Industrial Management, TEK 250

2020/2021, study period 4, remote course

 

Examiner and lecturer:       Torbjörn Jacobsson, Senior Lecturer, Supply and Operations Management, Tel: 031-7725233, e-mail: torjac@chalmers.se

Lecturer: Ala Arvidsson, Associate professor, Supply and Operations Management, Tel: 031-7721372, e-mail: ala.pazirandeh@chalmers.se

Guest lecturer: Henrik Ericsson, Professor, Service Management and Logistics, Tel: 031-7728184, e-mail: henrik.eriksson@chalmers.se

Mode of instruction: Online, communications will be facilitated through Canvas and Zoom

Examination dates: 02 Jun 2021, 2.00 pm, 24 Aug 2021, 2.00 pm, 09 Oct 2021, 2.00 pm

Course aims

The aim of this course is to give the students knowledge of industrial organization and operations management and elaborate on how management of the production/operations can contribute to companies’ sustainable competitive advantage and long-term success. The course also aims to provide the students with appropriate theories, tools and models to manage and develop production systems, products and services and to develop and evaluate operations and business strategies in different industrial settings.

Content

The course will cover the field of industrial management from mainly a production/operations management perspective, i.e. the activity of managing the resources, which are devoted to the production of products and services. Every organization has an operations function because every organization produces some type of products and/or services. However, from an operations management perspective, the firm is not only viewed as a production system, but also a part of a value chain of suppliers, sub-suppliers, system integrators and customers. The course will cover central areas in the field of industrial- and operations management in order to give the student a comprehensive view of industrial and operations management. Among the issues covered are:

• Operations management
• Lean Production
• Operations strategy
• Process, product and service design
• Supply Chain Management
• Process technology
• Job design and work organization
• Planning and control
• Operations improvement and Total Quality Management

Course objectives

The main objective of the course is to improve participants' ability to develop and analyze companies’ operations and production systems. By the end of the course, participants will hopefully:

• Understand the strategic impact and importance of industrial and operations management
• Have been introduced to the central areas of industrial and operations management.
• Have access to theories, framework and models to develop, design and evaluate production systems and companies’ operations and business strategies.
• Have been stimulated to think critically about emerging concepts and ideas in the field of industrial and operations management.

Organization

The course will be organized around the central themes in operations management. We will use reflective and implementation learning to illustrate the challenges facing the management of operations. The students will both learn and be examine based on mandatory assignments in which central topics in the area of industrial and operations management will be analyzed and discussed in detail. Each module (lecture + assignment + supervision of assignments) of the course will:

• start with a short intro to the topic and the assignment,
• students will then get the assignment for that module that will facilitate their reading and learning,
• individual hand ins on the assignments will be graded pass or fail
• each module will then be concluded with a Q&A session and some general reflections

The theoretical content of the course is defined by the course literature. Compared to pure technological subjects the course literature is quite extensive, and some parts of the literature are real world examples meant to give an illustration to facilitate better understanding.

 

Literature

Book: Slack et al. (2019). Operations Management, Pearson, Ninth Edition (available at “Store”, Chalmers, Camus.)

Book: Eriksson, H. (2020). Five principles of Excellent Organizations. Förbättringsakademin, Göteborg, Sweden. (the book is available at Store/Campus Johanneberg and on bookstores online)

Additional literature may be distributed during classes or published at the course website.

E-book/Journal via Chalmers library:

1. Liker och Meier, D. (2006), The Toyota Way fieldbook: a practical guide for implementing Toyota´s 4Ps, McGrewHill. pp. 6-14

Examination - written take home examination and individual assignments

The examination consists of a written take home examination (max 50 points). All literature, handouts and lectures form a base for the written exam.

Grade 3, 20-29 points, >= 40%

Grade 4, 30-39 points, > = 60%

Grade 5, 40-50 points, >= 80%

In order to complete the course, the students must both pass the assignments and get approved written examination.

 

Individual compulsory assignment

Students will hand in an individual written assignment. The assignment consists of different sub-assignments. The aim of the assignment is to facilitate the learning process during the course. The task is to use frameworks and models presented in the given course literature to get a deeper understanding of industrial and operations management. The assignment will be graded pass or fail.

See the assignments in a separate document on the course website (TEK250 -> files -> Individual assignment). The submission must be submitted via Canvas (see TEK250-> Tasks -> Individual submission).

