Operations and Information Management
Please note: Before scheduling classes, check with the department to determine the availability of courses for the upcoming semester or visit the Operations and Information website.
The Operations and Information Management major is designed to improve the quality and productivity of enterprises by: (1) educating highly capable professionals; and (2) discovering, developing, and validating new principles, theory, and methods. Members of the department share common interests in process management, decision-making, and information. Our common approach to education and research is to blend rigor and relevance. We believe in science-based management and our work is built around models. We seek to reconcile theory and data, and to influence practice. We are a group of individuals with diverse interests and training; indeed, our diversity is central to the intellectual vitality of our community. Nevertheless, several themes characterize the questions of primary concern to most members of the department.
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• How can the speed and quality of decision-making by individuals, groups, and organizations be improved?
• How can useful inferences be made from large datasets?
• How can supply chains be managed to provide the right products at the right time and place for least cost?
• How can organizations create high-quality and efficient service delivery operations?
• How can the process of developing goods and services be transformed to deliver better products more efficiently?
• How do changes in the quality, speed, and frequency of information exchange impact an enterprise's functions, productivity, and organization?
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• Operations and Information Management
• Information: Strategy and Economics
• Joint Major in Marketing and Operations Management (with the Marketing department)
OPERATIONS AND INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
The requirements for the OPIM major are:
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• Five credit units from any courses offered by the OPIM
department, including core courses.
• OPIM courses cross-listed with other departments do count towards the major.
• Global Consulting Practicum (MKTG 890) does count toward the major.
• Waivers of OPIM courses do not count towards the major.
• Up to one credit unit of pass/fail elective may be counted toward the major each semester.
Following are suggested tracks, which constitute coherent sets of courses in specific areas of study. However, these tracks are only suggestions and students are free to construct their own programs of study.
Operations Management Track
INFORMATION: STRATEGY AND ECONOMICS
Information, Strategy, and Economics focuses on the rapidly changing strategies of firms, based on changes in consumer behavior, regulation, barriers to entry, and other aspects of the competitive environment. We focus on changes driven by the dramatic improvement in information endowment, or "states of informedness," enjoyed by the firm, its customers, and its competitors. The acceleration of informedness, like changes in power and transportation during the Industrial Revolution, will transform commerce and society in ways that are not fully understood, leading to new winners among nations, industries, groups of workers and managers, and firms. Information Strategy and Economics addresses changes in information endowments and their impact on strategy, focusing on dynamic evolving strategies, and uncertainty, and by offering a new sets of paradigms that predict outcomes. The ISE major provides an excellent foundation for careers in strategic management, both within the firm and as consultants in strategic management. It uses historical precedent and economic theory to develop a pragmatic set of skills that help students see emerging patterns and develop strategies in rapidly changing business environments. Its courses are motivated by its focus on “states of informedness” as drivers of strategy, hence its location in the OPIM department, but it does not study technology nor does it have the quantitative analysis focus of the rest of the OPIM department.
The increase in consumer informedness is changing consumer behavior in a wide range of situations. Mobile computing may continue to focus on email, or it may move to a wider range of value adding services. Consequently, revenue from mobile telephony may come from advertising, from social network subscription fees, or models as yet unimagined.
The increase in information available to firms alters their strategies; pricing becomes more dynamic, distribution moves online, labor productivity needs to be enhanced, labor can be outsourced to take advantage of new labor arbitrage markets. This requires a revision of managerial mental models of their firm’s competitive options.
The ability to target profitable market segments and to identify individual customers is reducing the value of scale-based operations and the strategic advantage of large firms with existing market share. The ability to monitor the performance of units abroad is leading to greater reliance upon outsourcing, benefiting many service industries and once again reducing the advantage of many large firms. At the same time, the impact of information technology on the transparency and efficiency of securities markets is destroying the profits of entire segments of financial services. All aspects of the firm - production, service, sales, marketing, and strategy - will be affected. Clearly, some firms will win and others will lose; nearly all will have to change. And yet, fundamental laws of economics have not been repealed. How can previous economic theory, and previous experience with rapid technological change, provide insights for the development of strategy in an increasingly digital age?
