
around during exams and allowing others to look at your exam or individual term papers
are examples of cheating.
As a UB policy, it is expected that each student that attends one hour of classroom
instruction will require a minimum of two hours of out of class student work each week for
approximately fifteen weeks for one semester.
Be certain that your travel arrangements do NOT conflict with any of your team or
individual presentations.
2. Homework: Canvas is our vehicle for assignment submission. Therefore, all assignments
will be submitted via Canvas with the exception of current events news articles (see section 4).
The syllabus identifies both oral and written homework assignments. Written assignments should
be typed, double spaced and cover sufficient length to address the homework assignment’s
requirements.
3. Deadlines and Late Policy: Canvas assignments close at 6:15 PM the evening of the session
they are due. Late assignments will be penalized a half letter grade up to a week late, a full
letter grade between a week and two weeks late and will receive no grade after two weeks
late with no excuses accepted unless exceptional cases are discussed with the professor.
Though not welcomed or anticipated, late submissions should be e-mailed to the professor. Note:
Be careful! Late submissions of on-line cases will adversely impact your entire team!!
4. Current News – At the beginning of the term, each student will be required to find, print out
and bring a current events news article related to operations or business process management
topics to class. Throughout the semester, students will be called at random to orally review their
news articles and their articles will be collected from them when they present. All students should
“hold onto” their news articles, keeping them until called upon. Suggested sources include: Wall
Street Journal, New York Times, Business Week, the Economist, Harvard Business Review,
Sloan Management Review, Newsweek, Time, Fortune, Inc, Forbes, Financial Times, the Internet
and other relevant sources. This is a key component of the students’ class participation grade.
5. Team Case Study Questions and Discussion: The textbook’s student website includes two
cases that track with the chapter contents:
 Cruise International, Inc.
 Valley Memorial Hospital.
Students will use the companion website provided with the purchase of the text to access these
case study materials. Copies of the case study materials will also be stored on the Canvas
website.
One of the strengths of the UB experience is the opportunity to engage with peers from around
the globe that have diverse cultural backgrounds. This student body mirrors the diverse
demographic team composition that students will engage on the job. The effective engagement
and management of diverse, often virtual teams is a critical success factor for effective
management. With this in mind, from our first class, students will be assigned teams with the
primary goal of forging an effective “homework delivery” process to support these integrative case
studies.
Pending class size, during the first class four (4) teams will be assigned by the instructor, two (2)
teams to each case, and students will collaborate with their teams weekly to provide answers to
case questions throughout the semester. Each student will submit, and be graded for, the
submission of a copy of their team’s questions (the instructor anticipates multiple, identical
submissions from students).
As part of their “homework delivery operation,” teams will assign “discussion facilitators” on a
rotational basis to ensure every team member facilitates at least once during the semester (where
required, the instructor will facilitate). This will also necessitate their tracking a team roster and
MGMT 560 – 3R1 – Operations Management, Fall, 2014 Dr. Mike Lohle, PMP
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establishing a schedule, another relevant operations and business process management task.
During each class, the discussion facilitators will:
 Summarize the week’s case topics
 Answer each question on behalf of his or her team
 Share lessons learned about team dynamics and delivery processes from their team
experience.
The facilitator’s team members are expected to actively support the facilitator.
Since two of four teams will share the same case, the instructor welcomes collaboration between
relevant teams while compiling homework, though each team must draft, publish and submit their
own work.
Case Studies will be graded on these dimensions:
1. Accuracy
2. Effectiveness of class discussion facilitation and active team support
3. Team member participation.
Important Note: The instructor expects equal participation from all team members and will urge
participants to anonymously report inadequate support from team members. Upon receipt of such
feedback, the instructor will engage the “offending” team member directly. A second escalation
will result in a one letter grade reduction while a third will result in a failure for that case study. To
succeed, it is important for you to contribute at a high level from the moment you meet your team!
8. Mid Term Exam: This course will include a mid term examination to ensure mastery of the
materials through the course’s mid point.
