Operations Management Program Details

The online Operations Management Masters is a strong gateway program for individuals without an engineering background or for individuals seeking a program that provides a chance to build those invaluable people skills so many employers are seeking in their employees.

Kettering University Online faculty are not only expert in their fields but have the academic backgrounds that helps you pair technical knowledge and business acumen. Complete a capstone course that allows you to take on a challenge at your current organization and create real-world solutions that influence the bottom line. Come away with a range of portfolio pieces that demonstrate your skills and abilities to your current or future employer.

Operations Management Program Skills

• Develop quantitative techniques to facilitate the decision-making process.
• Determine the theoretical valuation of stocks and bonds and the capital markets in which they are traded.
• Discuss concepts and issues concerning the management and leadership of high-technology staff.
• Employ best practices in market relationship management and strategy development.
• Determine options to effectively integrate operations across all functional areas of the organization to deliver the necessary combination of service and manufactured value required to satisfy customers.

Operations Management Curriculum

Students entering Kettering University's Online MSOM program must have completed prerequisite courses in specified business areas.

• Managerial Accounting
• Economics
• Marketing
• Management
• Statistics

Students without this background are required to demonstrate they have the requisite skills and knowledge through a variety of ways:

• Take a self-directed study available online through KUO and passing a qualifying exam at 75%
• Take the survey course available through KUO and passing the course (PASS/FAIL)
• Completing an undergraduate course in the subject area(s)

►MGMT 629 | Management Science
This course provides the manager with a variety of quantitative techniques to facilitate the decision-making process. Both optimization techniques such as linear programming and stochastic techniques such as waiting-line models and Markov processes are covered.

Emphasis is placed on the application of quantitative techniques to a variety of managerial decision areas.

►FINC 619 | Financial Management
The purpose of this course is to provide the student with an overview of the role in the firm performed by financial management. The first half of the course focuses on the theoretical valuation of stocks and bonds and the capital markets in which they are traded. The second half of the course focuses on both the use of financial leverage by the firm and working capital management.

The need for financial managers to provide both ethical and legal leadership for the firm is stressed throughout the course.

►MGMT 639 | Managing People and Organizations
The purpose of this course is to begin preparing students for management positions in high-tech and manufacturing companies. In this overview course, students are introduced to the most important concepts and issues concerning the management and leadership of high-technology staff. Subjects include:

-High-tech leadership and communication
-Change management
-Lean thinking
-HR issues
-Ethics
-Persuasion

►ISYS 669 | Enterprise Information System Models

This course overviews information systems (IS) viewed at two levels: the strategic role of IS and a process-oriented view of the organization and its relationships with suppliers, customers, and competitors. We view processes as vehicles for achieving strategic objectives and transforming the organization.

The major focus of the course is how organizations implement processes globally using enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM) Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and social networks. The course also provides a brief IS infrastructure overview and addresses key IS management topics. Students learn about the ethical and legal implications of information systems.

►MRKT 679 | Marketing Management
This course provides an overview of marketing’s role in connecting businesses to other businesses. While this course covers basic business management topics, a special emphasis is placed on best practices in market relationship management, supply chain management and strategy development. Cases are used throughout the course to illustrate various concepts and issues.

►MGMT 661 | Operations Management
This course provides students with an exposure to and an understanding of the core concepts and tools of operations management. These concepts and tools are presented in a manner that allows students to understand the fundamental importance of coordinated operational activities.

The class examines how to effectively integrate operations across all functional areas of the organization in delivering the combination of service and manufactured value required to satisfy customers. Recognition of the importance of adding value and customer satisfaction to the long-term viability of both for-profit and not-for-profit firms is emphasized.

►MGMT 659 | Strategy – Capstone
The capstone business class focuses on the formulation, implementation and evaluation of organizational policy and strategy from the perspective of the senior manager/strategy planner. Consideration is also given to information technology, global operations, ethics, legal perspectives and the functional-level strategies of the organization. An integrative approach uses the case method to explore executive decision-making in the global marketplace.

Certificate Component

The 40-credit Master of Science Operations Management curriculum consists of 10 courses and your choice of graduate certificate in Global Leadership, Healthcare Management, Operations Management or Supply Chain & Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

Global Leadership Courses:
Prepare for a leadership position in our rapidly changing world with a comprehensive examination of different organizational behavior and management theories.

►BUSN 689 | Organizational Behavior
This class conducts a comprehensive examination of different organizational behavior theories, including the analysis at individual, group and organizational levels. Individual levels include perception, personality and motivation. Group levels include decision-making, group dynamics and team building. Organizational levels include communications, empowerment, leadership, diversity and cross-cultural issues. Experiential activities include class exercises such as case studies, videos and survey instruments, as well as team and individual assignments.

