Asian School of Business, Thiruvananthapuram
PGPM I Year – Service Operations Management – Dec. ‘07 - March ‘08
Faculty : Prof. S. Balachandran
Overview
Creating and delivering what customers want at the right cost, at the right time and of the
right quality levels, be it a product or service, is the essence of success in business. And to
do this every time, any business organization has to configure, resource and organize its
Operations and manage them properly. A well thought-out and implemented Operations
Strategy creates ‘competitive advantage’ for the business. Tools and techniques are
available to make business operations both effective and efficient.
Course Objectives
The primary objectives of this course are to impart to students a strong grasp on the issues,
concepts, tools and techniques required to manage world class manufacturing or service
operations. A secondary objective would be to refine the analytical and communication skills
of students.
The first few sessions will familiarise the students with basic concepts of Operations
Management, with applications in both manufacturing and services. The later part of the
course will focus on management of operations in services, as Services have been playing a
role of ever-increasing importance in our economy for the last several years. Today, for
graduates of any business school, an overwhelmingly large percentage of post-MBA
placement jobs is in the services sector. It is therefore necessary for MBA students to
understand the operations perspective of designing, delivering, maintaining, measuring and
improving services of various kinds.
Pedagogy
A combination of concept elaborations (based on textbook and additional reading material),
case presentations and discussions, tutorial sessions, individual assignments and field visits
will be used to impart the above grasp.
Particular emphasis will be laid on learning through cases and tutorials. Cases simulate real
life management situations and issues. Tutorials enable students to use the tools and
techniques hands on. Cases and tutorials are so chosen as to expose students to a variety of
manufacturing settings such as electronics, automotive, chemicals etc. and service settings,
such as automobile service, telecom, leisure & entertainment, art, hospitality, fast food,
financial, health care, retail, media, transportation, logistics, info-tech, technical, consulting
and non-profit services.
Out of 45 Hours devoted to the course, roughly one-third will be spent on concepts and twothirds on tutorials and case analysis.
A field visit and project is mandatory for the course, as it helps students to observe and gain
hands-on understanding of how operations are organized and conducted in real life.
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Students’ Responsibility
It is expected that students attend at least 80% of the class sessions and come fully prepared
to each session, on the textbook chapter, reading and case or tutorial problem assigned for
that session, and participate actively during the session, to enable enhanced learning for all
students. The Faculty will only elaborate difficult or advanced concepts during the sessions
and facilitate case discussions. The accent will be on interactive and participative learning.
Students should form themselves into heterogeneous groups (in terms of basic discipline in
graduation, work experience, gender etc.) for case presentation and tutorial. Each Group will
get an opportunity to present analysis of three cases during the course. It is expected that all
members of a group contribute and participate, over the length of the course. The size of
each group should not exceed four. The student Class Representative should submit a
list of the groups, with member names and roll numbers, after consulting all the
students, to the Administrative Office, before the start of the sessions.
Prescribed Text Books
1. “Operations Management (for Competitive Advantage)” by Richard B Chase, F Robert
Jacobs, Nicholas J Aquilano & Nitin K Agarwal, 11th Edition, Tata McGraw Hill.
2. “Service Management : Operations, Strategy, Information Technology” by James A.
Fitzsimmons & Mona J. Fitzsimmons, 5th Edition (2006), Tata McGraw Hill.
(Please contact your Director on how these Textbooks will be made available to you).
Evaluation
1. Class Participation & Tutorials
2. Case Presentation (Group)
3. Quiz
4. Factory Visit Project
5. Mid-Term examination
5. End Term Examination
15%
10%
15%
15%
15%
30%
Session-wise Course Content (for first 9 sessions)
Given in Annexure 1.
Guideline Questions for preparing for Cases and Tutorials
Given in Annexure 2.
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Annexure 1 : Session-wise Schedule for first 9 sessions ( 17th to 19th December 2007 )
No.
Date
1
17-12-07
2
17-12-07
Topics
1.What is Operations Management?
