SYLLABUS

Course Title
MLI21C617

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

6 cr

Instructor
Dr. Bruno Silvestre

Contact Information
Email: bruno_silvestre@hotmail.com
Office: 203, office tel. +358-50-4361164

Office Hours
13:00-14.0 (Mon to Thu) or by appointment (please send me an email)

Course Description and Learning Outcomes

An examination of the essential concepts, methods and practices of operations
management. Key topics covered include operations strategy, quality control, process
design, capacity management, location and layout, planning materials, scheduling, just-intime operations and performance measurement.
Learning outcomes for this course, upon successful completion, include the ability to:
1) understand the essential concepts and processes of operations management, 2)
determine operations management tasks from the business strategy and establish
performance objectives, 3) plan and schedule capacity, equipment, materials and labor for a
given level of activity and level of service, 4) measure and analyze operational quality, and
5) review and assess methods and strategies for improvement in operations.

Required Reading
Operations Management by Slack et al, published by Pearson, 6th or 7th edition
Please always bring to class the following items:
- the textbook
- a calculator
- a ruler
- pencil and eraser

Course Schedule
Note1: Chapter and page numbers are given for 7th edition of the adopted textbook.
Note2: Class will be split in two groups: Group 1 and Group 2. The groups will have
different activities on April 12 and April 14. One group will visit the operations of a local
company while the other will work on other activities to be defined by the Instructor.
Session 1 (Mon. April 4)
N/A
-Introductions, course overview, and general
administrative issues
-Introduction to Operations Management (Ch. 1)
Deduction due to an unexcused absence on
first day of the course: 5 points (on a 100-point
scale) will be deducted from the students final
raw score before converting it to the final grade.
Session 2 (Tue. April 5)

Pre-Work:
-Read Chapters 1, 2 and 4

-Operations Performance (Ch. 2)

-Process Design (Ch. 4)
Session 3 (Wed. April 6)

Pre-Work:
-Read Chapter 18
-Read Chapter 20 (pages 645-656)

-Operations Improvement (Ch.18)

-Organizing for Improvement (Ch. 20)
Session 4 (Thu. April 7)

Pre-Work:
-Read Chapters 10 and 11

-The Nature of Planning & Control (Ch. 10)

-Capacity Management (Ch.11)
Session 5 (Fri. April 8)
Test 1 will be based on cumulative
content covered up to here

-Test 1
Session 6 (Mon. April 11)

Pre-Work:
-Read Chapter 12

-Inventory Management (Ch. 12)

Session 7 (Tue. April 12)

Schedule:

Group 1:
Operations Visit - OC-System facility

Group 1:
Departing from School (dont be late
bus driver cannot wait)

Group 2:
Work on activities to be defined by the Instructor
in class

Session 8 (Wed. April 13)

Group 2:
Meet the Instructor at 1:00pm in our
classroom
Pre-Work:
-Read Chapter 14

-Materials Requirement Planning - MRP (Ch. 14)

Session 9 (Thu. April 14)

Schedule:

Group 1:
Work on activities to be defined by the Instructor
in class

Group 1:
Meet the Instructor at 1:00pm in our
classroom

Group 2:
Operations Visit - Alhstrom Glassfibre facility

Group 2:
Departing from School (dont be late
bus driver cannot wait)

Session 10 (Fri. April 15)

Pre-Work:
-Read Chapters 15 and 17

-Lean Synchronization (Ch. 15)

-Quality Management (Ch. 17)
Session 11 (Mon. April 18)

Pre-Work:
-Read Chapter 3

-Operations Strategy (Ch. 3)

Session 12 (Tue. April 19)

Pre-Work:
-Read Chapter 16 (Note we shall cover
Precedence networks only)

-Project Management (Ch. 16)

Session 13 (Wed. April 20)

Pre-Work:
-Read Chapters 6 and 13

-Supply Network Design (Ch. 6)

-Supply Chain Management (Ch. 13)
-Business Case: Walmart
Session 14 (Thu. April 21)
Test 2 will be based on cumulative
content covered up to here

-Test 2
Session 15 (Fri. April 22)
-Group Presentation

Aalto University
School of Business, Mikkeli Campus
Grading
Course Requirements and Values
Participation / Professionalism (individual)
In-Class Activities / Mini-Cases (group)
Test 1 (individual)
Test 2 (individual)
Group Presentation