As power continues to shift among retailers, distributors, and manufacturers/primary suppliers, many industries are being forced to deal with restructuring caused by disintermediation resulting from electronic channels.
While these changes are directly driven by information technology, it is the management challenges, and not the underlying technology, that are addressed by this new inter-disciplinary major.
• What is the future of advertising and push-based communications concerning mass-market consumer products?
• What is the future of more targeted offerings, intended to produce resonance with the wants and needs of smaller market segments, and the role of organic consumer-driven dialog about new products?
• What is the appropriate production strategy as the balance between local and global production, between internal production and external procurement, and between short term contracting and long term strategic alliances are all altered?
• What is the appropriate marketing strategy as the balance shifts between established competitors with dominant share and apparent cost advantages and new entrants with targeted strategies? What pricing strategies are thus enabled? How can information be used to provide enhanced differentiation strategies by allowing more accurate targeting of individualized products and services?
• What is the appropriate distribution strategy as disintermediation becomes possible, but intermediaries still retain considerable power over segments of the customer population, and thus will retaliate against premature attempts at bypassing them?
• How will the battle between desktop vendors like Microsoft and search-based vendors like Google play out? Who will win?
• How will online social networks affect traditional advertisers and the brands and firms that rely upon advertising?
• Once appropriate strategies are determined, how can they be implemented with speed and agility and how can the organization be led into its new vision?
These management challenges lead to the development of the ISE major as an interdisciplinary program that draws upon existing strengths in management, marketing, and information management to create a powerful and innovative interdisciplinary focus on information strategy. Understanding the strategic aspects of information and information management is being transformed; what were once skills of specialized technologists are now critical aspects of the preparation of all executives. This major prepares students for careers in consulting and venture capital, and for senior management positions in a wide range of industries already being transformed by the interacting forces of information, globalization, and deregulation.
Requirements for the Information: Strategy and Economics Major
The major requires completion of five credit units.
Requirements for the major can be satisfied by selecting from courses already offered in OPIM, Management, and Marketing. The major is intended to allow great flexibility, as individual students may wish to focus on issues of information strategy applied to marketing, change management, internal governance, or external alliances. Students are required to take at least one course from an approved list of Marketing courses and at least one course from an approved list of Management courses. Additionally, students must complete at least three credits within the OPIM Department.
OPIM 621 (.5 cu)
Decision Models and Uncertainty
Description: See description in Core section.
OPIM 631 (.5 cu)
Operations Management: Quality and Productivity
Description: See description in Core section.
OPIM 632 (.5 cu)
Operations Management: Supply Chain Management
Description: See description in Core section.
OPIM 650 (.5 cu)
Operational Performance Analysis
Description: Operational performance has long been emphasized as a key driver of firm value in the basic materials industries (e.g., steel or paper) as well as in mature and highly competitive manufacturing industries (e.g., automotive or personal computers). In contrast, industries such as financial services, healthcare, or pharmaceuticals have enjoyed sufficiently high margins that operational performance only recently began receiving significant managerial attention. Given its emergence as a relatively new topic in these industries, managers and consultants often struggle with questions such as “What performance measures should we track?”, “How do operational performance measures impact the bottom line performance?,” or “How do we go about improving processes to achieve various operational performance improvements, including cost savings, lead-time reduction, or increases in product variety?” Even in more mature industries, managers often struggle to correctly prioritize operational improvement initiatives and to link them directly to financial performance. The objective of the course is to provide students with a set of tools that supports them in analyzing the operational performance of a company and to guide them in increasing the overall value of the firm by improving its operations. Specifically, we will discuss how to:
• Develop an integrated model linking operational performance measures to financial value.
• Analyze indicators of opportunities for operational improvement.
• Identify levers (techniques) to improve operational performance.
