The Lee Kong Chian School of Business

Academic Year 2021/22

Term 1

OPIM201 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

Instructor Name: FANG Xin
Title: Assistant Professor of Operations Management
Tel: 6808 7950
Email: [email protected]
Office: LKCSB #0561

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Companies produce and deliver goods or services to meet customer demand through various operations. In this
course, students discover how the operations of any organization can be designed, analyzed and improved to lift
its performance, whether the organization is a bank, a hospital, a resort, a manufacturing plant, or a fashion
retailer. The course reveals how operations management skills can be used to reduce costs, lower inventories,
cut waiting times, improve quality, enhance service levels, and increase revenues and company
profits. Specifically, students will gain practical knowledge of process analysis and design, demand forecasting,
capacity planning, workflow planning and control, inventory management, quality management, and lean
operations. With a focus on the basic concepts that govern operations management, the course also provides
the necessary foundation to pursue further development in business management.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Overall goal
By the end of this course, students will be able to analyze a business and then recommend operations
improvements that significantly increase the value of this business.

Specific goal
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
• Design processes and plan resource capacities in order to serve customers in a timely fashion while
maintaining high productivity
• Understand the role of demand forecasting and generate forecasts using simple techniques
• Determine production plans and inventory policies that increase business value by fulfilling demand
while managing cost and limiting investment in working capital
• Describe the impact of process quality on business performance and understand how it can be measured
and improved
• Describe and understand “lean operations”, a tightly integrated system of best practices for high-
performance business operations

PRE-REQUISITE/ CO-REQUISITE/ MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE COURSE(S)

Please refer to the Course Catalogue on OASIS for the most updated list of pre-requisites / co-requisites for
this particular course. Do note that if this course has a co-requisite, it means that the course has to be taken
together with another course. Dropping one course during BOSS bidding would result in both courses being
dropped at the same time.

ASSESSMENT METHODS
Group Assignments: 10%
Mid-term Exam: 30%
Final Exam: 40%
Class Participation: 20%

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INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS AND EXPECTATIONS
Other than regular lecturing, students should expect the following class format:
• Class discussion
• Case study
• Watching videos
• Student presentation
Group Assignments: Each group should consist of no more than five students. Details of the assignments will
be provided in class.
Exams: There will be closed-book mid-term and final examinations. Students are allowed to prepare a formula
sheet on an A4 size paper and bring their calculators. In the case when in-person exams on campus are not
feasible, the instructor reserves the right to change the format of the exams (e.g., replacing them with online
exams or a course project).
Class Participation: It includes attendance, insights and/or comments regarding class content, answers to the
instructor’s in-class questions, and reactions to other students’ in-class contributions.

RECOMMENDED TEXT AND READINGS

Copies of lecture notes and slides will be provided. There is no required textbook. However, here are some
good sources of reference:

Operations and Supply Chain Management

Authors: F. Robert Jacobs and Richard. B. Chase
Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Matching Supply with Demand: An Introduction to Operations Management

Authors: Gerard Cachon and Christian Terwiesch
Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Operations Management
Authors: Jay Heizer and Barry Render
Publisher: Pearson Education

UNIVERSITY POLICIES
Academic Integrity
All acts of academic dishonesty (including, but not limited to, plagiarism, cheating, fabrication, facilitation of acts
of academic dishonesty by others, unauthorized possession of exam questions, or tampering with the academic
work of other students) are serious offences.

All work (whether oral or written) submitted for purposes of assessment must be the student’s own work.
Penalties for violation of the policy range from zero marks for the component assessment to expulsion,
depending on the nature of the offense.

When in doubt, students should consult the instructors of the course. Details on the SMU Code of Academic
Integrity may be accessed at https://oasis.smu.edu.sg/Pages/DOS-WKLSWC/UCSC.aspx.

Copyright Notice
Please note that all course materials are meant for personal use only, namely, for the purposes of teaching,
studying and research. You are strictly not permitted to make copies of or print additional copies or distribute
such copies of the course materials or any parts thereof, for commercial gain or exchange.

For the full copyright notice, please visit: https://smu.sg/Copyright-notice or OASIS -> CAMPUS LIFE & EXCHANGE
-> CONDUCT & DISCIPLINE -> UNIVERSITY COUNCIL OF STUDENT DISCIPLINE

Accessibility
SMU strives to make learning experiences accessible for all. If you anticipate or experience physical or academic
barriers due to disability, please let me know immediately. You are also welcome to contact the university's
disability services team if you have questions or concerns about academic provisions: [email protected].

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Please be aware that the accessible tables in our seminar room should remain available for students who require
them.

Emergency Preparedness for Teaching and Learning (EPTL)

As part of emergency preparedness, instructors may conduct lessons online via either the Zoom or WebEx
platform during the term, to prepare students for online learning. During an actual emergency, students will be
notified to access the Zoom or WebEx platform for their online lessons. The class schedule will mirror the
current face-to-face class timetable unless otherwise stated.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

Week Topics Contents

• Introduction
- What is Operations Management
- Why Operations Management is important
• Course overview
• Course administration
Introduction to
1 • Operations performance measures
Operations Management
- Cost / Productivity
- Quality
- Lead time
- Variety / Flexibility

• Basic concepts and tools in process analysis

• Different types of processes
- Serial process
2 Process Fundamentals - Parallel process
- Batch process
• General framework for process analysis

• Kristen’s Cookie Company

• Little’s Law
• Process buffer
3 Process-Product Matrix
• Choose a batch size
• Process selection

• Consequences of variability
• Model of a queue
• Stability and utilization
4 Waiting Line Management • Little’s Law revisited
• PK formula
• Service configurations

• Quality and Total Quality Management

• Six-Sigma programs and tools
5 Quality Management • Statistical process control basics
• Process capability index

• Uses of forecasting
- Relation to Accounting, Finance, and Marketing
• Demand management
• Types of forecasting
6 Forecasting
- Qualitative methods
- Time-series methods
- Causal methods

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7 Mid-term Exam

8 No Class (Recess)

• Introduction to inventory management

- Forms of inventory
- Why to hold or not to hold inventory
9 Inventory Management (1)
• EOQ model
• Newsvendor model

• Multiple-period inventory model with lead time

• Safety stock
10 Inventory Management (II) • Order-up-to policy
• Revenue management

• Just-in-time (JIT)
- Basic ideas of JIT
- JIT planning system
- Setup reduction
Just-in-time and Materials
11 • Materials requirement planning (MRP)
Requirement Planning
- What is MRP
- How MRP evolves over time
- MRP’s logic

• Capacity planning hierarchy

• Objective and decisions
• Expansion timing strategies
12 Capacity Planning • Two quantitative models
- Optimization model based on perfect information
- Optimization model based on three scenarios

• Introduction to operations strategy

• Introduction to offshoring and outsourcing
Other Topics in
13 • Introduction to supply chain management
Operations Management
• Review for the final exam

14 No Class (Study Week)