Matthew W Ford
Northern Kentucky University College of Business

 

 

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MGT 415
MGT 490
FIN 450

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MGT 305 News & Info (Updated 05/09/2013 06:09 PM) 

That's a wrap!  The Spring 2013 edition of MGT 305 is in the history books.  Have a safe and happy summer!

The MGT 305 Wall of Achievement has been updated.  Congratulations to all top performers!

Here is the 'rubric' that guides my assessment of your professionalism during the term.  You should be able to approximate where you stand...

A reminder that all assignments and forums must be completed in teams of three or more.  A team leader must be designated for each project.  On submitted reports, all team members must be listed and TYPED.  Only those listed on the submission will receive credit.  NO EXCEPTIONS!  The member who served as team leader should be noted as well.

Baffled by how to calculate the percentage difference between two values?  You'll need to learn how to be a better manager.  Click here for a tutorial.

Spring 2013 potpourri (archives). Cities of the future and automobile flow...How to negotiate a raise...Nissan's new battery factory in Smyrna, TN...Why saving matters more than consumption for achieving a vibrant economy...Softening performance at Caterpillar...Harley Davidson on a roll again...Student loan debt and borrowing capacity...Ice cream entrepreneurs Ben and Jerry...Retail sales contracted in March...JC Penny replaces current CEO with former CEO...iPhone remains platform of choice for teens...Can the Fed influence unemployment rates?...Apple's product launch cycle appears to be slowing...The $3 billion industry powered by bees...Business Week's best undergrad b-schools...Did Cyprus bailout just make things better or worse?...Cyprus bailout plan includes 'tax' on bank depositors...Fortune's most admired companies...Japanese solutions for Chinese pollution woes...Rethinking the blockbuster drug...Automakers as recycling leaders...The US liquor industry circa 1931...Wal-mart email indicates slow February sales...Do machines make us poor?...US Post Office plans to stop Saturday mail deliveries...Dell is going private in $24 billion leveraged buyout...Is Apple's recent slowdown temporary?...Collaboration among car makers on new fuel technologies...Organizational design features at accouting firm Plante Morgan...Getting GM moving again...Why writing with our hands is still important...Chat with Southwest Airline founder Herb Kelleher...Is the Boeing 787 Dreamliner a lemon?...Can we survive technology?...Why many performance reviews do not lead to real change...France may be the next EU shoe to drop.

Memo Center  
General thoughts on memo writing Prototype memo with comments
Model memos written by students Key to my abbreviated comments written on your memos
Making great tables Making great graphs
Citing your work Gathering credible information

Due dates for upcoming assignments appear below.  Assignments must be submitted in memo format, typed, and stapled.  No late work will be accepted.

Due Date Assignment Topic
2/13/13 Shingle Sense A1 Productivity
3/6/13 The Car Wash Problem A2 Capacity
3/20/13

DC Location A3

Location
3/27/13 Hospital Layout Analysis A4 Layout
4/3/13 Packing Crate Inventory A5 Inventory Policy
4/17/13 Positrol Workholding A6 Job Process Scheduling
4/24/13 Making Scissors A7 MRP

Practice problems related to productivity, capacity, and location (#2 only) are available.  You will be responsible for doing similar on the midterm exam.

Practice problems related to layout (#3 only), inventory and MRP, and planning & scheduling are available.  You will be responsible for doing similar on the final exam.

Here are the inventory:sales data to be shown in class.  Is the long term trend in inventory up or down?  What activities have operating managers employed to be able to operate with lower levels of inventory? 

Here are the US capacity data that we will examine in class.  What do current levels and trends of capacity utilization suggest about the state of economic activity?  

Here are the U.S. productivity data that we will share in class (source here).  What is a good rule of thumb for the long term average annual productivity improvement in the U.S.?  Has long term (e.g., 50 yr) productivity improvement in the U.S. been going up, going down, or basically stationary (no up or down trend)?  Since about 1980, which has generally shown higher annual productivity improvement: manufacturing or non-farm business?  What does this imply?


Operations Management in Business

MGT 305

Spring 2013

Matt Ford
BC 333
Office hours: 12 - 1:30 pm; 5 - 6 pm Mon, Wed
fordmw@nku.edu                        
(859) 572-1319
(859) 572-5150  (fax)
(859) 572-6559  (department)
http://www.nku.edu/~fordmw/mgt305.htm 

Our Vision

The Haile/US Bank College of Business at Northern Kentucky University will be the first choice of students, faculty and other stakeholders in our region.  We will be known for the excellence of our students, faculty, and staff as well as our alumni as business and community leaders.

