Course-PM

TEK157 Operations strategy Sp3 VT25 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the Department of Technology Management and Economics

 

Contact details

Examiner:

Mirka Kans. Phone: 031-772 1352. E-mail: mirka.kans at chalmers.se

 

Teachers:  

MK: Mirka Kans. Phone: 031-772 1352. E-mail: mirka.kans at chalmers.se

DP: Dan Paulin. Phone: 031-772 8413. E-mail: dan.paulin at chalmers.se

CH: Chamirangika Hetti Arachchige.  E-mail: chami.hetti at chalmers.se

PA: Peter Almström.  E-mail: peter.almstrom at chalmers.se

AA: Altahir Ali. E-mail: altahir at chalmers.se

 

External guest lecturer:  

Henric Widén, Sustainability Circle

TBD

 

Course representatives:  

TBD

See People for details.

 

Course purpose

The main aim of the course is to provide you, the students, the opportunity to further develop your knowledge of how to design, manage and improve operations processes.

 

Learning objectives

Learning objectives:

• Show understanding of how to use operations strategy as a guidance for the organization's operational activities and business strategy improvement.
• Apply conceptual tools and models for analysing operations' strategy and enhancing the operations performance.
• Recognize the impact of operations on sustainability and how operations can contribute to a sustainable society
• Show understanding of how digitalisation, in the context of Industry 4.0, may influence the operations strategy and processes.
• Formulate an improvement plan for strategic operations strategy alignment.

 

Schedule

The schedule will be available in the course calendar, and under Modules / Schedule. Any changes made to the schedule will appear here (especially if there are any last minute changes). 

Here, you can find the schedule in TimeEdit:  TimeEdit.

Please note that late changes will not appear in TimeEdit!

 

Study plan

Here is a link to the study plan on Studieportalen:

Study plan.

 

Course literature

The course literature consists of a textbook (to be used throughout this course), articles and case descriptions.

Additional literature may be used and will be announced at Canvas in due time.

 

Textbook

The main course book is available at Store (in printed version as well as e-book). 

• Slack, Nigel & Lewis, Michael (2024), Operations Strategy 7^th ed, Pearson Education, UK, ISBN: 978-1-292-45927-1 (print), 978-1-292-45928-8 (ePub)

 

Seminar articles (available through Chalmers Library)

Literature Seminar 1: Operations Strategy

• Boyer, K.K., Lewis, M.W.  (2002). Competitive priorities: investigating the need for trade-offs in operations strategy. Production and Operations Management, 11 (1) (2002), pp. 9-20.

Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1111/j.1937-5956.2002.tb00181.xLinks to an external site.

• Sull, D., Sull, C., Yoder, J. (2018). No one knows your strategy - not even your top leaders. MITSloan Management Review, Research Highlight, February.

Available at: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/no-one-knows-your-strategy-not-even-your-top-leaders 

 

Literature Seminar 2: Strategic alignment

• Hudson Smith, M., and Smith, D. (2007), Implementing strategically aligned performance measurement in small firms, International Journal of Production Economics, Vol. 106, pp. 393-408.

Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mel-Hudson-Smith/publication/4913255_Implementing_strategically_aligned_performance_measurement_in_small_firms/links/5c8fc1ac92851c1df949ec8d/Implementing-strategically-aligned-performance-measurement-in-small-firms.pdfLinks to an external site.

• Trevor, J., Varcoe, B. (2017) How aligned is your organization? Harvard Business Review Digital Articles, pp. 2-6.

Available at: https://hbr.org/2017/02/how-aligned-is-your-organization

 

Literature Seminar 3: Operations’ Systems Improvement

• Langstrand, J., Drotz, E. (2016). The rhetoric and reality of Lean: a multiple case study. Total Quality Management, Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 398 –412.

Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2015.1004307

• Netland, T. H., & Aspelund, A. (2013). Company-specific production systems and competitive advantage: A resource-based view on the Volvo production system. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 33, No. 11/12, 1511–1531.

Available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOPM-07-2010-0171 

 

Literature Seminar 4: Business Process Outsourcing

• Boffelli, A., Fratocchi, L., Kalchschmidt, M., & Silva, S. C. L. da C. e. (2021). Doing the right thing or doing things right: what is better for a successful manufacturing reshoring? Operations Management Research, 14(1/2), 1–16.

