To enable participants to become familiar with contemporary operations management theories, tools, procedures, and applications;

To apply operations management theories and tools to analyze the effectiveness and efficiency of any operational setting;

To develop an understanding of the importance of the operations function to global business;

To develop analysis skills through the use of primary and secondary data and appropriate software applications.

(LO1) Assess the characteristics of operations processes, of the model of operations management, and of the role that the discipline plays in corporate strategy;

(LO2) Critically examine how operations decisions affect the effectiveness of a supply chain and explain how supply chain management can be supported by appropriate technology;

(LO3) Compare the behavioural approaches to work organisation and job design;

(LO4) Evaluate the determinants of quality to gain an understanding of the various quality tools and techniques involved in Total Quality Management, ISO and Six Sigma approaches;

(LO5) Critically evaluate the link between operations excellence and sustainability;

(LO6) Critically evaluate the strategic importance of forecasting and the various techniques required to produce accurate forecasts;

(LO7) Recognise the importance of planning and controlling operations, including capacity (aggregate) planning and yield management;

(LO8) Critique the application of inventory management through the determination of economic order levels and reorder activities;

(LO9) Assess the effectiveness of Material Requirements Planning and Just-In-Time manufacturing as inventory reduction techniques;

(LO10) Assess the impact of operations failure and evaluate failure detection, measurement and recovery methods in Operations Management practice;

(LO11) Recognise the merits of implementing Enterprise Resource Planning systems throughout manufacturing and services industries;

(S1) Communication Skills: Students will have opportunities to develop written and oral communication skills through group discussions, in-class presentations and coursework. This will be assessed by written assignments, reports the dissertation and short individual and group presentations;

(S2) Problem Solving and Decision Making: Students will be challenged to think critically about organisational issues and dilemmas. They will do this by gathering and synthesising information, analysing alternative perspectives and options and presenting a considered opinion or course of action in their course assessment;

(S3) Information and Communication Technology Skills: Students will have opportunities to improve their ICT skills. Students will demonstrate skills in the use of software applications including word processing, visual presentations, data bases, econometric packages, spreadsheets and using the internet for information searches in the course of researching and presenting coursework;

(S4) Personal Effectiveness: This applies to all modules where students will be encouraged to think critically about theory and practice and to challenge and critique assumptions about management, economic and financial theory;

(S5) Time management. This applies to all modules of the programme and is relevant for planning scheduled work and meeting assessment deadlines. This will be evident in the students’ independent management of their assignments and coursework and by meeting coursework deadlines.

Teaching Method 1 - Virtual classroom hours (for online modules)
Description:
Attendance Recorded: Not yet decided
Notes: Number of hours per week, per student expected in the virtual classroom in discussion, dedicated to group work and individual assessment is 7.

Teaching Method 2 - Non-classroom hours (for online modules)
Description:
Attendance Recorded: Not yet decided
Notes: Number of hours per week, per student expected for reading, research and other individual work to support engagement in the classroom is 13.

Strategy and competitiveness;

Design of processes, jobs, products and services and supply networks;

Capacity planning, project management, planning and control;

Quality management, statistical process control and forecasting;

Linear programming, managing inventory and just-in-time systems;

Planning and scheduling of production, plus allocation of resources.