BUS 385 - Operations Management for Competitive Advantage

Credits: 5
Students learn to apply operations management methods to increase results and streamline processes in small to medium-sized businesses. Topics include forecasting, process and facility selection, work design, production planning and scheduling, process improvement, and quality control.

Prerequisite: Admission into the BAS in Marketing and Entrepreneurship program; and BUS 121; and (BUS&101 or BUS 181); and (MATH&141 or MATH 147); or instructor’s permission. Recommended: MATH 256.

Course Outcomes:
Students who successfully complete this class will be able to:

Explain the role of operations management for maximizing competitiveness and productivity.
Determine product and service capacity needs using multiple forecasting methods.
Critique options for process selection, facility layout, and work design based on a firm’s business objectives and forecast.
Construct production plan that meets a firm’s objectives for lead times, inventory levels, capacity, and cost.
Estimate the cost-benefit of process and quality improvement initiatives, including those emcompassing principles of Lean, Six Sigma, and SPC.

Program Outcomes

Analyze and use business data to develop appropriate business and marketing strategies.
Apply entrepreneurship principles to better leverage organizational resources.
Apply economic and behavioral concepts to strategy formulation.
Conduct a survey of the business environment, identify opportunities, and formulate a plan for capitalizing on them.
Assess the potential market for a product, and then formulate a plan for developing and marketing the product.
Formulate and communicate an original business plan to an audience of stakeholders.

College-wide Outcomes

Critical Thinking - Critical thinking finds expression in all disciplines and everyday life. It is characterized by an ability to reflect upon thinking patterns, including the role of emotions on thoughts, and to rigorously assess the quality of thought through its work products. Critical thinkers routinely evaluate thinking processes and alter them, as necessary, to facilitate an improvement in their thinking and potentially foster certain dispositions or intellectual traits over time.
Responsibility - Responsibility encompasses those behaviors and dispositions necessary for students to be effective members of a community. This outcome is designed to help students recognize the value of a commitment to those responsibilities which will enable them to work successfully individually and with others.
Written Communication - Written Communication encompasses all the abilities necessary for effective expression of thoughts, feelings, and ideas in written form.