Introduction to Operations Management

The Human Side of Operations Management

• Understanding the drivers of performance
• Understanding the drivers of dysfunctional behaviour
• The purpose of performance appraisal
• The contributions of industrial psychology to management thinking
• The key to motivating people at work
• Understanding the difference between motivators and demotivators
• Exploring alternative approaches to people management
• How to manage culture, commitment, competence and productivity of the operations team

The Job Design

• What is job design?
• The key factors to consider when designing operations jobs
• How to identify the primary job characteristics of operations roles
• Developing guidelines for job redesign
• How ergonomics and environmental conditions inform job design

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Quality Planning And Control

• How is quality defined?
• Special cause and common cause variation
• The use of standard deviation to measure dispersion
• Statistical process control
• Deploying control charts to monitor attributes and variable data
• Data collection and sampling tools
• Calculating process capability and Sigma scores

Improving Operations

• Feedback systems to inform improvement activities
• Measuring and monitoring processes to deliver improvement
• Establishing improvement priorities
• Approaches to delivering improvement
• The tools and techniques of improvement
• The Balanced Scorecard applied to operations
• The strategy map applied to operations

Strategic Quality Management

• The history and development of quality management
• The strategic approach to business improvement
• Self-assessment as a tool to deliver organisational improvement
• Managing improvement activities
• Quality awards

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Lean Operations

• What is Lean and how is it applied in operations management?
• The Toyota production system
• The Lean philosophy and the five principles of Lean Operations
• Specifying value and the value stream
• Identifying and eliminating waste
• Value stream mapping
• How to balance a line
• Single minute exchange of die

Just In Time (JIT)

• What is JIT?
• JIT techniques
• JIT planning and control
• JIT in service operations
• Calculating Takt time
• Pull vs. Push systems
• How to achieve one-piece Flow

Jidoka

• What is Jidoka?
• Managing the integration of people and machines
• Creating a visual control system

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Capacity Planning And Control

• What is capacity?
• Planning and controlling capacity
• Measuring demand and capacity
• Alternative capacity plans
• Choosing a capacity planning and control approach
• Capacity planning as a queuing problem

Inventory Planning And Control

• What is inventory?
• The volume decision - How much to order
• The timing decision - When to place the order

Inventory Analysis And Control Systems

• Supply chain planning and control
• What is supply chain management?
• The activities of supply chain management
• Types of relationships in supply chains
• Supply chain behaviour