COURSE NUMBER: MBA204.2A

COURSE TITLE:  Introduction to Operations Management

UNITS OF CREDIT:  2

INSTRUCTOR:  Sara Beckman

E-MAIL ADDRESS:  beckman@haas.berkeley.edu

CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION (HTTP URL): (We’ll have a website on the new Haas system.)

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Monday and Wednesday, 2:00-4:00 PM

PREREQUISITE(S): None

CLASS FORMAT (Will there be lectures, cases, or a mixture?): The class will be a mixture of cases, lectures and hands-on exercises.

REQUIRED READINGS: We will use a course reader (some of which will be available to purchase and some of which will be available on the class website). It will contain a combination of readings and cases.

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: Class participation, problem sets and a final exam.

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:

This course introduces you to concepts and techniques related to the design, planning, control and improvement of service and manufacturing operations. The course attempts to make you conversant in the language of operations management, provide you with quantitative and qualitative tools to analyze basic operations issues, and allow you to see the role of operations management in the overall strategy of the firm. We will cover topics in process analysis, quality program implementation and management, inventory and supply chain management and operations strategy. In each module of the course, we will introduce basic tools for analyzing operations problems, methods of managing that aspect of operations, as well as provide a strategic view, typically using cases, of that aspect of operations. Through this approach we hope to have you learn about operations management tools and about the context in which they operate.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:

Sara Beckman teaches new product development and manufacturing and operations management at the University of California’s Haas School of Business. In over ten years at the Haas School, she developed, institutionalized and directed the school’s Management of Technology Program, initiated new courses on design, entrepreneurship in biotechnology and new product development, won three awards from MBA students for excellence in teaching and received the Berkeley campus Distinguished Teaching Award. Her present research interests lie in the general area of innovation management with specific explorations of environmental supply management and development of operations strategy.

Dr. Beckman has also taught for Stanford University’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, and been a visiting faculty member at MIT in both 1994 and 1999 where she taught in the Leaders for Manufacturing Program. She also teaches regularly in Pepperdine University’s Masters in Science and Technology Management program.

Prior to and concurrent with her involvement at the Haas School, Dr. Beckman worked for the Hewlett-Packard Company, most recently as Director of the Product Generation Change Management Team. This group was responsible for supporting strategic decision-making, workforce planning and design, manufacturing education and training, and environmental, health and safety management throughout the company. She also managed the corporate-wide Surface Mount Technology program that was responsible for the rollout of new, standard board assembly processes at HP.

Before joining HP and the Haas School, Dr. Beckman worked in the Operations Management Services practice at Booz, Allen and Hamilton where she had an opportunity to develop manufacturing strategy with a number of diverse companies in industries from pharmaceuticals to aerospace.

Dr. Beckman has B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management at Stanford University and an M.S. in Statistics from the same institution.