Our Mission

Our mission is to prepare our graduates for successful careers as ethical and effective business and community leaders in the global economy.  We pursue this mission with dedicated and caring faculty committed to active learning, rigorous scholarly inquiry of all types, and public engagement.

Assurance of Learning

The College of Business has established learning outcomes for all its majors.  All business majors share some learning outcomes, and some learning outcomes are specific to the majors.   

MGT 305 is designed so that graduating business majors can demonstrate achievement of the following learning objectives:

  • Identify operations-related issues in analysis of general business problems

  • Understand and adequately address the interdependency between operations and other organizational functions

  • Identify operations-related decisions and assess their effectiveness

Course Objectives

This is a “survey” course, designed to introduce the student to the concept of operations management (OM) and its function in organizational activities.  Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:

  • Identify the parts of an organization included in “operations.”

  • Explain various long-range and short-range decisions that operations managers face.

  • Perform techniques used by operations managers to help them make better decisions.

  • Identify some “hot topics” and benchmark organizations in the field of OM.

Catalog Description           

3 credit hours.  Concepts of operations in production and service organizations; application of quantitative and qualitative techniques to quality, human resources, forecasting, inventory, and process improvement problems.

Prerequisites: MAT 111, MAT 212; junior standing

Textbooks

Making smart decisions. Harvard Business Review Press, 2011.

The visual display of quantitative information, 2nd ed. Edward Tufte, Graphics Press, 2001.

Operations management, any recent edition. W.J. Stevenson, McGraw Hill. (optional)

Course Policies

a) Grading Components and Determination 

Exam I

20%

Exam II

20%

Assignments

20%

Reading Q&A 15%
Class Forums 15%

Professionalism

10%

Exams.  ‘Bluebook’ format (a combination of short answer, essay, and problems).

Assignments.  Meant to provide exposure to problem solving and written report writing (key skills of effective operations managers).  A1 is mandatory plus two other case-based assignments from the assignment list (selection criteria to be discussed in class).  A written report for each assignment is to be submitted in memo format on the specified due date.  Work in groups of three or more on each assignment.

Reading Q&A. At least four 20 minute in-class exercises based on selected readings from our textbooks.  Format of the Q&A may vary from multiple choice quizzes to short essays to small case analysis.  The readings will be assigned at least one class in advance of the in-class exercise.  However, the date of the in-class exercise will not be announced in advance, and may range from one to three classes after the reading assignment.  Therefore, if you are not in class on the day of the in-class Q&A, then you will receive no credit for that exercise.  

 Class Forums.  There will be three class forums during the term.  Forums are in-class discussions centering on OM topics relevant to organizations and society.  You will prepare a one page brief on the topic ahead the discussion (50% of the grade) and then participate in the discussion (the other 50% of the grade).  Work in groups of three or more on each forum.

Professionalism.  I will focus on mannerisms that you should exhibit as an effective manager.  The extent to which you demonstrate engagement, respect, persistence, teamwork, and reliability will weigh heavily on your professionalism mark.

 Extra Credit.  Will be possible as term unfolds.  More later.

Course grading policy follows a conventional +/- scale.  Percent of total class points between: 93-100 A, 90-93 A-, 87-90 B+, 83-87 B, 80-83 B-, 77-80 C+, 73-77 C, 70-73 C-, 67-70 D+, 60-67 D, <60 F  

b) Attendance

Lack of attendance and low levels of participation will impact your professionalism mark.  Moreover, due to the nature of our class format, you WILL struggle if you miss class.  

c) Teams

Teams of at least 3 are mandatory for assignments and forums.  You determine team membership and how to divide work among the members.  A leader should be designated for each project.  Written submissions should list all contributing team members and who the leader was.  Whether or not leaders rotate from project to project is up to the team (leadership helps your professionalism score).  You are not committed to the same team for all projects; membership can change from project to project.

You can fire a team member for poor performance.  Before you do so, the team (preferably the leader) must notify the poor performer in writing (email message with cc me) that the team is considering firing the person and why.  The team member should have reasonable time to respond to the warning.  Names of team members who have been fired should not appear on written submissions; those individuals will receive zeros for the project and will need to find another team for future projects.  Teams that have fired members prior to a project due date may submit their written reports with less than 3 contributors for that project.  Whether that situation is permitted to carry over to future projects should be discussed with me. 

d) Student Rights and Responsibilities

Maintenance of academic standards and integrity includes the obligation not to cheat or plagiarize.  A student who uses a dishonest or deceitful means to obtain a grade is guilty of cheating; a student who submits another’s work as one’s own without adequate attribution is guilty of plagiarism.  Identical work will earn a grade of zero.

