Strategic Operations Management

Learning Outcomes

●Introduction to Strategic Operations Management ●Services operations - concepts, definitions and quality ●Process choice and strategy in manufacturing and services ●Managing quality – TQM, BPR, benchmarking and reengineering ●Managing improvements via process mapping ●Managing materials and inventory; MRPI, MRPII, ERP and just-in-time ●Capacity and scheduling ●Operations involvement in innovation

The sessions will consist of lectures, case studies and discussions. The module is supported with assigned reading and practice example sheets. Formative feedback will be provided throughout the class discussions and interactive parts of the lectures. The module will be international in content and scope. For example, there will be a case study that focuses on outsourcing but in doing so this deals with internationalisation processes as well as potential reshoring. This in turn allows us to explore potential opportunities and problems with outsourcing and reshoring and gets to the core question including: 1. Why do companies decide to outsource or reshore? 2. How should companies prepared for such strategic international decisions? 3. What might go wrong? 4. What would you suggest could be done to improve the situation in hindsight? Similarly, class discussions on operations strategy, services, process choice and inventory will deal with international dimensions of operations. For example, a firm may have something designed in Taiwan; then have the product manufactured in China; at the same time logistics are being undertaken by an online retailer; marketing and finance functions may, or may not, be undertaken locally. This common scenario leads us to think about the complexities of doing business in the 21st Century where globalisation is a common – and often a necessary – feature of day to day business.