ME2014 Operations Management: Strategy and Development 6.0 credits

The course consists of lectures, seminars and group project. Examples of areas that are covered: innovation management, core competence, outsourcing, supply chain management and global production.

After passing the course, the participant should be able to:

• Describe how different corporate production strategies can affect, or be used to enhance, the competitiveness of modern industrial organizations
• Explain the relation between innovation, outsourcing, supply chain management and global production strategies and the implication of the network concept on these four areas and the relation between them. 
• Analyse a modern industrial organisation and of how production strategies are applied, and draw own conclusions and give recommendations on how appropriate or not a certain strategy is.
• Describe different types of innovations, how and why firms innovate, different sources of innovation depending on the characteristics of organisations and their milieu. (e.g. size of organisation, organisational culture, type of industry)   
• Describe and explain a model of innovation management. 
• Describe why, how and when an outsourcing strategy can be applied, and identify the risks and opportunities with such a strategy.
• Account for the implications of different outsourcing strategies by using real cases as examples.
• Explain the concept of Supply Chain Management and its consequences on the production strategies of modern industrial organisations. 
• Describe how an organisation should behave towards its suppliers depending on the characteristics of e.g. the own organisation, the supplier market, the products, services or systems to be procured and the current composition of the network of which the own organisation is part.   
• Describe how and why the view on global production has changed over the last decades.
• Account for concepts such as CSR, sustainable development and stakeholders.

ME2013 Operations Management: Organization and Control.4D1032/4D1038 or equivalens

Selected scientific articles and reports

• SEM2 - Seminar, 3.0 credits, grading scale: P, F
• PRO1 - Project, 3.0 credits, grading scale: A, B, C, D, E, FX, F

Based on recommendation from KTH’s coordinator for disabilities, the examiner will decide how to adapt an examination for students with documented disability.

The examiner may apply another examination format when re-examining individual students.

If the course is discontinued, students may request to be examined during the following two academic years.

• All members of a group are responsible for the group's work.
• In any assessment, every student shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used.
• In an oral assessment, every student shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution.

Established Spring 07

Replaces 4D1039 and 4D1170