Available at: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s12063-021-00183-2.pdfLinks to an external site.

• Lacity, M. C. Willcocks, L. P. (2013). Outsourcing Business Processes for Innovation. MIT Sloan Management Review, Research feature, March

Available at: http://www.aproaingenieria.es/intranet/uploads/mit_-_outsourcing-business-processes-for-innovation_copy.pdfLinks to an external site. 

 

Literature Seminar 5: Servitization

• Landscheidt, S., Kans, M., Winroth, M., Wester, H. (2018). The future of industrial robot business: Product or performance based?. Procedia Manufacturing, p. 495-502. 

Available via DOI 10.1016/j.promfg.2018.06.125 

• Tukker, A. (2004). Eight types of Product-Service Systems: Eight ways to sustainability? Experiences from SUSPRONET. Business Strategy and the Environment, Vol. 13, pp. 246–260.

Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirect/10.1002/bse.414Links to an external site.

 

Case Seminar 1: CoolIT

The case description will be made available under Modules / Case Seminars

 

Case Seminar 2: IKEA Goes Online

The case description will be made available under Modules / Case Seminars

 

Course design

In this course, several different learning activities are included: Lectures, external guest lecture, exercises, coaching sessions, group preparations, literature seminars, case seminars, study visit/-s, and individual written and oral exam.

Below you will find a description of the learning activities "Lectures", "Exercises", and "Group preparations".

Descriptions of the compulsory activities (external guest lecture, study visit, literature seminars, case seminars, and individual written and oral exam) can be found under "Examination".

Lectures

Lectures are voluntary. They will be organized as a traditional overview of the lecture topic interweaved with group discussions on the topic. It is highly recommended that each participant has studied the material in advance to be able to contribute to the group discussions, and to enhance the opportunity for learning.

Exercises

Exercises are voluntary. Here, shorter case descriptions and/or assignments are analyzed and discussed in groups as opportunities for applying theoretical concepts introduced during lectures. It is highly recommended that each participant has studied the material in advance to be able to contribute to the group discussions, and to enhance the opportunity for learning.

Group preparations

Group preparations are available for the student groups to prepare before literature and case seminars. Each group decide when and where to meet for preparations, and are encouraged to use (at the minimum) the scheduled times. Each group is supposed to prepare for the seminars by answering predetermined questions or prepare material before the seminar.

 

Examination

You can obtain a maximum of 50 points from compulsory examination activities. The scores are distributed as following:

• Preparing and arranging literature seminar: 2 p (equals 1 p for planning, 1 p for arranging)
• Literature and case seminar attendance: 3 p (equals 0.5 p/seminar)
• Oral exam: 5 p
• Written exam: 40 p

To pass the course:

• A minimum of 16 points obtained from the individual written exam.
• A minimum of 2 points obtained from the oral exam.
• Active attendance in all compulsory activities is necessary. You may miss no more three compulsory activities during the course (literature seminar, case seminar, guest lecture, study visit), including the one you prepare and arrange. Missing a compulsory activity needs to be compensated by interviewing classmates, and writing an extended seminar reflection (1000-1200 words).

Grade levels:

• A total score of 20-29 points will result in grade Pass (3).
• A total score of 30-39 points will result in grade Pass with credits (4).
• A total score of 40 points or more will result in grade Pass with distinction (5).

 

The following parts are included in the examination:

Individual written exam (max 40 points)

The purpose of the individual written exam is for the examiner to be able to evaluate each individual's fulfilment of the learning objectives. The oral exam supports this assessment.

• The  individual home exam will consist of essay questions, and is split into two parts: Part 1 covering chapters 1-4 and 10-11 in the course book, and Part 2 covering chapters 5-9 in the course book.
• The individual home exam Part 1 will be available in Canvas / Assignments /Individual written exam from February 10th, 2025 at 08:00 to February 14th at 17.00.
• The individual home exam Part 2 will be available in Canvas / Assignments /Individual written exam from March 10th, 2025 at 17:00 to March 17th at 12.00.
• Answers will be checked for plagiarism and misuse of AI, and all suspicious answers will be reported to Chalmers Disciplinary Board.