• Value potential operational improvements, both individually as well as collectively.
OPIM 651 (.5 cu)
Innovation, Problem Solving, and Design
Description: This course is first and foremost an intensive, integrative, project course in which student teams create one or more real businesses. Some businesses spun out of the course and now managed by alumni include Terrapass Inc. and Smatchy Inc. The project experience is an exciting context in which to learn key tools and fundamentals useful in innovation, problem solving, and design. Examples of these tools and fundamentals are: problem definition, identification of opportunities, generating alternatives, selecting among alternatives, principles of data graphics, and managing innovation pipelines. The course requires a commitment of at least 10 hours of work outside of class and comfort working on unstructured, interdisciplinary problems. Students with a strong interest in innovation and entrepreneurship are particularly encouraged to enroll. Please read carefully the syllabus posted on-line before registering for this course.
Prerequisites: OPIM 621 and OPIM 631.
OPIM 653
Mathematical Modeling and Its Application in Finance
Description: Quantitative methods have become fundamental tools in the analysis and planning of financial operations. There are many reasons for this development: the emergence of a whole range of new complex financial instruments, innovations in securitization, the volatility of fixed-income markets since interest rate deregulation, the increased globalization of the financial markets, the proliferation of information technology, and so on. In this course models for hedging, asset allocation, and multi-period portfolio planning are developed, implemented, and tested. In addition, pricing models for options, bonds, mortgage-backed securities, and swaps are discussed. The models typically require the tools of statistics, optimization, and/or simulation, and they are implemented in spreadsheets or a high-level modeling environment, MATLAB. This course is quantitative and will require extensive computer use. The course is intended for students who have a strong interest in finance. Prospective students of this course should be comfortable with quantitative methods, such as basic statistics and the methodologies (mathematical programming and simulation) taught in OPIM 621, Decision Models and Uncertainty.
OPIM 654
Product Design and Development
Description: The course provides the student with a number of tools and concepts necessary for creating and managing product development processes. The course consists of two interwoven parts. First, it presents the basic steps that are necessary for moving from a “cool idea” to a product sufficiently mature to launch an entrepreneurial start-up. This includes cases, lectures, and exercises on topics like identifying customer needs, developing a product concept as well as effective prototyping strategies. The capstone of this first part is a real project in which student teams conceptualize and develop a new product or service up to the completion of a fully functional prototype. Second, the course discusses a number of challenges related to product development as encountered by management consultants, and members of cross-functional development teams as well as general managers. The course analyzes several cases related to, among others, resource allocation in R&D organizations, organizational forms of product development teams, as well as managing development projects across large geographic distances.
Format: Lectures, case and problem analyses, group presentations, the development of a new product to the prototype stage.
OPIM/MKTG 655 (.5 cu)
Integrating Marketing and Operations
Description: This course covers topics that span marketing and operations management. Students will examine issues and decisions that require significant coordination between managers in marketing and operations. Topics include channel management, supply chain design, product variety management and service operations pricing and control.
Format: Cases, discussion and lectures, class participation and group project/presentation.
Prerequisites: OPIM 631 and 632; MKTG 621 and 622.
OPIM 656
Operations Strategy and Process Management
Description: This course examines how organizations can develop and leverage excellence in process management. The first module focuses on operations strategy. In these classes, students examine what constitutes an operations strategy and how organizations can create value by managing complexity, uncertainty, and product development. In the second half of the course, students discuss recent developments in both manufacturing and service industries, specifically, examining initiatives in quality, lean manufacturing and enterprise-wide planning systems. The course is recommended for those interested in consulting or operations careers, as well as students with an engineering background who wish to develop a better understanding of managing production processes.
Prerequisites: OPIM 621, OPIM 631, and OPIM 632 or equivalent.
