Operations

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2014:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

In fiercely competitive global and dynamic environments, companies face increasing pressures to exceed customer expectations along multiple performance measures, such as cost, quality, flexibility and innovativeness. To outperform their competitors, many firms make the mistake of mimicking their rivals, rather than focusing on developing the organisational capabilities that competitors will find difficult to match over the long term. And although operations are at the core of a firm’s value adding activities, few firms have sought to build a sustainable competitive advantage around these capabilities.

The focus of the course will be to highlight how firms should design, manage and continually improve their business and operational processes to better manage the mismatch between supply and demand. It aims at providing some of the core concepts in operations that are essential for appreciating how operational capabilities can help organisations achieve sustainable competitive advantage. This course provides a logical and rigorous approach to plan and control process structure and managerial levers to achieve desired business process performance.

On completion of the subject, students should have a good understanding of the following:

• Core fundamentals behind process analysis
• Taxonomy of process types
• The link between operations and finance
• Role of inventories in organizations and managerial levers for controlling the investments in inventories
• Variability and its adverse effect on process performance and ways of mitigating its negative effect
• Quality of management, statistical process control techniques and fundamentals behind six sigma initiatives
• Lean productions and core principles governing Toyota production system
• Importance of collaboration and cooperation in supply chain management
• Sustainable operations

• Class Contribution (15%)
  • Throughout subject
• Class preparation activities (15%)
  • E.g. completion of short basic questions/exercise sets
  • Total: 1,000 words
  • Throughout subject
• Ongoing syndicate case studies (30%)
  • Total: 2,500 words
  • Throughout subject
• Final Exam (40%)
  • Hurdle requirement
  • 90 minutes
  • End of module

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.