MGMT 3100

The world market, which characterizes today’s business environment, requires that the firm’s strategic planning is not limited to the geographical borders of countries, but adopts a global approach. Nowadays, it is common that a company designs a new product in North America, manufactures it in Asia, and sells it around the world. This globalization makes operations management and performance measurement difficult. The priorities are not obvious any more. Long-term growth, productivity by employee, immediate financial results, and quality of customer service: they all constitute vital objectives that might have to be reached simultaneously. The goal of this course is to introduce the concepts, models, techniques, and terminology that are standard in the management of operations in manufacturing and service systems.

We propose to take this course as a Global Seminar that provides undergraduate students with the opportunity to enhance traditional classroom learning with a practical work experience that includes, in this case, a significant number of visits to Spanish companies. The purpose of global seminars is to accomplish learning objectives that are not possible to achieve within the confines of a classroom setting.

The course develops an understanding of the general problems encountered in the management of operations and the approaches that are taken toward solving these problems. Specifically, the course focuses on models for process strategy, capacity and decision analysis, distribution, and project and quality management. It explores them in the context of the Spanish companies. The Operations Management contents covered in the class sessions are shown in the visits as an effective way of acquiring the practical experience that business graduates need.

Why in Spain?

A combination of technology & innovation.

National and foreign companies established in Spain focus on EU markets, but increasingly they are using their facilities as a platform for global business by expanding their operations and markets in Latin America, USA, Asia, Russia, Africa and the Middle East. Spain is the 6th most open country to foreign investment according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Regulatory Restrictiveness Index. It has become a target country for facility location and thus it provides an excellent opportunity to study the management of operations in manufacturing and service systems. Through 9 classroom sessions and 6 company visits, the course develops an understanding of the general problems encountered in the management of operations and the approaches that are taken toward solving these problems


Course Outline


Unit I – Modeling
1. Operations Strategy
2. Process Strategy and Analysis
3. Aggregate Capacity Planning


Unit II – Managing the Supply Chain
4. Decision Analysis
5. Constraint Management
6. Location and Layout


Unit III – Management
7. Project Management
8. Quality Management
9. Lean Systems