OPIM 658 (.5 cu)
Service Process Management
Description: The service sector represents the largest segment of most industrial economies. In the U.S., for example, it accounts for approximately 70% of GDP and 80% of employment. In addition to this “pure” service sector, the operations and competitive positions of many manufacturing firms are becoming increasingly service-oriented. While operational excellence is critical for success in most industries today, in a wide range of service industries this is particularly true. For example, recent, significant deregulation in banking, health care, and communications has led to intensified competition and pressure on operations. At the same time, the rapid evolution of information technology has enabled firms to operate in a fashion – and to offer a level of service – that has not been previously possible. Elements common to most services make the management of their operations complex, however. In particular, services are intangible, not storable or transportable, and often highly variable. Frequently their delivery involves distributed operations with a significant amount of customer contact. All of these factors make service operations end up looking quite a bit different than manufacturing operations, and the task of achieving excellence in them requires specialized analysis frameworks and tools. This course covers a mix of qualitative and quantitative models that provide the necessary tools. The class will focus on simple models that should help you to better understand both the difficulty of managing and the underlying economics of the service operations being considered. You will have the opportunity to apply these course tools in a group assessment field project.
Prerequisites: Courses in operations management, linear programming, probability and statistics.
OPIM 660/Systems 508
Information Systems Engineering: Redesigning the Future
Description: This course looks at the information systems phenomena that are revolutionizing organizations (e.g., clicks & mortar shopping, net-centric value chains, telemedicine, emergent communities, online democracy, etc.). To be effective in this milieu, organizations must do more than just push new information technology. They need to determine how to harness the new technology to manage complexity and to maximize stakeholder value. Processes need to be systematically analyzed and redesigned all along the value chain from supplies and procurement to electronic storefronts and customer support, from campaign headquarters to voter booth, etc. This course examines design principles, task and information process modeling and analysis methodologies, and a range of underlying information technologies (e.g., webserver design, transaction processing, warehousing, datamining/knowledge management, bots and agents, XML, security, information theory/ complexity, and more) that will help the modern organization or community to maximize its strategic objectives. We also examine failure case studies and derive lessons learned.
OPIM 661
Systems Analysis, Design, and Implementation
Description: This course is about the problem of designing, developing, and managing large, complex systems. This problem is regularly faced by nearly all managers and other professionals throughout their careers. The purpose of the course is twofold. First, the class familiarizes students with the issues involved in conceiving, designing, building, and maintaining the kinds of large-scale, complex information systems now required for commercial (and governmental) purposes. Second, the class provides students with experience working with the main tools and techniques in systems analysis, design, and implementation. Special focus will be given to modern object-oriented design methodologies, and methodologies appropriate for Internet-based electronic commerce (e.g., UML and modern CASE tools).
Format: Lectures, class discussions of cases projects, written case assignments and final exam.
OPIM 662 (.5 cu)
Enabling Technologies
Description: Technology is a vital input to the process of wealth creation in a networked economy. This course is about understanding emerging technology enablers with the goal of stimulating thought on new applications for commerce. The class is a comprehensive overview of various emerging technologies and culminates in a class-driven identification of new and novel businesses that exploit these enablers. No prerequisite or technical background is assumed. Students with little prior technical background can use the course to become more technologically informed. Those with moderate to advanced technical background may find the course a useful survey of emerging technologies. The course is recommended for students interested in careers in consulting, investment banking and venture capital in the tech sector.
Format: Lectures, discussions, assignments and class participation.
Prerequisites: None.
OPIM 665x (.5 cu)
Operations Management In Health Care
Description: In an era where health care systems around the world face rapidly rising costs and quality issues, organizations large and small are looking into the operational side of health care for solutions. Likewise, the abundance of unfulfilled needs in the health care marketplace has led to an array of technology ventures with innovative new products and services. In this course, we apply the tools of operations management to analyze the health care value chain. The course consists of four modules: (1) the management of productivity, quality, and variability by care providers, (2) capacity planning and investment decisions under uncertainty, (3) cross-functional problems spanning operations, finance, accounting and marketing, and (4) innovation ideas and opportunities from the intersection of health care, academic research and technology ventures. Students will learn from case discussions, hands-on decision tools, and several distinguished speakers from Stanford Hospital & Clinics, Merck, U.S. Naval Academy, Deloitte Consulting and the Silicon Valley. The primary focus of this course is the application of decision tools, using the health care industry as a backdrop. No prior exposure to the health care industry or coursework is assumed. The course prepares students for several career paths including consulting, operations management, and health care administration and is open to both first- and second-year MBA students. The course also complements offerings from the Health Care Management Department by bringing in an alternative, operations perspective.
