| Unit name | Strategic Operations Management |
|---|---|
| Unit code | EFIMM0072 |
| Credit points | 20 |
| Level of study | M/7 |
| Teaching block(s) |
Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12) |
| Unit director | Dr. Phil Davies |
| Open unit status | Not open |
| Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units) |
None |
| Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units) |
EFIMM0075 |
| Units you may not take alongside this one |
None |
| School/department | School of Management - Business School |
| Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
Why is this unit important?
All organisations create and deliver products and services. The laptops you use to complete your assessments, the trains you travel between cities on, and the shoes you wear to walk to a friend’s house or go shopping, all of these items were created by operations. In this unit, you’ll delve into the intricate world of operations management to understand the tasks, issues and decisions operations managers face and make every day. Through real-world case studies and game-play activity, you’ll not only gain an appreciation of how all operations are similar, yet very different, but you will develop critical thinking and analytical skills that will allow you to effectively critique and understand an organisations operations and processes. This unit is both theoretically and practically grounded, giving you a broad but essential set of knowledge and skills to understand how to effectively direct, design, deliver, and develop operations and processes for any given organisation.
How does this unit fit into your programme of study?
In the context of the MSc Global Operations and Supply Chain Management, the ‘Strategic Operations Management’ unit serves as a compulsory unit to introduce you to the importance of operations management and the broad topics that fall within its remit. This unit will provide students with a broad focus on directing, designing, delivering and developing operations and processes, and serve as a unit delivering foundational knowledge from which others build upon. This unit provides an invaluable opportunity for students to understand how to take a process-view of operations and acquire broad, but detailed, knowledge of how organisations manage and deploy resources to create products and/or services that create value for their customers.
An overview of content:
In the “Strategic Operations Management” unit, students will delve into the world of operations management to understand how organisations manage and deploy resources to create and deliver products and services that create value for their customers. The curriculum is structured around essential themes for operations management, starting with an overview of what operations management is, its role within an organisation and the tasks, issues and decisions operations managers must make to deliver the products and services we all depend on. Key topics include process design and analysis, capacity management, inventory management, lean management and process improvement. These will provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the practical relevance and strategic importance of operations management to all organisations.
How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit:
With this unit, students will gain the capacity to articulate specific operations challenges that all organisation face in the creation and deliver of their products and/or services for their customers. Students will expand their mindset to include a process view, emphasising how work is done rather than just the output, how to create value for customers and how to facilitate flow of customers, materials and/or information throughout operations and processes. This broadened perspective will be matched by student’s ability to critically evaluate a diverse range of information related to a firm’s operations and the tasks, issues and decisions faced by all operations managers. With this blend of knowledge and analytical skills, students will be empowered to direct, design, deliver, and develop operations and processes for any given organisation.
Learning outcomes:
On successful completion of this unit, student should be able to:
Teaching consists of ten lectorial sessions of 3 hours (total 10*3 = 30 hours) across TB1. These lectorials are made up of two components. The first half of the lectorial focusses on content delivery through a lecture format, the second half focusses on seminar activities that focus on content delivered during the lecture. The latter will involve deep academic conversations, case studies, presentations from the groups (yourselves), as well as game-play and simulation based activities. Optional advice and feedback sessions will be provided during the term for students to come and discuss content or the assessment. Students will be required to do some preparation reading and activities before the sessions. All learning material will be available in the Blackboard virtual learning environment for the module. Additional readings and discussion boards will be available for students who wish to acquire, and engage in, deeper learning around operations management. This will strengthen peer interaction and your critical thinking and writing skills. It is also a place for students to ask any questions about the module and, as one of the first modules you’ll complete, a place to introduce yourselves to your classmates. Students are advised to set aside time to review the weekly material and plan when they will work through them.
Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):
Each week's session (a 3 hour lectorial) has a distinct agenda, aligned with the comprehensive outline provided in the unit manual. Every week, each individual will be faced with either a case study based on a real organisation or a game-play activity. In two of the ten weeks, students will be asked to prepare a short presentation on the case activity they have just completed in their groups. While these activities aren't graded, they serve a crucial role: they are a groups opportunity to receive targeted feedback from both peers and the instructor during the lectorial. Each activity, whether case activity or game play, is designed to facilitate the development of your knowledge and skills relevant for the summative tasks. The chosen approaches not only resolves immediate questions but also helps students iteratively refine their understanding and application of unit concepts. This approach is key to preparing students for the summative assignment, ensuring that they are equipped to produce well-informed, insightful analyses.
Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):
Summative Assignment 1: Group 35% weighting
Lean Simulation Game based group assessment (ILO 4). The group assignment is to design and produce a recoded video outlining the group’s Lean Game result, how the group achieve the result; and reflection of what students learned from the Lean Game. The group coursework will be assessed in three dimensions: (1) the group performance of Lean Game (e.g. profit/finished products) (2) students’ understanding of the lean principles and ability of implementing them a digitally enabled production line, (3) the quality of presentation evidenced by the video content.
Summative Assignment 2: Individual 65% weighting
Integrated Assignment with EFIMM0075 Supply Chain Technology & Digitalization (3,500 words) (ILO 1,2, 3 and 4). The purpose of this integrated coursework is to demonstrate students’ understanding of how an organisation sets itself up to deliver customer requirements and critically analyse how disruptive technologies (such as artificial intelligence, robotics, blockchain, 3D printing, Internet-of-Thing, and augmented reality) can be used to improve their product/service offering. Students are required to conduct a management consultancy project on an organisation that offers a range of services or products (or a single service or product) and select an operation of your chosen organisation. To complete the coursework, students are asked to answer six tasks related to the two units. Tasks 1, 2, & 3 are related to EFIMM0072 Strategic Operations Management, and Tasks 4, 5 & 6 are related to EFIMM0075 Supply Chain Technology and Digitalisation.
When assessment does not go to plan
When a student fails the unit and is eligible to resubmit, failed components will be reassessed on a like-for-like basis.
If the student fails in an individual task, they are expected to resubmit an equivalent individual report based on the new questions set by the unit leads (3,500 words, 65% weighting) (ILO1, 2, 3 and 4).
If students fails in group tasks, they are expected to submit an individual 5-minute recorded audio presentation critically evaluating lean management in service operations and a 500 word report summarizing and justifying the recommendations made in their video (e.g., healthcare operations) (35% weighting) (ILO 4). The service operation can be chosen by the student.
If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.
If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. EFIMM0072).
How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours
of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks,
independent learning and assessment activity.
See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.
Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit.
The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates
within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.