9. Final Exam: This course will include a final examination to ensure mastery of the materials
form the course’s mid point through its final session.
9. Course Grading:
Class Participation, Attendance & Current Events
(News)
Team Case Study Questions and Discussions
Mid Term Exam
Final Exam
Total
Letter Grade
Percentage
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
DF
94.9 – 100%
90 – 94.8%
87 – 89.9%
83 – 86.9%
80 – 82.9%
77 – 79.9%
73 – 76.9%
70 – 72.9%
67 – 69.9%
63 – 66.9%
60 – 62.9%
Below 60%
10%
30%
30%
30%
100%
MGMT 560 – 3R1 – Foundation of Business Process and Operations Management
Session
1
Date
8/28/14
Topic/Assignments
Introductions and syllabus review, introduction to operations management.
Introduce on-line cases Cruise International, Inc. and Valley Memorial
Hospital, introduce the on-line case study assignment for chapter 1 and
assign project teams.
MGMT 560 – 3R1 – Operations Management, Fall, 2014 Dr. Mike Lohle, PMP
2
9/4/14
3
9/11/14
4
9/18/14
5
9/25/14
6
10/2/14
7
10/9/14
8
10/16/14
9
10/23/14
10
10/30/14
11
11/6/14
12
11/13/14
13
11/20/14
No
Class
14
11/27/14
15
12/11/14
12/4/14
4
Homework: Read Reid and Sanders chapters 1 and 2.
* Teams submit on-line case questions for chapter 1.
Operations Strategy and Competitiveness. Introduce the week’s on-line
case study assignment.
Homework: Read Reid and Sanders chapter 3.
* Teams submit on-line case questions for chapter 2.
Product design and process selection. Introduce the week’s on-line case
study assignment. Homework: Read Reid and Sanders Chapter 4.
* Teams submit on-line case questions for chapter 3.
Supply chain management. Homework: Read Reid and Sanders chapters
5 and 6.
* Teams submit on-line case questions for chapter 4.
Total quality management and statistical process control. Introduce the
week’s on-line case study assignment. Homework: Read Reid and
Sanders chapter 7.
* Teams submit on-line case questions for chapters 5 and 6.
Just-In-Time (JIT) and Lean Systems. Introduce the week’s on-line case
study assignment. Homework: Read Reid and Sanders chapter 8.
* Teams submit on-line case questions for chapter 7.
Forecasting. Mid term exam overview. Homework: Study for the mid term
exam.
Mid Term Exam. Introduce the week’s on-line case study assignment.
Homework: Read Reid and Sanders chapters 9 and 10.
* Teams submit on-line case questions for chapter 8.
Capacity planning, facility location and layout. Introduce the week’s on-line
case study assignment.
Homework: Read Reid and Sanders chapter 11.
* Teams submit on-line case questions for chapters 9 and 10.
Work system design. Introduce the week’s on-line case study assignment.
Homework: Read Reid and Sanders chapter 12.
* Teams submit on-line case questions for chapter 11.
Inventory management. Introduce the week’s on-line case study
assignment. Homework: Read Reid and Sanders chapter 13.
* Teams submit on-line case questions for chapter 12
Aggregate planning. Introduce the week’s on-line case study assignment.
Homework: Read Reid and Sanders Chapter 15
* Teams submit on-line case questions for chapter 13.
Scheduling. Introduce the week’s on-line case study assignment.
Homework: Reid and Sanders Chapter 14.
* Teams submit on-line case questions for chapter 15.
Thanksgiving Day.
Resource Planning. Final Exam Overview. Homework: Study for the final
exam.
Final Exam
Please Note:
 While this class emphasizes operations management, relevant business processes will be
discussed with each topic.
 The reading for chapter 15 is scheduled before the reading for chapter 14 to allow time for a
case study analysis of scheduling. While resource planning will be included on the final exam,
students will not be required to submit related case questions for chapter 14.