Prerequisites: OPIM 631.
OPIM 666 (.5 cu)
Information: Industry Structure and Competitive Strategy
Description: This course is in the tradition of Operations courses as exercises in the systematic understanding of complex systems, rather than in the tools and techniques for understanding aspects of those systems. It draws upon the most recent experience in the impact of information technology upon diverse industries, ranging from securities trading to consumer packaged goods retailing. It integrates that experience with relevant theory to develop an approach to information-based strategies generally, including resurgent interest in strategies for Commerce. It is not a tools and techniques course; likewise it is not a technology or an implementation course. It provides a focused and modern complement to strategic planning. The increase in consumer informedness is changing consumer behavior in a wide range of situations. Customers find the least expensive alternative in categories of little importance to them, while finding the perfect match with their wants and needs, cravings and longings, in categories they find salient. Online trust is, and will continue to be, a strong determinant of shopping behavior.
Likewise, the increase in information available to firms, and the increasing variety of strategies available for the use of information – from dynamic repricing to online distribution, from labor productivity enhancements to labor arbitrage and outsourcing – requires a dramatic revision of managerial mental models of their competitive options. Revising mental models and enhancing mental agility are both essential to executive leadership, rather than mere conservation and management, in today’s environment of rapid and discontinuous change in the competitive environment.
The ability to target profitable market segments and to identify individual customers is reducing the value of scale-based operations and the strategic advantage of large firms with existing market share. The ability to monitor the performance of units abroad is leading to greater reliance upon outsourcing, benefiting many service industries and once again reducing the advantage of many large firms. At the same time, the impact of information technology on the transparency and efficiency of securities markets is destroying the profits of entire segments of financial services. All aspects of the firm – production, service, sales, marketing, and strategy – will be affected. Clearly, some firms will win and others will lose; nearly all will have to change. And yet, fundamental laws of economics have not been repealed. How can previous economic theory, and previous experience with rapid technological change, provide insights for the development of strategy in an increasingly digital age?
Format: Lectures and cases. In-class case discussions and written case analyses, class participation, case performance and a final examination. No background in technology is required.
OPIM 667 (.5 cu)
Business Transformation
Description: This course is a direct sequel to OPIM 666 and it addresses strategic problem solving in the context of business transformation engagements. The course is intended to prepare students for leadership roles in dynamic and rapidly evolving industries, and for careers in strategic consulting. In order to perform strategic transformation, either as a member of the firm’s executive team or as an external strategy consultant, it is necessary to address the following questions:
• Understanding the future: What has changed and what will change in the business environment of the firm? Why is it going to be necessary to engage in strategic change? What information will be required to function effectively?
• Current activities audit: What does the firm do now? What changes will be necessary? What information is currently available?
• Leadership challenges: Who will be adversely affected by those changes? Who will resist making them? Who will be unable to implement them for other reasons? How can you facilitate difficult change?
• Information infrastructure: How will information endowment determine competitive positioning? What information systems will be required for the firm and its partners? What information capability will be possessed by customers and competitors?
Thus, while this is a course in Information Strategy and Economics, and while information endowment is central to our strategic analyses, information systems and technology together represent only one of the issues that must be addressed in order to complete strategic business transformation.
Format: Lectures and cases. Extensive participation from outside speakers in strategic consulting with experience relevant to the course.
Prerequisites: OPIM 666 or permission of instructor is required.