Weighting (%) or
maximum points
10%
20%
20%
30%
20%
Total
100%

Final grade
(official scale)
5
4
3
2
1
0

Sample conversion scale*

(if student work graded 0-100)
90-100
80-89
70-79
60-69
50-59
0-49

ECTS GUIDELINES
This course is a 6 ECTS unit course, following the ECTS (European Credit Transfer
System) guidelines of Aalto University School of Business. The number of hours the
average student is expected to work in the course is 160 (including in-class and out-ofclass work).
ECTS Student Workload
Number of Hours
Classroom contact hours

45

Out-of-class hours (specify below)

Work with course materials, eg required reading

40

Exam preparation

25

Individual research & writing

25

Team projects (meetings, research, preparation, etc.)

22

Other (please specify)

Operations Facility Site Visits

Sub-total of out-of-class hours

115

Total of all student workload hours

160

Academic Policy Statements

TEXTBOOK POLICY
All required textbooks and other course materials are the responsibility of the student. It is
the expectation of faculty that all students will have access to the textbooks and other
reading material. If a student is not able to purchase his/her own copy of the textbook or
other required reading materials, it is nonetheless the students responsibility to find a way
to complete the reading for the course.

CLASS ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION

Class attendance and participation are considered integral parts of teaching and learning
at the BScBA degree program in Mikkeli. Therefore, regular class attendance is required of
all students and attendance records are kept for each class. Students are also expected to
be in class on time. Late arrivals are seen as being discourteous to the instructor and other
students.
The attendance policy of the BScBA degree program provides that:
1) Three unexcused absences from any course will result in being dropped from the
course.
2) Five absences (excused and unexcused) will result in being dropped from the
course.
3) Absences are excused by approval of staff and the instructor for legitimate
reasons only (medical certificates or other critical reasons), per the Permission for
Absence Form.
4) An unexcused absence on the first day: an unexcused absence on the first day of
the course will result in 5 points (on a 100-point scale) being deducted from the
students final raw score before converting it to the final grade.
5) A student missing a graded activity due to an:
a) excused absence will be given special consideration, eg the chance to make up
an exam.
b) unexcused absence may not be able to compensate for the missed work, in
which case the student will lose the points for that activity.
Students not able to attend class on a day with a graded activity should make every
effort to inform the instructor ahead of time, regardless of the reason.
6) A student getting to class after the doors are closed will not be able to enter the
classroom until the first break and will get an unexcused absence for the day.
7) The instructor may include class participation as a component of the grade,
up to 15% of the total points that can be earned toward the final grade.

CODES OF CONDUCT
Academic excellence and high achievement levels are only possible in an environment
where the highest standards of academic honesty and integrity are maintained. Students
are expected to abide by the Aalto University Code of Academic Integrity, other relevant
codes and regulations, as well as the canons of ethical conduct within the disciplines of
business and management education. (See Aalto Mikkeli Study Guide for information on
Aalto University codes of conduct.)

Faculty Profile
Dr. Bruno Silvestre is an Associate Professor and the Chancellors Research Chair in
Sustainable Supply Chains and Innovation Management in the Faculty of Business and
Economics at the University of Winnipeg, Canada. He has been teaching Operations
Management, Innovation Management and Supply Chain Management since 2003. Prior
to joining the University of Winnipeg, Dr. Silvestre worked as a Research Associate at the
University of Sussex in Brighton (UK), and at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver
(Canada). He also lectured for some top US, Asian, European and South American
Business and Engineering Schools.
Dr. Silvestre has more than 12 years of managerial experience in the industry. More
recently, he worked as a New Business Development Executive at ELETROBRAS, a
major Brazilian energy company. Prior to that, Dr. Silvestre worked for the German
company B.Braun Melsungen and a research park coordinating a number of technologybased start-up projects. His research interests are associated with the management of
operations, supply chain and innovation. His research has been published in some of the
leading management journals in Europe and North America, which has been currently
cited over 2,100 times by his peers (Google Scholar, April 2016).

Additional Information
Operations Management is all about getting the product or service to the customer on
time. If you dont, you lose the order, the customer, your job, etc. On-time delivery of work
is therefore critical.
Work up to 4 hours later than the agreed deadline will lose 10 points from the grade for
that piece of work. Work more than 4 hours late will be reviewed for learning points but will
receive ZERO credit towards your final course grade.