Study Programmes 2015-2016
LOGI0013-1  
Operation Planning
Duration :
30h Th
Number of credits :
Master in business engineering (120 ECTS)5
Lecturer :
Yasemin Arda
Language(s) of instruction :
English language
Organisation and examination :
Teaching in the second semester
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite :
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Course contents :
Since companies are exposed to greater and increasingly global competition at all levels, their survival and growth become significantly dependent on their ability to execute their operations efficiently while increasing their responsiveness levels. This course concentrates on mathematical programming models and techniques of production and inventory management that are designed to achieve greater operational efficiency both in industrial and service organizations. The course starts with tactical level decision-making problems and presents advanced models of aggregate production planning that are at the heart of Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) systems. The operational level lot-sizing problems, that are the core decision-making problems of all the Material Requirements Planning (MRP) systems, are considered just after. At the very operational level, scheduling deals with the allocation of resources to tasks over given time periods with the goal of optimizing one or more objectives. Scheduling is a decision-making process that is used on a regular basis in many manufacturing and service industries. The course presents many structurally different scheduling problems and exact and heuristic solution methods for these problems. The course also gives a general overview of the Just-In-Time (JIT) philosophy and the pull production control techniques associated with JIT practices like Kanban policies. Compared to push production control systems (like MRP systems), pull production control systems tend to limit the maximum amount of work-in-process inventory in the system. Moreover, the course aims to familiarize students with real world production and material flow management problems through two case studies. The first case is an INFORMS study while the second analyses the production planning problem of a multinational enterprise. Students are wanted to use the modelling tool AIMMS to treat these logistical problems, conduct detailed analysis, drive conclusions, and propose original improvement opportunities.
Learning outcomes of the course :
Intended key learning outcomes:
  • Strengthen knowledge and understanding of the management disciplines with a strong focus on the quantitative aspects.
  • Gain the knowledge and understanding of one of the proposed fields of concentration.
  • Understand, in management situations, the transversal tools of quantitative reasoning, information systems and project management methods.
  • Integrate, autonomously, the researched information, taught tools, knowledge and context in order to build and propose, either individually or as part of a team, some original, creative and viable solutions to a complex management problem, whether real or simulated. Integrate, when necessary, the modelization methods and/or a dimension of technology, innovation or production.
  • Speak 2 foreign languages: C1 in English and B2 in one other language.
  • Be capable of team work.
  • Develop a critical sense (arguing).
  • Develop a transversal and global vision.
  • Devise creative solutions.
  • Be able of a professional oral communication.
  • Be able of a professional written communication.
  • Faced with a management problem, suggest solutions that are ethical and socially responsible and that respect the principles of good governance.
Specific learning outcomes of the course:
  • Deepen knowledge in production and inventory management.
  • Learn new models and techniques used to manage production and material flows.
  • To be able to solve frequently faced problems of production and material flow management.
  • To be able to recognize the situations where production and material flow management techniques can be used as decision making tools and to interpret correctly the conclusions which can be derived using these techniques.
  • To be able to make critical analysis of these different techniques.
  • Understand the advantages and limitations of these kinds of approaches for real world applications.
  • Understand the difficulties of treating real world data and managing real world production and material flow systems.
  • Learn how to use the mathematical modeling tool AIMMS to treat real world logistical problems.
  • To be able to conduct detailed analysis, drive conclusions, and propose original improvement opportunities for real world logistical systems using these techniques and tools.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills :
Basic concepts of supply chain management, production planing, and inventory management
Planned learning activities and teaching methods :
Lectures
Discussions
Factory visit / Invited speaker: A factory visit is organized to familiarize students with real world operations planning problems.
Two group projects: A session of 2 hours is organized for each project to help students in their analyses and in using AIMMS.
Oral presentations of the group projects: A session is devoted to the oral presentations of each project. The groups have 10 minutes to present the role of each teammate in the project, the tool that they have developed using AIMMS, the analyses that they have conducted, the conclusions of theses analyses, and the improvement opportunities that they are proposing.
Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning) :
Recommended or required readings :
Documents that can be found on the virtual campus Lol@:
1. Syllabus: The course notes and the PowerPoint presentations used during the lectures can be found on the virtual campus Lola@. The students are wanted to be in possession of these documents during the lectures.
2. Articles, book chapters, case studies
Assessment methods and criteria :
Written exam (~ 50%): An oral exam is organized in the second session instead of a written one.
Group projects (~ 50%): The projects are prepared in groups of 2 or 3 students and evaluated based on the quality of the written reports and the oral presentations. The weight of the first project is 40% while the weight of the second one is 60%.
Each student has an opportunity to evaluate the contribution of his/her teammates to group projects during the semester by filling a peer evaluation. Taking these peer evaluations into account as well as the participation in class along the year, professor may decide, by a justifiable opinion, to give different grades to students of a same team. Motivation must take into account criteria such as quality of work different from other team members, a greater or lesser involvement in the mission.
For the second session, if the concerned student wants to resubmit a project (alone this time), he/she has to contact the professor. If such a request is not received until an acceptable date, the project grades obtained in the first session are automatically taken into account to calculate the second session grade of the course.
The students are wanted to participate in all the sessions and in the factory visit.
Work placement(s) :
Organizational remarks :
The course is given during the second semester.
The course is given in English.
Contacts :
Lecturer:
Yasemin ARDA
(yasemin.arda@ulg.ac.be)
Assistant:
Véronique François
(veronique.francois@ulg.ac.be)
Items online :
Campus LOl@
LOl@