OPIM 668 (.5 cu)
Telecommunications Technology and Competitive Strategy
Description: Telecommunications technology is changing rapidly, with profound implications for quality of everyday life and the competitive position of firms in all industries. Regulators, sociologists, executives and even those responsible for planning for firms in the telecommunications industry as yet poorly understand these changes. This course presents a broad summary of telecommunications including the basics of analog and digital media, long haul and local data communications technology, and the emerging structure of telephony. It addresses the implications for competitive strategy, both within and outside the telecommunications industry. The course is recommended for students in strategic management, especially those with an interest in high technology firms, and for students with an interest in the communications industry. No background in technology is required, though an understanding of technology- driven competitive strategy is helpful. Students completing this course will have acquired a basic understanding of the competitive implications of modern telecommunications technology and the implications of this technology for the future structure of commerce.
Format: Lectures and cases, in-class examination, in-class case discussions, and a final project.
Prerequisite: OPIM 666 is recommended but not required.
OPIM 669
Financial Information Systems/Advanced Topics in Information Strategy
Description: The capstone course for the MBA major “Information: Strategy and Economics,” OPIM 669 covers essential topics in information strategy – such as pricing of information goods; competing in electronic markets; transparency and search issues; information-intensive strategies; IT outsourcing; and software project management – that have high impact on 21st-century business but are not typically covered in other Wharton courses.
Format: Periodic written assignments, in-class graded outsourcing negotiation exercise; class participation; final project.
Prerequisites: Complete knowledge of topics in OPIM 666 is assumed.
OPIM 670
Special Topics in Information Systems: Simulation and Dynamic Competitive Strategy
Description: This course introduces tools and techniques for modeling dynamic competitive strategies – strategies that evolve over time as you and competitors take actions in response to each other and to changes in the competitive environment. This goes beyond case discussions and approximates the rigor of theoretical or game theoretical analyses, even for problems for which no traditional analytical solutions exist. Students of the course will learn to model business environments and design simulators with the goal of gaining insight and designing policies for strategy implementation. Students will develop understanding of the timing and sequencing of the actions required, as well as understanding how to modify strategies on the fly based on changing conditions or objectives. Students are introduced to state of the art software for general purpose business modeling and simulation.
Format: Lectures.
Prerequisites: This is a full term, non-mathematical course and prior knowledge of basic strategic concepts is helpful, but not necessary; no programming experience is required.
OPIM 672
Decision Support Systems
Description: The past few years have seen an explosion in the amount of data collected by businesses and have witnessed enabling technologies such as database systems, client-server computing and artificial intelligence reach industrial strength. These trends have spawned a new breed of systems that can support the extraction of useful information from large quantities of data. Understanding the power and limitations of these emerging technologies can provide managers and information systems professionals new approaches to support the task of solving hard business problems. This course will provide an overview of these techniques (such as genetic algorithms, neural networks, data warehousing) and discuss applications such as fraud detection, customer segmentation, trading, marketing strategies and customer support.
Format: Lectures and discussions, written assignments, projects using software packages to build models, final exam.
Prerequisites: None.
OPIM 673x (.5 cu)
Global Supply Chain Management
Description: New information technology has dramatically reducing the cost of communication. This has engendered a wave of outsourcing and off shoring that leaves companies pondering what to do in house, what to outsource, where to produce and how to manage a supply chain that usually involves production in multiple countries, including countries like China that are half way around the world from the market. This course will study the design and management of global supply chains, including how to decide what to out sources, where to product and how to manage a complex, geographically dispersed supply chain. The course will be highly interactive, using case discussions in most of the classes. The industries covered include shoes and apparel, consumer electronics, food and auto.
