Upon completion of the course, students will have basic skills in the following operations & supply chain management areas:

1. Resource Management

  • Be able to identify an appropriate inventory management system for a service business
  • Be able to determine the proper scale for a business operation given a demand forecast
  • Be able to describe the point in time (in terms of sales volume) that a business breaks even or achieves a desired level of profit

2. Process Management

  • Be able to develop a process flow diagram for a business and identify key potential points of failure
  • Be able to propose systems that minimize risk of failure at critical points in a process
  • Be able to clearly articulate the importance of the “line of visibility”

3. Product/Service Development

  • Be able to determine the type of product/service (standardized or customized) that is appropriate for a given business venture
  • Be able to determine the proper finished goods inventory policy for a business (i.e., make-to-order versus make-to-stock)
  • Be able to determine the proper process technology for a given business venture given their product/service offering and finished goods inventory policy

4. Quality

  • Be able to identify the most appropriate control chart for a given service operation
  • Be able to determine whether or not a process is out of control, given a control chart with upper and lower control limits identified
  • Be able to apply various “total quality management” techniques in a real-life business venture
  • Be able to define good quality in a particular business operation
  • Be able to describe why quality is an “order qualifier” in today’s competitive environment

5. Order Fulfillment

  • Illustrate how a firm can achieve value through effective supply chain management
  • Utilize skills from statistics courses to determine probability of “shipping from stock.” Propose systems that minimize risk of stock-out
  • Be able to determine the appropriate level of inventory, given competitive priorities for a firm (i.e., cost, quality, delivery reliability, flexibility, speed)
  • Be able to effectively utilize project management in order to determine the time a major project should take
  • Utilizing skills from statistics courses to determine probability of completing customer project within various times/be able to propose a time quote for a project such that there is limited probability (e.g., 5 percent) of exceeding that time

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College of Business - Advising and Support Center
Zane Showker Hall
MSC 0201
421 Bluestone Drive
Harrisonburg, Virginia 22807

Hours of operation:
Mon - Fri: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.