Operations Management

Within the context of the particular course a general introduction into Operations Management, which is a significant scientific sector in the Management Science, is first presented. This sector exhibits a broad scope of applications in the contemporary business environment, since it refers to all current operations that are required for producing various products and providing a variety of services by any type of organization, from large to small, for profit and for non-profit ones, as well as for both the manufacturing and service sectors. Management of their operations constitutes a challenge in this new era of intense socioeconomic changes. Various technological and environmental challenges, increasing globalization, complex requirements in information and knowledge management, as well as the increasing significance of social responsibility bring operations managers in to the frontline of the required efforts to explore and resolve pertinent issues at an operational and tactical level, as well as within the operations contribution to the organization’s strategic objectives. In particular, the objective of this course is the understanding of - and familiarization with - the concepts, methods, tools, practices and technique used in Operations Management, as well as with their applications in a broad range of business processes (such as in new products and processes R&D, inventory management, capacity selection, etc.). Emphasis is given in operational and structural changes that have been conducted in business lately and call for integrated efforts that are conceptually and strategically oriented to address operations management issues.

Objectives

1. Fundamental knowledge acquisition within the whole spectrum of the Operations Management scientific area 2. Development of knowledge on theoretical principles, as well as on the pertinent rules in contemporary business practice that support product and service production processes 3. Knowledge and understanding of certain problems that are present in the design and operation of production systems, as well as of methodological approaches in addressing them 4. Skills acquisition and improvement in analyzing and addressing operational problems using quantitative methods of approach and appropriate methods for tackling conceptual issues in Operations Management 5. Identification of the role of operations manager and her responsibilities 6. Understanding of the Operations Management contributions in strategic decision making and in the effective realization of the business strategy 7. Systematic realization of the applications range of Operations Management methods and distinction of these applications in between product and service production systems 8. Enhancement of the ability to look into links between basic issues within Operations Management 9. Rigorous understanding of the Operations Management practices with the help of relevant examples for various types of operations 10. Ability and skills development in identifying and analyzing pertinent issues in Operations Management. Skills enhancement in analyzing basic problems in Operations Management emphasizing group collaborations. Enrichment of the learning experiences of students deliberately involved in related real-world problems and cases that require practical analyses of Operations Management activities and tasks (e.g. competition strategies and consequent operational actions, operations contribution in competitiveness increase of an organization, demand forecasting in real world, inventory management and its associated production planning consequences, etc.)

Prerequisites

No prerequisites.

Syllabus

Course contents include the following subject sections: - Introduction to Operations Management - Decision types in Operations Management - The basic functions in business and their interrelationships - Operations Strategy and performance objectives of operations in productive systems - Process of establishing business and production strategies - Alternative production strategies - The role of demand forecasting in operations systems - Demand types and characteristics - Process, methodologies, techniques and tools of demand forecasting - Capacity Design Decision Making - Capacity Selection for new facilities - Systematic estimation of equipment needs - Process, product and service design functions - Types of operation processes - Techniques and tools in product and process design - Decision making in product and process design - The role and necessity of keeping inventory in Operations Management - Types of inventory - Inventory cost - Basic inventory management models