OPIM 676 (.5 cu)
Electronic Markets
Description: This course deals with Electronic Markets and Market structures and the strategic uses of information within the firm. The course consists of four related modules on the design and functioning of Business to Business markets, use of technology to source services from global providers – i.e., outsourcing of business processes (as opposed to IT), the use of strategic technological platforms such as CRM and Web Services and the technology-enabled precision pricing techniques. Further, students are exposed to strategy formulation and execution in an online market where they compete both against each other and against (electronic) agents. This course is recommended for students interested in a career in consulting, strategic management and students interested in information technology related professions. The course will be delivered through a mix of lectures, case discussions and hands-on trading in virtual markets using different market mechanisms. The course webCafé will be used for discussions and responses from instructor and TA. We do not assume or require any specific technical knowledge.
Format: Lectures, case discussions, guest lectures and interactive online games.
Prerequisites: None.
OPIM/MGMT 690
Managerial Decision Making
Description: Making decisions, from the trivial to the fundamental, is part of the everyday life of every manager and investor. For the last 30 years psychologists – and more recently also economists – have studied how people process information and make decisions. This research program has provided an insightful understanding how people's decisions deviate from “optimal” ones, and the consequences of such biases in financial and personal terms. This course is devoted to understanding the nature, causes and managerial implications of these limitations. The material from this course provides useful insights that will likely improve the student's decision making skills in many different domains.
Format: Lectures reviewing multiple empirical studies, class discussion, and a few cases, short written assignments, two tests and class participation.
OPIM 691/LGST 806/MGMT 691
Negotiations
Description: Negotiation is the art and science of creating good agreements. This course develops managerial negotiation skills by mixing lectures and practice, using cases and exercises in which students negotiate with each other. The cases cover a wide range of problems and settings: one-shot deals between individuals, repeated negotiations, negotiations over several issues, negotiations among several parties (both within and between organizations), and cross-cultural negotiations. Performance in the negotiation’s cases accounts for a significant portion of the course grade.
OPIM 691 sections differ from LGST 806 and MGMT 691 sections in that OPIM 691 covers theoretical aspects of negotiation (including psychological theories of judgmental mistakes negotiators make) in a bit more depth, and covers fewer legal and dispute resolution issues. Students can take only one of the three courses.
Format: Lectures, cases, presentations, and written assignments.
Prerequisites: None.
OPIM/MGMT/LGST 692x
Advanced Topics in Negotiations
Description: This course is designed to teach negotiation principles and to enable student to develop their negotiation skills. This course assumes familiarity with the basic negotiation concepts covered in the prerequisite for this course: "Negotiations." In this course, we extend the study and practice of negotiations and we develop a deeper understanding for how specific aspects of the negotiation process (e.g., emotions, deadlines, trust violations) impact outcomes. Through course lectures, readings, and case exercises, students will develop a rich framework for thinking about the negotiation process and acquire tools for guiding the negotiation process.
Format: Cases, presentations, lecture and discussion, class participation, and exam.
Prerequisites: OPIM 691/MGMT 691/LGST 806.
OPIM 697 (.5 cu)
Retail Supply Chain Management
Description: This course is highly recommended for students with an interest in pursuing careers in:
• retailing and retail supply chains
• businesses like banking, consulting, information technology, that provide services to retail firms
• manufacturing companies (e.g. P&G) that sell their products through retail firms.
Retailing is a huge industry that has consistently been an incubator for new business concepts. This course will examine how retailers understand their customers' preferences and respond with appropriate products through effective supply chain management. Supply chain management is vitally important for retailers and has been noted as the source of success for many retailers such as Walmart and Home Depot, and as an inhibitor of success for e-tailers as they struggle with delivery reliability. See M. L. Fisher, A. Raman and A. McClelland, “Rocket Science Retailing is Coming – Are You Ready?,” Harvard Business Review, July/August 2000 for related research.
Format: Lectures, case discussion, guest speakers. Grade is based on class participation, individual write-ups on four of the cases and a team report on visits to stores of two competing retailers.