Deadline for part 1: Wednesday 31/3, 23:59

Deadline for part 2: Wednesday 21/4, 23:59

Deadline for part 3: Wednesday 28/4, 23:59

Deadline for part 4: Wednesday 5/5, 23:59

Deadline for part 5: Wednesday 12/5, 23:59

Deadline for part 6: Wednesday 26/5, 23:59

 

The text length in each part should be satisfying to fully answer the question, 1-3 pages depending on the range of question. In total, including all parts of the assignment, the scope should be about 6-10 pages in total (at least 2500 words). The questions must be answered based on the course literature using references. Should the student still want to deepen the answers with other literature, the current reference should be added. Use the reference management system: https://tools.kib.ki.se/referensguide/apa-en/

A template must be used when the information is answered in writing, (see TEK250-> Individual assignment -> answer template individual assignment).

The students will be divided in groups of 3-4. The groups serve as a forum to discuss the assignment and to take part in the supervision meetings, but submissions are made individually with self-written text.

Questions about the assignment can be asked in groups and booked via "Calender" in Canvas in 15 min intervals. See tutorials in the schedule.

If you are missing data in cases, or if the data in the case seem to contradict each other (as is often the case in reality), you need to make assumptions and these assumptions need to be made explicit.

 

Lectures and schedule

Lecture 1: Course introduction

Monday 22/3, start 10.00, online via Zoom

Lecturer: Torbjörn Jacobsson

The first class introduces the course and its conducts. Part of the lecture will deal with the requirements put on students to complete the course.

 

Lecture 2: Introduction – Operations management

Wednesday 24/3, start 13.15, online via Zoom

Lecturer: Ala Arvidsson

The basic concepts of operations management will be presented and discussed, the ideas of performance objectives and trade-offs between the different performance objectives.

Literature: Slack et al, chapter 1

 

Lecture 3: Operations performance and strategy

Friday 26/3, start 10.00, Room: online via Zoom

Lecturer: Ala Arvidsson

This lecture will cover performance objectives and the basic elements of an operations strategy - the reconciliation of market requirements and operational resources and how operations strategy relates to corporate and business strategy.

Literature: Slack et al, chapter 2-3

Q and A, Group supervision sessions

Monday 29/3, 10.00- 12.00, via Zoom

Lecturer: Torbjörn Jacobsson/ Ala Arvidsson

The individual sessions are booked by the student via calendar in Canvas, see prepared booking-slots in the calendar.

Q and A, Group supervision sessions

Wednesday 31/3, 13.15-15.00, via Zoom

Lecturer: Torbjörn Jacobsson/ Ala Arvidsson

The individual sessions are booked by the student via calendar in Canvas, see prepared booking-slots in the calendar.

 

Lecture 4: Managing product and service innovation and process technology

Monday 12/4, start 10.00, Zoom

Lecturer: Ala Arvidsson

In this class, the focus of our attention is on managing product and service innovation and the choice of process technology. At this level, the importance is on the characteristics of the technology and its impact on the companies' operations and strategy. Process technology is evaluated from a general management perspective and how process technology may influence the production processes. Furthermore, during the lecture, central design frameworks and models within product and service innovation will presented and discussed.

Literature: Slack et al, chapter 4, 8

Q and A, Group supervision sessions

Wednesday 14/4, 13.15-15.00 via Zoom

Lecturer: Torbjörn Jacobsson/ Ala Arvidsson

The individual sessions are booked by the student via calendar in Canvas, see prepared booking-slots in the calendar.

 

Lecture 5: Structure, scope, and supply chain management

Friday 16/4, 10.00-11.45 via Zoom

 

Lecturer: Ala Arvidsson

Understanding the nature of the supply network including the supply chain management is critical in understanding competitiveness and efficiency. This lecture will discuss how supply chains and networks are subsequently managed including discussions on risk management. Risk management is about identifying things that could go wrong and stopping them from going wrong.

Literature: Slack et al, chapter 5, 12, 18

 

Lecture 6: Guest lecture from Scania: Risk and supply and Covid19

Lecturer: José Garcia / Ala Arvidsson

Monday 19/4, 10.00-12.00 via Zoom

 

Lecture 7: Process design and the layout

Wednesday 21/4, start 13.15 via Zoom

Lecturer: Torbjörn Jacobsson

In this class, the focus of our attention is on process design and production layout. To ‘design’ is to conceive the looks, arrangement and workings of something before it is created. Design is also an activity that can be approached at different levels of detail. The layout of an operation’s facilities determines their physical positioning relative to each other and their aesthetic appearance. It involves deciding where to put all the facilities, desks, machines and equipment in the operations.

Literature: Slack et al, chapter 6-7

Q and A, Group supervision sessions

Friday 23/4, 10.00-12.00, via Zoom

Lecturer: Torbjörn Jacobsson

The class will start via Zoom for general questions with all participants. After the online session, the individual supervision starts. The individual sessions are booked by the student via calendar in Canvas, see prepared booking-slots in the calendar.

 

Lecture 8: Project management

Monday 26/4, start 10.00, viz Zoom

Lecturer: Ala Arvidsson

During this lecture, we will discuss the challenges in project management. Project management is the activity of understanding the project environment, defining, planning, controlling and learning from projects.