2. Is it relevant to services & NPOs?
3. Interface with other functions
4. Challeges & issues
Textbook*
Chapter
Reading
(Handout #)
17-12-07
4
18-12-07
5
6
Introduction to the
Field
1.(D) A Continuous Flow
Process : International
Paper Company
7
8
Operations Strategy, Performance
Measurements
Operations
Strategy &
Competitiveness
1
2
Process Analysis : Concept of
Bottleneck, Cycle Time, Resource
Interference, Factors affectiong
Operations Performance
3
T1 – Ch. 5
Process Analysis
(Also Start on:
“The Goal” by
E. Goldratt &
Cox)
5. (P) Kirsten’s Cookie
19-12-07
19-12-07
2. (P) Custom Fabricators
3. (P) Aravind Eye Care
System
4. (D) American
Connector Company
18-12-07
18-12-07
Tutorial
(Handout #)
T1 - Ch.1
T1 – Ch. 2
3
Case
Discussion/Presentation
T1 – Ch. 6
Manufacturing Process Selection & Manufacturing
Process Selection
Design
Problems
5,6,7,8 at end
of Ch. 5 in T1
6. (P) Circuit Board
Fabricators Inc.
& Design
9
19-12-07
Note: * T1 : Operations Management by Chase et al; T2: Service Management by Fitzsimmons
Problems
1,2,3,6,8,12 at
end of Ch. 6 in
T1
4
Annexure 2 : Details of Readings/Handouts and Case Preparation
List of Readings (To be distributed)
1. Operations-Based Strategy, Robert Hayes & David Upton, California Review, Vol. 40, No. 4, pp. 8-25.
2. Work sheet on Understanding Operations Systems & Management Issues.
3. Time – The Next Source of Competitive advantage by George Stalk, HBR, July-August 1988, pp. 41-51.
Reading/Worksheet Preparation Guidelines
#2. Work sheet on Understanding Operations Systems & Management Issues (To be distributed)
1. Identify the relevant portions of the annual report for assessing the performance of operations systems.
2. Compute some useful measures for the last two years and use them to comment on the performance in operations?
3. Comment on the usefulness of the various portions of the performance report. What are the key inferences from these?
4. Identify potential areas for improving the performance of the operations system and a list of potential “to do” items.
Case Preparation Guidelines
Case#1 : A Continuous Flow Process : International Paper Company (To be Distributed)
1. Identify the stages of manufacturing process employed in paper making.
2. What are the major issues to be included in your list of “operations management” at this company?
3. Identify five significant things that come to your mind when you think of a process industry.
4. What elements of operations systems will be different from International Paper Company, in each of the following cases:
(a) Lucas TVS – Manufacturing Auto Electrical Components
(b) L&T – executing large turnkey projects
(c) Hindustan Motos Earth Moving Division
(d) Hotel Saravana Bhavan – Fast food service
(e) Blue Dart – Courier service
Case#2 : Custom Fabricators (Caselet at Chapter end in Text Book)
Prepare for questions given at the end of the case.
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Case#3 : Arvind Eye Care System (Caselet at Chapter end in Text Book)
1. What performance measures does AECS use? Are these adequate, in your opinion? Can you suggest any more? Should the performance
measures be different for the two business models pursued by AECS?
2. What are the concern areas for AECS in realizing its vision?
Case#4 : American Connector Company (A) (To be Distrbuted)
1. What are the sources of strength of DJC and ACC?
2. What is the current operations strategy of ACC? What are its strengths and concern areas?
3. Is the threat of imminent entry of DJC in US real or imaginary, in your opinion? What options does ACC have to counter the threat?
4. Should ACC continue or change its operations strategy to counter DJC? If you recommend a change, in what areas?
5. Which are the strengths and weaknesses of ACC and DJC that will be relevant to any situation that may unfold?
Case#5 : Kirsten’s Cookie (Casaelet given at end of Chapter in Text Book)
Prepare for the questions given at the end of the case.
Case#6 : Circuit Board Fabricators Inc. (Caselet at end of Chapter)
Prepare for the questions given at the end of the case.
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