Students are fully responsible for learning the course content and material disseminated in the class.  Absences do not release you from this responsibility.  Please see the NKU Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities at www.nku.edu/~deanstudents

For cheaters, I will enforce school policies to the fullest extent possible. 

e) Syllabus Changes and Current Information: Class Website

Dates and assignments documented in this syllabus are subject to change at my discretion, meaning that this paper version of the syllabus will become outdated as the term progresses.  While I will try to announce significant changes to our syllabus during class meetings, the electronic version of the syllabus posted on the class website will be updated as necessary to provide the definitive reference.  Indeed, our class website is your best source for course information.  Refer to it often. 

f) End of Semester Online Course Evaluations

Northern Kentucky University takes Instructor and Course evaluations seriously.  It is a responsibility of NKU students as citizens of the University to participate in the instructor and course evaluation process.  During the two weeks prior to the end of each semester, you will be asked to reflect upon what you have learned in this course, the extent to which you have invested the necessary effort to maximize your learning, and the role your instructor has played in the learning process.  It is important that you complete the online evaluations with thoughtfully written comments. 

Students who complete an evaluation for a particular course (or opt out of doing so in the evaluation) will be rewarded for their participation by having access to their course grade as soon as that grade is submitted by the instructor.  Students who do not complete the course evaluation (or opt out of doing so in the evaluation) should expect to incur a two week delay in access to their grades beyond the university’s official date for grade availability. 

To complete online evaluations go to http://eval.nku.edu.  Click “Student Login” and use your username and password as used on campus. 

g) Other Policies

·         You are training to be effective managers.  Be responsible for your development.

·         Manage conflicts and deadlines like the workplace.  Plan and notify ahead.  Avoid surprises.

·         No exceptions to class policies or deadlines unless obtained from me in writing.

·         No grades given over phone or email. 

·         No operation of electronic devices (e.g., cell phones, laptops) during class.

·         No assignments accepted via email unless we have made arrangements in writing in advance.

·         All written work greater than one page must be stapled (not clipped, folded, etc).

·         Hardcopies of work are due in class on the due date.  No late work will be accepted (this includes excuses due to ‘lab printer problems’).  Give yourself time to deal with unforeseen problems.

Schedule

Date

Topic Links Assignments and Extra Credit

1/14

History of OM; OM & the org chart Study note guide 

memo tips

Professionalism rubric

calculating % difference

model memos

GDP rankings

Syllabus pdf

Fall Convocation

 
1/21 Defining OM; Productivity

Productivity Practice Problems

BLS Productivity

US Productivity data

NKU Blackboard

Reading Q&A Assignments

Productivity Reporting EC

1/28

OM problem analysis and reporting

 

memo tips; Sample memo

RQA 1
2/4

Product vs service operations

Key OM Decisions

Intel chip production tour

Fortune subscription info

US debt levels

Class Forum 1 

FORTUNE 500 EC

 

2/11

Strategic operations

 

 

Shingle Sense A1 

2/18 Process Choice

BLS unemployment

EC Productivity; EC Process Choice

RQA 2

2/25 Capacity

US capacity data

Capacity Practice Problems

Class Forum 2

Network Building EC

3/4 Location; Exam I

Location & Layout Practice Problems 

 

The Car Wash Problem A2

3/11 Spring Break
   
3/18 Layout

  DC Location A3


3/25 Inventory management

 

Commodity Prices

Inventory:sales graph

Inventory Practice Problems

Hospital Layout A4

Global Ops EC

RQA 3

4/1 Planning & scheduling

 

Planning & Scheduling Practice Probs

Packing Crate Inventory A5

4/8 Material requirements planning (MRP)

 

 

Class Forum 3

JIT EC

4/15 Just-in-time (JIT); Quality mgt

 

Toyota Georgetown video 

Positrol Workholding A6

EC Golden Rectangle 

4/22 Supply chain mgt

Resume thoughts

Making Scissors A7  

RQA 4
4/29 Global operations

Online Course Evals

Dell asset management

Last day for revised assignments
5/6 Exam II during final exam week

Campus exam schedule

MGT 305 WOA

Potpourri Archives 

 

 

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