Literature: Slack et al, chapter 19

Q and A, Group supervision sessions

Wednesday 28/4, start 13.15-15.00, via Zoom

Lecturer: Torbjörn Jacobsson/ Ala Arvidsson

The class will start via Zoom for general questions with all participants. After the online session, the individual supervision starts. The individual sessions are booked by the student via calendar in Canvas, see prepared booking-slots in the calendar.

 

Lecture 9: People in operations

Monday 3/5, 10.00-10.45, via Zoom

Lecturer: Torbjörn Jacobsson

The manner in which an organization’s human resources are managed has a profound impact on the effectiveness of its operations function. This lecture looks especially at the elements of how the job characteristics influence the mental state and internal work motivation of the individuals.

Literature: Slack et al, chapter 9.

Q and A, Supervision sessions – whole class discussion

Monday 3/5, 11.00-12.00, via Zoom

Lecturer: Torbjörn Jacobsson

The class will start via Zoom for general questions with all participants. After the online session, the individual supervision starts. The individual sessions are booked by the student via calendar in Canvas, see prepared booking-slots in the calendar.

 

Lecture 10: Capacity Management

Wednesday 5/5, 13.15, via Zoom

Lecturer: Torbjörn Jacobsson

This class will discuss capacity management and the activity of understanding the nature of an operation’s demand and supply and coping with mismatches between them.

Literature: Slack et al, chapter 10-11.

Q and A, Group supervision sessions

Friday 7/5, 10.00-12.00, via Zoom

Lecturer: Torbjörn Jacobsson/ Ala Arvidsson

The class will start via Zoom for general questions with all participants. After the online session, the individual supervision starts. The individual sessions are booked by the student via calendar in Canvas, see prepared booking-slots in the calendar.

Q and A, Group supervision sessions

Monday 10/5, 10.00-12.00, via Zoom

Lecturer: Torbjörn Jacobsson/ Ala Arvidsson

The class will start via Zoom for general questions with all participants. After the online session, the individual supervision starts. The individual sessions are booked by the student via calendar in Canvas, see prepared booking-slots in the calendar.

 

Lecture 11: Lean production and operations improvement

Monday 17/5, start 10.00, via Zoom

Lecturer: Torbjörn Jacobsson

The lean production concept comes from the Toyota Production System (TPS) and has had a tremendous influence on all types of operations. Operations improvement and process organization is used in more types of organizations, and attempted in the public sector. We will work with selected examples of this and go through different presentations of the Lean-concept. Quality is one of the performance objectives and is a vital part of Lean. The experience and learning from Toyota and other excellent operations have proved that high quality does not only give the company a competitive advantage, but reduces the cost of rework, waste, complaints and return and most importantly, generates satisfied customers. During this class a fair amount of time will deal with the quality perspective.

Literature: Slack et al, chapter 15-17,

Liker and Meier, D. (2006), The Toyota Way fieldbook: a practical guide for implementing Toyota´s 4Ps, McGrewHill. Start on page 6-7, “How the Book is organized” with a description of the 4P model (Philosophy, Process,…) and then pages 8-14 “Overview of the Toyota Way principles”.

 

Lecture 12: Quality management - introduction

Wednesday 19/5, start ca 13.15, via Zoom

Lecturers: Torbjörn Jacobsson

Quality management has always been an important part of operations management. This lecture deals with how quality management can contribute to improvement by making the changes to operations processes that lead to better outcomes for customers.

Literature: Slack et al, chapter 17

Q and A, Group supervision sessions

Friday 21/5, 10.00-12.00, via Zoom

Lecturer: Torbjörn Jacobsson/ Ala Arvidsson

The class will start via Zoom for general questions with all participants. After the online session, the individual supervision starts. The individual sessions are booked by the student via calendar in Canvas, see prepared booking-slots in the calendar.

 

Lecture 13: Quality management

Monday 24/5, start ca 10.00, via Zoom

Lecturers: Henrik Eriksson

Quality management is one main driver of improvement. Some operations managers believe that, in the long run, quality is the most important factor affecting the performance of an organization relative to its competitors. This lecture and next coming exercise provide an overview of the quality management field.

Lecture 14: Quality management - exercise

Wednesday 26/5, start 13.15, via Zoom

Lecturers: Henrik Eriksson

This exercise provides an insight into how quality management initiatives are carried out in practice.

 

Lecutre 15: Course ending plus “Q&A” before the written take home exam

Friday 28/5, start 10.00, via Zoom

Lecturer: Torbjörn Jacobsson

During this lecture, it will be possible for students to get model answers on their individual assignment and ask questions regarding the upcoming written exam.