OPIM 698X
Retail Supply Chains: Design and Management
Description: This course will examine how retailers understand their customers’ preferences and respond with appropriate products through effective supply chain management. The course class sessions will deal with the following major themes: 1) linking finance and operations in retailing, 2) what assortment of products should a retailer carry in each store, 3) optimizing the inventory carried of each SKU in each store, 4) markdown pricing, 5) store execution and 6) supply chain design. In addition, we will consider a broad range of issues facing two retailers, Mothers Work and Best Buy, when we are visited by current and past senior executives from these firms.
The course is highly recommended for students interested in careers in: retailing and retail supply chains; businesses like banking, consulting and information technology that provide services to retail firms; and manufacturing companies that sell their products through retail firms. Even if you don’t expect to work for a retailer, this course can be useful to you in two ways. First, because retailers are such dominant players in many supply chains today, it is important that the processes they follow be understood by manufacturers and distributors, or by the consultants and bankers that service retailers and their suppliers. Second, the problems retailers face (e.g., making data accessible, interpreting large amounts of data, reducing leadtimes, eliciting the best efforts from employees, and so forth), are shared by firms in many other industries. It’s easier to understand these issues through case studies in retailing because we all experience the industry as consumers and can readily relate to chronic problems such as stock outs and markdowns.
Format: The course will be highly interactive, using case discussions in more than half of the classes and including senior retail executives in a number of the class sessions.
OPIM 699 (.5 cu)
Advanced Topics (Next Generation Technologies)
Description: Conducting business in a networked economy invariably involves interplay with technology. The purpose of this course is to explore a number of next generation technologies, the business drivers of technology-related decisions in firms, and to stimulate thought on new applications for commerce (including disruptive technologies). The class will provide an overview of various emerging technologies and culminates in discussion of potential business impact of these technologies in the near future. While there is no formal prerequisite, prior background in the tech industry or taking OPIM 662 (Enabling Technologies) in a prior or the same semester will be useful. The class is relevant to anyone who expects to perform a business function in the networked world. The course is particularly recommended for students with interests in technology entrepreneurship, product management, consulting/ strategy, and venture capital. The following is a brief list of some next-generation technologies covered:
• Voice over IP
• WiFi andWiMax (BroadbandWireless)
• Advanced Cellular Data Services (3G, 4G, etc.)
• Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
• Embedded Systems
• Search engines and other software agents for search
• Peer to Peer Computing, Online Music Industry
• Nanotechnology, Biotechnology
OPIM 761
Risk Analysis & Environmental Management
Description: This course is designed to introduce students to the role of risk assessment, risk perception and risk management in dealing with uncertain health, safety and environmental risks including the threat of terrorism. It explores the role of decision analysis as well as the use of scenarios for dealing with these problems. The course will evaluate the role of policy tools such as risk communication, economic incentives, insurance, regulation and private-public partnerships in developing strategies for managing these risks. A project will enable students to apply the concepts discussed in the course to a concrete problem.
Prerequisites: MGEC 621 or Microeconomics.
OPIM 762 (.5 cu)
Environmental Sustainability and Value Creation
Description: This course approaches environmental issues from the standpoint of business. It emphasizes the trends in corporate practices and its valuation; it stresses various issues with innovation, implementation and diffusion of environmentally sustainable technologies; and it emphasizes the role of NGOs. Case studies are used to demonstrate above points. Both national and international aspects are examined; necessary collaborations between regulators, manufacturers, and consumer are investigated; short and long term business opportunities are discussed. This course has four objectives: to increase environmental sustainability literacy; to ask questions about environmental sustainability issues as managers carry out their traditional business functions; to recognize environmental concerns as competitive opportunities; and to teach students to think strategically and act entrepreneurially on environmental sustainability issues.
Format: Lecture and discussion including guest speakers from various organizations. Grading will be determined by class discussion, presentations, and final project.
OPIM 890
Advanced Study Projects in Operations and Information Management
Description: ASPs are offered to students on an individual basis, from time to time as demand warrants. The specific content of such ASP courses varies, depending on student and faculty interests. Contact the Operations & Information Management Department for the most current ASP offerings and a listing of faculty research interests.