Operation Planning

Duration

30h Th

Number of credits

Lecturer

Yasemin Arda

Language(s) of instruction

English language

Organisation and examination

Teaching in the second semester

Schedule

Schedule online

Units courses prerequisite and corequisite

Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program

Learning unit contents

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, which 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. Moreover, group projects aim to familiarize students with real-world operations planning problems. Students are wanted to implement mathematical programming techniques and to use a programming language for solving operational decision-making problems within group projects.

Learning outcomes of the learning unit

In relation with the Assurance of Learning process of HEC Liège, the learning objectives adressed in this course are:

• Strategy: This course will help students to establish a strategy in order to optimize the value chain of a company, an organization or a project.
• Strategy: This course will help students to understand the scientific and technological context of the situation they are confronted with.
• Strategy: This course will allow students to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes distinctive to a specialist's action in their field.
• Strategy: This course will help students to demonstrate scientific precision and a critical mind.
• Implementation: This course will train the student to take into account the scientific, technological and entrepreneurial dimensions of the situation they are confronted with.
• Implementation: This course will exercise students in the ability to take advantage of data digitalization.
• Implementation: This course will exercise students to work efficiently in an international and multidisciplinary team, among others in a leading position.
• Quality and Performance Control: This course will help students to plan and implement the performance and quality control in a company, an organization or a project.
• Quality and Performance Control: This course will develop students' ability to use the appropriate analytical tools when analysing a complex management situation.
• Communication: This course will allow students to improve their proficiency in one foreign language.
• Adaptability: This course will encourage students to be curious and to show a scientific precision of academic level.

• To deepen knowledge in production and inventory management.
• To 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.
• To understand the advantages and limitations of these kinds of approaches for real world applications.
• To understand the difficulties of treating real world data and managing real world production and material flow systems.
• To learn how to use a programming language to treat 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 and discussions

Group projects: The projects are treated in groups of two to three students. Students are evaluated based on their written reports, oral presentations, and the developed computer programs.

Project working sessions: Those sessions are organized to familiarize students with the employed programming language and to guide them in their group projects.

Mode of delivery (face to face, distance learning, hybrid learning)

Face-to-face course


Additional information:

Students are wanted to participate in all the sessions (10 × 3 hours).

Recommended or required readings

Documents that can be found on the virtual campus LOla:

1. Syllabus: The course notes and the presentations used during the lectures can be found on the virtual campus LOla. Students are wanted to be in possession of these documents during the lectures.

2. Articles, book chapters, case studies

Exam(s) in session

Any session

- In-person

written exam ( open-ended questions ) AND oral exam

Written work / report


Additional information:

Individual examination (~ 50%): A writen exam or an oral exam is organized depending on the number of students.

Group projects (~ 50%): The projects are treated in groups of two to three students. Students are evaluated based on their written reports, oral presentations, and the developed computer programs.

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 presence and the participation in class along the year, the lecturer 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 missions, attendance at the course sessions.

For the second session, if the concerned student wants to resubmit a project (alone this time), he/she has to contact the lecturer. 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.

Work placement(s)

Organisational remarks and main changes to the course

The course is given during the second semester.
The course is given in English.

Contacts

Lecturer:
Yasemin ARDA (yasemin.arda@uliege.be)

Association of one or more MOOCs

Items online