Operations Management

COURSE OVERVIEW
Operations Management is (OM) is concerned with the management of resources and activities that
produce and deliver goods and services to customers. The major activities of OM are planning, operating,
controlling, and improving processes within organizations. Efficient and effective operations can provide
an organization with major competitive advantages since the ability to respond to customer and market
requirements quickly, at a low cost, and with high quality, is vital to attaining profitability and growth through
increased market share.

This course provides a basic comprehension of the OM within an organization. Operations are analysed
from a strategic and operational perspective, focusing on the competitive advantage that they can create
in organizations. Thus, students are provided with concepts, techniques, and tools to design, analyse and
improve operational capabilities of an organization. Rather than focusing on a particular sector, the course
aims to cover a broad range of application domains from industry to services. Upon completing this course,
students should be able to: understand the strategic role of OM in creating and enhancing an organization’s
competitive advantages, identify the main concepts and issues of OM in both manufacturing and service
organizations, and apply analytical methods and problem-solving tools to the analysis of operations
problems.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Recognize the important role of operations in an organization’s success;
• Develop a comprehensive understanding of operational issues and decisions and how they relate
to each other, and to other areas of the organization and its environment;
• Understand related operational and economical concepts and techniques;
• Evaluate alternative solutions and analyse the objective to optimize the decision;
• Utilize data, models, techniques, and tools to determine the optimal solution.

TEACHING AND LEARNING METHODOLOGY
Taking into consideration the fundamental purpose of this course, the learning methods most suitable for
this course are:
• Theory: The course will include lectures that provide a theoretical foundation for the concepts and
techniques of operations management. The lectures will cover the essential principles and
practices of operations management, including process analysis, operations planning and
control, forecasting, inventory management, and supply chain management.
• Games: Games/simulations will be used to enable students to gain practical experience in
applying the concepts and techniques learned in the course. These games will help students
understand how to optimize operational decisions, such as capacity planning and inventory
management, in different scenarios.
• Cases: Case studies will be used to provide students with real-world examples of how
operational decisions can affect the performance of organizations. These case studies will enable
students to analyse and evaluate the effectiveness of different operational strategies and
solutions.