Examples of exam questions will be uploaded in Modules / Examination. Re-exams will also be run as individual home exams and oral examination. Dates for these can be found in the schedule presented in Modules /Schedule.

 

Oral exam (max 5 points)

• The individual oral examination will take place on March 20-21, 2025 from 08.00 to 17.00.
• The oral examination will be based on the home exam, and your written answers. 

 

Literature seminars (participation is compulsory)

The purpose of the literature seminars is two-fold. Firstly, for each student to actively process and reflect over content in more in-depth material. Secondly, for the teaching team to be able to evaluate each individual's fulfilment of the learning objectives.

The course includes five compulsory literature seminars, where relevant research articles are being presented and discussed. Each literature seminar is prepared and led by student groups. They are responsible for formulating and distributing relevant preparatory material for the discussion, e.g., in the form of discussion questions. The preparatory material should be made available via Discussions on the course web page during office hours no less than two working days before the seminar.

The articles and the preparatory material should be studied by everyone in advance to ensure a high quality discussion.

Missing a compulsory seminar needs to be compensated by interviewing classmates, and writing an extended seminar reflection (1000-1200 words) to be handed in via Canvas /Assignments before Friday at 17:00 during the last study week.

 

Case seminars (participation is compulsory)

The purpose of the case seminars is two-fold. Firstly, for each student to apply the course material on real-life situations. Secondly, for the teaching team to be able to evaluate each individual's fulfilment of the learning objectives.

The course includes two compulsory case seminars, where cases are being analyzed, solved and discussed. The case material should be read by everyone, and analyzed and solved in groups in advance, to ensure a good discussion around the material.

Each case seminar is led by the teaching team.

Missing a compulsory seminar needs to be compensated by interviewing classmates, and writing an extended seminar reflection (1000-1200 words) to be handed in via Canvas /Assignments before Friday at 17:00 during the last study week.

 

Preparing and arranging literature seminar (participation is compulsory during the coaching session and the literature seminar)

Coaching  sessions are open for the groups responsible for the literature seminar that week. Here, each group leading the literature seminar will interact with the teaching team in order to prepare for the literature seminar. For scoring 2 points, participation in the coaching session as well as during the seminar that your group is leading is required. 

Missing the seminar needs to be compensated by interviewing classmates, and writing an extended lecture reflection (1000-1200 words) to be handed in via Canvas /Assignments before Friday at 17:00 during the last study week.

 

External guest lecture/-s and study visit/-s  (participation is compulsory)

The purpose of the external guest lecture is to include industry witnesses with additional real-life experiences to enhance the students' perceptions of how operations strategy concepts may be applied. The purpose of the study visit is to include real-life experiences to enhance the students' perceptions of how operations strategy concepts may be applied. 

Missing a compulsory external guest lecture or study visit needs to be compensated by interviewing classmates, and writing an extended lecture reflection (1000-1200 words) to be handed in via Canvas /Assignments before Friday at 17:00 during the last study week.

 

Use of Generative AI

You are required to assume full responsibility for your work and must be capable of justifying the choices you've made regarding its content. This includes engaging in discussions about and defending the role AI played in shaping your submitted work, demonstrating a clear understanding of how it contributed. AI and AI-assisted technologies should only be used to improve readability and language of the work and not to replace authoring tasks such as e.g. producing the intellectual content, insights, or conclusions. At a minimum, provide a description detailing how and to what extent AI tools have been utilized in your work.

 

General notes

The course web page will be used extensively for providing information from the teaching team to you. Most questions will (hopefully) be answered here, so we recommend that you get yourself well acquainted with these pages, and visit them frequently.

We will use the Discussions page for Q&A's. Please look for answers to your questions there. Please pose your questions there (if you cannot find the answer elsewhere), and we will answer them for all to be able to learn.  

 

Changes made since the last occasion

Few changes has been made to the course since last year.

1. New examiner (Mirka replaces Dan) and one new teacher (Altahir).
2. The individual written exam is divided into two parts. 
3. New scoring system for the course.