►MGMT 649 | Ethics and Leadership
The course prepares students for leadership roles in the workplace and in society by giving them knowledge of management and leadership from an ethical perspective. This course focuses on the evolution of ethical theories and the role of the leader within the business context. Students use their understanding of business, leadership and the processes of moral reasoning to examine contemporary issues relating to organizations. Through lecture and case method, students apply their knowledge of leadership to contemporary situations.

►MGMT 679 | Leadership
This course offers a comprehensive examination of different leadership theories, with emphasis on relevant empirical evidence and application of the theories to case studies that involve leadership and group functioning. Students thoroughly examine a professional review of concepts and apply their understanding through a variety of means. Ethics and persuasion are covered.

Healthcare Management Courses:
Healthcare management provides a working knowledge of organizational, financial and policy issues to optimize performance and streamline the process for patients.

►IME 656 | Engineering for Healthcare Systems
This course examines the technical structure of the healthcare delivery system and the role that industrial and systems engineering (ISE) plays in its design and improvement. Topics include how healthcare systems work in hospitals, medical offices, clinics and other healthcare organizations. Traditional ISE methods for improving quality, patient safety, and employee productivity and satisfaction are presented within a systematic application of value chain engineering designed to produce lean processes.

►HMGT 609 | Healthcare Management
In this course, students gain a broad understanding of organizational, financial and policy issues in healthcare delivery systems in the U.S. Students apply core business skills and knowledge of functional areas unique to healthcare in analyzing healthcare case studies. Students critically evaluate healthcare issues and policies and their effects on healthcare system performance.

Plus one of the following:

►IME 676 | Lean Six Sigma
This course examines techniques to maximize production efficiency and maintain control over each step in the process. The structured problem-solving methodology DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) provides the course framework.

►MGMT 669 | Supply Chain Operations
This course provides students with a conceptual framework for understanding supply chain management (SCM) and covers concepts, trends and technologies that enable global SCM. Students learn how customer needs, competitive advantage, operational measures and financial performance support successful SCM implementation. They also learn how operational activities, including information systems, procurement, demand planning and forecasting, inventory management, and logistics, support organizational goals. Students use software and case studies to illustrate concepts.

Operations Management Courses:
Prepare for a senior operations leadership position in our rapidly changing world when you select the Operations Management graduate certificate.

►IME 676 | Lean Six Sigma
This course examines techniques to maximize production efficiency and maintain control over each step in the process. The structured problem-solving methodology DMAIC (Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control) will provide the framework for the course.

►MGMT 609 | Technology Management
This course is an overview of Management of Technology and Innovation (MTI) and its impact on contemporary management practices. The focus of the course is on the application of skills and knowledge required of managers and technology professionals responsible for technology implementation in a product development environment. The course analyzes the critical aspects of the management of technology and innovation at the product line, business unit and corporate levels. Case studies and simulations are used to bring to life the critical challenges confronting technology managers.

►MGMT 619 | Project and Change Management
This course covers managing projects within an organizational context, including the processes related to initiating, planning, executing, controlling, reporting and closing a project. Additional topics include project integration, scope, time, cost, quality control and risk management, managing the changes in organizations resulting from introducing or revising information systems, identifying project champions, working with user teams, training, documentation, and the change management role of the IS specialist.

Supply Chain & Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Courses:
Master the decision-making tools necessary to design value in the global supply chain, from concept to customer.

►IME 652 | Designing Value in the Supply Chain
Students gain an understanding of the decision-making tools necessary to design value in the global supply chain from concept to customer. Quantitative methods are employed to aid the decision-making process of demand forecasting and enterprise planning for the purpose of increased profit and value to stakeholders. Basic concepts in strategy, forecasting, demand planning, inventory control and value stream mapping are taught and utilized to enable the decision-making process to be based on quantitative metrics.

►IME 654 | Enterprise Resource Planning
This course provides an understanding of the integrated approach to enterprise planning and its evolution from MRP I and MRP II. It describes the core structure of ERP systems and highlights the characteristics of emerging ERP based organizations. Various ERP tools and techniques are described and compared. The fundamental success factors in moving from traditional business functions to an integrated process-based ERP environment are introduced.

►MGMT 669 | Supply Chain Operations
This course provides students with a conceptual framework for understanding Supply Chain Management (SCM). The course covers concepts, trends and technologies that enable global SCM. Students learn how customer needs, competitive advantage, operational measures and financial performance support successful implementation of SCM. They also learn how operational activities, including information systems, procurement, demand planning and forecasting, inventory management, and logistics, support organizational goals. Students use software and case studies to illustrate concepts.

*http://www.industryweek.com/salary-survey/ready-steady-go-slow-2016-industryweek-manufacturing-salary-survey