MGMT 4655 Assignments

July 30, 2008
Final 5:30 - 8:00. You may use your book and notes--but not your neighbor. The final will include questions from each topic covered this semester. You will have more questions than can be completed during the exam period. You may pick and choose, but you will be limited to the 5:30 - 8:00 time period. Remember that your grade comes from the points earned--not the percent of the total points available.

July 28, 2008
Guest speaker: Gary Bedford, CPIM; Senior Demand Planner/Analyst at Exide Technologies; President, Atlanta Chapter of APICS

July 23, 2008
Catch up and begin preparing for the final. Remember that you have a queuing assignment due on Monday.

July 21, 2008
Homework as a follow-up to the July 21 class on Waiting Lines (10 point due on Monday, July 28): Work the assignment distributed in class (copy available here).

Kelli Crickey will facilitate the class on Wednesday. She will be addressing some international aspects of operations management from a first-hand perspective. To prepare for class, she asks that you do the following:

Imagine yourself in the following scenario--

You work for a company headquartered in the USA, with manufacturing operations in the USA, Japan, China, Germany and The Netherlands. These facilities are part of the parent company. The company sells its industrial equipment all over the world.

You are going to (pick one) Japan, China, Germany or The Netherlands for two weeks to meet with operations management (planning and purchasing), factory floor personnel, IT managers and support staff. During your time you will assess their abilities for the work they do, understand how they are organized, seek opportunities for improvement and begin the plan for how you will support the integration of best practices among ALL global facilities for materials management. Within the next two years all of the facilities will be on the same ERP system (SAP in this case) and this is the groundwork.

This is your first trip, so just pick one place and write at least five questions that are on your mind right now. Think about what you are concerned about, look forward to, seek to learn, and how you will go about learning. What else are you thinking about? Go for at least five questions.

Please bring your written questions to class on Wednesday to get our discussion going.

July 16, 2008
Look at slides 62 and 63 from the PowerPoint slides related to Learning for Improvement. Pick one of the "System Killers" (other than Fear and Lack of Trust) on slide 62 and respond to the questions on slide 63. (5 point concept).
Read Quantitative Module D (pp. 743-759). Focus on the concepts for now.

July 14, 2008
Select an espoused theory at an organization that you are familiar with and provide illustrations (examples) of organizational policies and practices that are both consistent with the espoused theory and inconsistent with the espoused theory--i.e., provide examples where their "theories-in-use" support and contradict their espoused theory (5 point concept).

July 9, 2008
Beer game follow-up (5 point concept): Provide a current, real-world example where outcomes similar to the Beer Game can be seen. Describe the systemic structural similarities between the situation and the Beer Game.
To prepare for next week (where we will focus on learning and change for improvement): Read "Teaching Smart People to Learn" by Chris Argyris, Harvard Business Review, May/June 1991, pp. 99-109 (A copy is available in the shared class folder on the GSC campus.)

July 7, 2008
Read Chapter 3 from The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge
Quiz on Wednesday. Your quiz will cover linear programming and will include four problems--1 formulation, 2 graphical problems, and 1 requiring you to address "what if" questions. We will NOT be in the lab. Please bring a ruler (or straight edge). You may use notes and a calculator if you wish.
The answers for the Two Rivers "What if" questions are posted here.

July 2, 2008
Remember that we will start promptly at 5:30 on Monday.
Formulate problems 7, 9, and 10 on pages 714 and 715. Solve using Excel. Generate some "what if" questions that could arise related to the problem and provide answers to the "what if" questions.

June 30, 2008
Use Excel to solve the additional LP problems assigned on June 23. |
Read pages 699-701 from your text. Work problems 14 and 15 using Excel and the sensitivity analysis output.
Attempt to formulate the problems on the LP formulation handout.
Quiz (15 point quantitative) on July 9.

June 25, 2008
Provide a typed list of the most important points that you took away from the class on Service Quality. Include why you see these points as important for any business.
Meet in the lab on Monday. We will look at using Excel to solve Linear Programming problems.

June 23, 2008
Additional LP graphical problems are posted here (for completion by next Monday).
Dr. Gabriel will be covering class on Wednesday. Read "Improving service quality in America: Lessons Learned," The Academy of Management Executive, May 1994. The article is available through the NGCSU library site or is available in the Shared Class files on the GSC website (in the kmelton folder that is in the NGCSU folder). Dr. Gabriel provided the following information for preparing for class:

MGMT4655 Students,

For class on June 25, please read the assigned article "Improving Service Quality in America: Lessons Learned” by Berry et al. Also, please answer the attached discussion questions. Although I will NOT be collecting the discussion questions, they are important. These will guide you in what is important to thoughtfully understand from the article. I expect you to participate in the class discussion that will occur Wednesday evening. Come prepared to contribute to class. Also, as you read the article, consider some of your service experiences and relate these to the "5 dimensions" and the "10 lessons". That will make for a better and more interesting learning experience.

I look forward to class on Wednesday.

June 18, 2008
Read pages 692-699 from your text
Use pencil, paper, and the graphical approach to solve problems 1-3 on pages 713-714
Problem 1 on page 713 will be collected next class period (5 point quantitative)
Vocabulary quiz (10 point quantitative) next class period [List of potential terms]. You may bring notes. The quiz will require you to identify quantities in a formulation or on a graph that corresponds to specific terms.

June 9, 2008
Remember that class will not meet on June 11 nor on June 16. You have two videos to watch during this time. Check the handouts page for some guidance for important points. You will have two 10 point quizzes on June 18 (one applying concepts from each video). You may bring as many notes as you like.
Read "The Living Company" by Arie de Geus, Harvard Business Review, March-April 1997. See the handout page for a 5 point assignment related to the reading about how to access the article through the North Georgia library website or access the article in the Shared Class files on the GSC website (in the kmelton folder that is in the NGCSU folder). For a 5 point concept assignment: As you read the article: 1) Identify two points that sound logical but are contrary to what is often seen in US businesses and 2) Explain why you believe these ideas are so difficult for businesses to adopt/apply.

June 4, 2008
Re-read chapter 1 from the text. Listen to (watch) the news and find an example that relates to at least one concept in these chapters. Bring a written description of the news item and how it relates to material from these chapters. Be sure to include information about the source of the information.