GCO4806 Unit Information 2004

Unit Adviser

Outline

1. Operations Management and Business Strategy 
   • What is operations management? 
   • Introduction to business strategy. 
   • Operations strategy. 
   • How can the operations function support business strategy? 
2. Operations Management in Manufacturing Companies 
   • Introduction to manufacturing companies. 
   • Cost and capital analysis.
   • Selected manufacturing concepts. 
   • Terms used in inventory control. 
   • Aggregate planning tactics. 
   • Materials requirement planning (MRP) and capacity calculations. 
   • MRP mechanics. 
   • The Just-in-time philosophy. 
   • Facility location and layout. 
   • The nature and scheduling of services. 
3. Total Quality Management What is quality? 
   • The TQM framework. 
   • Top Management's Role: agent to change. 
   • TQM in services. 
   • Statistical process control. 
   • Buyer/supplier relationships. 
4. EDI in Operations Electronic data interchange (EDI). 
   • Electronic ordering and funds transfer. 
   • Information sharing and rapid communication. 
   • Office layout. 
   • Systems, scheduling and control.

Objectives

Prerequisites

Unit relationships

This unit is also seen to be providing some support to other units GCO3803 Inventory Management Systems and GCO4805 Software Systems Design and Development.

Structure and organisation

Texts and software

Required text

Gaither, N. and Frazier, G. Operations Management, 9th ed. South-Western, 2002. (ISBN 0-324-06685-6)

Text books are available from the Monash Gippsland Bookshop, email Ros.Gaunt@general.monash.edu.au, phone (03) 5122 1771, fax (03) 5122 1211. Availability from other suppliers cannot be assured. The Gippsland Bookshop orders texts in specifically for this unit. You are advised to purchase your text book early.

Required software

The three Excel based software package: POM is  included in the prescribed text book.

PC requirements:

Students studying off-campus are required to have the minimum system configuration specified by the school as a condition of accepting admission, and regular Internet access. On-campus students, and those studying at supported study locations may use the facilities available in the PC labs.

You will need to allocate up to 6 hours per week for use of a computer, including time for newsgroups.

Recommended reading

Finch, B.J. and Luebbe, R.L. Operations Management: Competing in a Changing Environment. Dryden, Sydney, 1995.

Porter, M.E. Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analysing Industries and competitors, Free Press, New York, 1998.

Dilworth, J.B. Production and Operations Management: Manufacturing and Services, 5th edn., McGraw-Hill, 1993.

Study resources

• A printed Unit Book containing 4 Study Guides (74 pages), sent from CeLTS. This Unit Information outlining the administrative information for the unit 
• A reader providing with supplementary information for this subject, sent from CeLTS 
• A CD-ROM sent at the start of the year, with software required for GSCIT units
• A CD-ROM with the required Excel based software for the subject is bundled with the prescribed text book
• The GCO4806 web site, where lecture slides, weekly tutorial requirements, assignment specifications and sample solutions will be posted
• Newsgroups that can be linked to from the Unit Homepage

Library access

If you are using the Monash Gippsland library personally, make arrangements for tutorials in using the computer catalogue and databases with the User Services Section, in the first week or weekend school. Please discuss with us or library staff any concern you may have about library access.

Assessment

Assessment Policy

To pass this unit you must:

• attempt all assignments and the examination
• score at least 50% of the possible marks for the unit
• achieve no less than 40% of the total available marks for the assignments overall, and the examination

Your score for the unit will be calculated by.

Final grade (%) = min (A + 10, E + 10, E * R + A * (1 - R)) 

Where A = Overall assignment percentage E = Examination percentage R = Exam weighting 

Assessment Requirements

GCO4806

Assessment	Due Date	Weighting
Assignment 1	10 April, 2004	20%
Assignment 2	20 May, 2004	20%
Examination - 2 hours, closed book	Exam period starts ...	60%

Assignment specifications will be posted on the GCO4806 website Assignments Page. Students will be notified that assignments are available on the Notices Newsgroup.

Assignment Submission Methods

Assignments will be submitted through the WebFace Assignment Submission System.

Extensions and late submissions

Late submission of assignments

Assignments received after the due date will be subjected to a penalty of one grade per four days or part thereof up to one week late. Assignments received later than one week after the due date will not normally be accepted.

This policy is strict because comments or guidance will be given on assignments as they are returned, and sample solutions may also be published and distributed, after assignment marking or with the returned assignment. 

Extensions

It is your responsibility to structure your study program around assignment deadlines, family, work and other commitments. Factors such as normal work pressures, vacations, etc. are seldom regarded as appropriate reasons for granting extensions. 

Requests for extensions must be made by email at least two days before the due date. You will be asked to forward original medical certificates in cases of illness, and may be asked to provide other forms of documentation where necessary.

Contact the Unit Adviser by email to request extensions. Anyone who requests for extension MUST provide your username!

Grading of assessment

Assignments, and the unit, will be marked and allocated a grade according to the following scale:

Plagiarism and cheating

Plagiarism and cheating are regarded as very serious offences. In cases where cheating  has been confirmed, students have been severely penalised, from losing all marks for an assignment, to facing disciplinary action at the Faculty level. While we would wish that all our students adhere to sound ethical conduct and honesty, I will ask you to acquaint yourself with the regulations that apply to students detected plagiarising or cheating (please be sure to follow the links at the bottom of this page) as these will be applied in all detected cases.

In this University, cheating means seeking to obtain an unfair advantage in any examination or any other written or practical work to be submitted or completed by a student for assessment. It includes the use, or attempted use, of any means to gain an unfair advantage for any assessable work in the unit, where the means is contrary to the instructions for such work. 

When you submit an individual assessment item, such as an essay, assignment or other piece of work, under your name you are understood to be stating that this is your own work. If a submission is identical with, or similar to, another student's work, an assumption of cheating may arise. If you are planning on working with another student, it is acceptable to undertake research together, and discuss problems, but it is not acceptable to jointly develop or share solutions.  

You should also take care that your solution is not accidentally or deliberately obtained by other students. In cases where you fear this may have happened by accident, please be sure to contact your unit adviser or unit administrator as soon as possible. As stated in the GSCIT Plagiarism Policy "All students have a responsibility to ensure that their assignment solutions are their own work. You must ensure that others do not obtain access to your solutions for the purpose of copying a part of them. Where such plagiarism is detected, both of the assignments involved will receive no marks." 

Cheating also includes taking into an examination any material contrary to the regulations, including any bilingual dictionary, whether or not with the intention of using it to obtain an advantage.

Plagiarism involves the false representation of another person's ideas, or findings, as your own. It is both professional and ethical to reference clearly the ideas and information that you have used from another writer. If the source is not identified, then you have plagiarised work of the other author. Plagiarism is a form of dishonesty that is insulting to the reader and grossly unfair to your student colleagues.

There are two main forms of plagiarism:

• copying out passages of another author's work word-for-word without acknowledging the source; this includes copying another student's work.
• paraphrasing without citing the source. Paraphrasing is translating the author's terms or ideas into your own words. This is acceptable if enough information is given in the text to identify the work from which the paraphrase originated, and the book or journal is then fully cited in your reference list. It is not acceptable when paraphrased work forms the majority of your submission.

Communication