Industrial Management, TEK 250

2021/2022, 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

Mode of instruction: On-site, supervision and communications will also be facilitated through Canvas and Zoom

Examination dates: 01 Jun 2022, 2.00 pm, 26 Aug 2022, 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.)

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
2. Bellgran, M and Safsten, K., (2010), Production development: design and operation of production systems, London; New York: Springer. (First chapter)

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

 

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 30/3, 23:59

Deadline for part 2: Monday 25/4, 23:59

Deadline for part 3: Wednesday 27/4, 23:59

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

Deadline for part 5: Wednesday 11/5, 23:59

Deadline for part 6: Tuesday 24/5, 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 -> Assignment response template).

Questions about the assignment can be asked in supervision sessions, booked via "Calendar" in Canvas in 15 min intervals. Each time slot in the calendar has the capacity of 10 students. See tutorials in the schedule. The Q and A session must be booked 2 h before the first slot starts in the session, e.g. if the Q and A session starts at 10:00, the students must book the slot before 08:00, at the latest.

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 21/3, start 10.00, room: EF

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 23/3, 13.15-15.00, room: 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

Monday 28/3, 10.00-11.45, room: Sal B (also called “Vasa B”) 

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, Supervision sessions

Wednesday 30/3, 13.15-15.00, room: Ala’s office

Lecturer: Ala Arvidsson

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

Q and A, Supervision sessions

Friday 1/4, 10:00-11:45, room: Sal B (also called “Vasa B”) 

Lecturer: Ala Arvidsson

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

 

Case discussion

Monday 4/4, 10.00-11.45, room: Sal B (also called “Vasa B”) 

Lecturer: Torbjorn Jacobsson

In this class, we will discuss different cases linked to chapter 1-3.

 

Lecture 4: Managing product and service innovation and process technology

Wednesday 20/4, 13.15-15.00, room: Sal B (also called “Vasa B”) 

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, Supervision sessions

Friday 22/4, 10-11:45, room: Ala’s office

Lecturer: Ala Arvidsson

The 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

Monday 25/4, 10.00-11.45, room: Vasa B

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

Q and A, Supervision sessions

Wednesday 27/4, 13.15-15.00, room: ED/via Zoom

Lecturer: Ala Arvidsson

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

 

Lecture 6: Process design and the layout

Monday 2/5, 10.00-11.45, room: EF

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, Supervision sessions

Wednesday 4/5, 13.15-15.00, room: Ala’s office

Lecturer: Ala Arvidsson

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

 

Lecture 7: Project management

Friday 6/5, 10.00-11.45, room: Vasa-C

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

 

Lecture 8: People in operations

Monday 9/5, 10.00-11.45, room: EF

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

Wednesday 11/5, 13.15-15.00, room: ED

Lecturer: Torbjörn Jacobsson

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

 

Lecture 9: Capacity Management

Friday 13/5, 10.00-11.45, room: ED

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, Supervision sessions

Monday 16/5, 10.00-11.45, room: EF or Zoom

Lecturer: Torbjörn Jacobsson

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

 

Lecture 10: Lean production and operations improvement

Wednesday 18/5, 13.15-15.00, room: ED

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”.

 

Q and A, Supervision sessions

Friday 20/5, 10.00-11.45, room ED

Lecturer: Torbjörn Jacobsson

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

 

Lecture 11: Quality management

Monday 23/5, 10.00-11.45, room: EF

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

 

Lecutre 12: Course ending plus “Q&A” before the written take home exam

Wednesday 25/5, start 13.15, room ED

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.