Operations Management Course Research Articles

Overview of the decision support systems for production and operations management

A set of thirteen programs and supporting documentation has been developed as an educational tool in a Production and Operations Management course. The programs are written in BASIC for the IBM-PC and all compatible machines. The software and text are offered at nominal cost, the software alone is provided free of charge to adopters of the POM texts by Richard D. Irwin., Inc.

MS/OR Education: Quality of an Operations Management Course: An Examination of the Effects of Prerequisites and Their Transfer

Increasingly the value of educating students in quantitative methods has been questioned [Business Week 1982; Greenberg 1982]. Discussions have centered on whether current quantitative methods courses are appropriate and whether “business sense” can be taught. Another side of the question has not been addressed, however: whether the students in these courses are prepared to learn what we have to offer. We have not considered whether the business curriculum equips students to appreciate fully what quantitative techniques are and how they can be used. Do students miss the forest (that is, how can they use this) for the trees (that is, what are the specific computations of the techniques) because the courses in operations research and operations management are not appropriate or because they can't cope with what is taught?

MS/OR Education

In the August 30, 1982 issue of Business Week, an article headed “Hard times push B-schools into basics” states that: “In response to pressures created by the recession and by fierce competition from abroad, U.S. companies are beginning to demand that business schools supply them with graduates who have specialized in operations and people — not just numbers.” The article mentions the growth of operations management courses at some of the better-known business schools and it describes how some major corporations are working with the schools to develop these courses. I would like to ask for the reactions of the MS/OR community to this trend. In particular, I would like to hear from those outside the academic world, those in business, industry, and the public sector. Do MS/OR practitioners agree with the demands cited above?

Personalized Instruction in Business Education

This paper presents a comparison between the standard lecture/discussion format and the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) format for teaching the introductory course in Production and Operations Management. The data were obtained from student evaluations of two comparable sections taught by the same instructor. The t test was used to identify significant differences. The PSI format produced improvement in almost every measurable category.

AN 'OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT' APPROACH TO TEACHING IT.

Demonstrating the concepts of cost-effectiveness in operations, as well as teaching them, undoubtedly reinforces the learning. With this premise, a course in Operations Management was designed with the objective of teaching more material to more students with more learning and more convenience, while incurring less resource cost and less student frustration. Although this kind of complex objective seems an impossibility, a large measure of success has been achieved. The method was developed in increments as a combination of independent study through textbook, workbook, mixed media in carrels (synchronized slide-tape material), and computer terminal in

OBJECTIVES OF A REQUIRED COURSE IN OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT.

The purpose of this paper is to review some of the problems we face in designing this basic course in Production and Operations Management and to present the results of a quasi experiment that was conducted with a basic Production and Operations Management course at the graduate level. When discussing or developing strategy for a course or when deciding, for example, whether to use a computer game or simulation or what type of case, it is useful that we remind ourselves about the educational environment in which we operate. Most of us are familiar-with the changing setting of the production function in the business and industrial environment. We have better analytical tools, information systems and considerable computer capacity. We have a wider choice of materials and processes but shorter product life. International trade opportunities have brought about the internationalization of domestic firms with simultaneous pleas for protection from foreign price competition. Production costs are rising in the face of simultaneous demands for higher product quality and greater variety. We have the increasing economic importance of the less productive service industries, and, of course, there are pressures on business management to accept more social responsibility. In conclusion, it would appear that greater and more explicit attention must be given to the motivational objectives of a course, especially for Production and Operations Management. Not all students will become excited by the challenges to be met in a career in Production and Operations Management, but all need to be more convinced of the role it plays in the management of an enterprise.