Operations Management
1. MODULE OVERVIEW
The “Operations Management and Supply Chain” module of the HEC EMBA China Program aims at showing that any organization must be analyzed as a component of a Supply Chain in which the different actors (suppliers, manufacturers, retailers) as well as the different functions (marketing, production, finance) interact. Understanding and mastering the relationships between these different areas will improve the effectiveness (achieving the objectives) and the efficiency (achieving the results at least cost) of the system.
Nowadays, companies must integrate the whole world in their policies of purchasing, production, and distribution. Further, they must take advantage of the technological developments to redesign their processes. Over the last decade, numerous small and large firms, have dominated their market through the superior performances of their system of production, distribution, and information. This system delivers a better service quality at a lower cost while maintaining a great flexibility necessary for adaptations to market evolutions. All of these issues and challenges will be dealt with over the last three days of the module.
The course covers a thorough introduction to the fundamental decisions and tradeoffs related to the operations and supply chain management of a firm. The three main objectives are to:
- Provide students with the vocabulary, the concepts, the tools and the techniques used in this field;
- Develop the necessary skills and judgments to understand the interactions of operations management with the other business functions, and;
- Understand the strategic issues and challenges associated with the Supply Chain.
During this module, we focus also on R&D and on innovation management. In fact, at the upstream of the supply chain, executives have to deal with R&D where innovation and new product development management plays a crucial role in the competitive edge that corporations try to achieve. During the module, we will first examine such strategic issues on the industry dynamics and competition, and the responses firms might develop in front of such opportunities. We will then further explore some of the conditions (organizational, managerial, etc) for firms to be effective actors of innovation and new product development.
2. OVERALL MODULE STRUCTURE
There are two components to the structure of this module:
- Lectures will be done by Professor Laoucine Kerbache and Professor Gerard Baglin. These lectures are designed to provide participants with conceptual frameworks and analytical tools that can be used in the analysis and in the decision making process of operations and supply chain management. Examples and experiences from the professors as well as from the participants will be used for illustration purposes.
- The cases and exercises, prepared in class or in break-out sessions, by formed groups with the assistance of the professor and teaching assistants will be used to understand various concepts and to gain managerial insights. Most of these assignments will be presented by groups followed by a wrap-up and summary by the professor.
In this context, each group must do an in-class presentation. The details of these assignments will be discussed with you at the introductory session of this module. The in-class presentation must not exceed 20 minutes followed by a short discussion period.
Some guest speakers are also included in the program to present their experiences and illustrate some of the concepts seen in class.
3. FACULTY BIOGRAPHY
Professor Laoucine Kerbache holds a PhD and a M.Sc in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, University of Massachusetts, Amherst (USA) and an “Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches” from the University of Nantes (France).
Professor Laoucine Kerbache is currently Professor of Supply Chain Management and Operations at HEC, Paris. He has been teaching (undergraduate, MBA, and executive programmes), researching and consulting in the field of operations management, logistics, and applied quantitative methods for more than twenty years.
He has been supervising several Master and PhD dissertations on optimization in operations management. He has published in international journals such as: European Journal of Operational Research, International Journal of Production Economics, Computers and Operations Research, Annals of Operations Research, Journal of Management Mathematics, IEEE Transactions, Health Systems, Material Flows, Gestion 2000, etc. He is the co-author of Management Industriel et Logistique: Conception and Pilotage de la Supply Chain (Industrial and Logistic Management: Designing and Manitoring the Supply Chain), 4th Edition, Economica, 2005.
He has been teaching in different countries and acted as consultant to many international organisations in designing MBA programs and management development courses. He has also held various management positions in the academic environment.
Professor Gerard BAGLIN is currently Associate Professor of Operation Management and Information Technology at HEC Paris – Schools of Management.
He has been teaching, researching and consulting in the field of operations management, supply chain management, logistics, purchasing, and applied quantitative methods for more than 20 years. He has taught in different countries in Asia (Beijing, Danang, Jakarta, Moscow and Teheran). He is in charge of several executive development programs and part-time master programs in purchasing and supply chain management.
He acted as a consultant in large groups as well as medium or small industrial businesses. He has been active in many industrial fields. He is familiar with mass production has well as job-shop situations and large projects. His competencies cover manufacturing strategy, logistics, purchasing, distribution, supply chain management, and information systems in manufacturing and service activities.
He played a significant role in the dissemination of the “Lean Production” and “Lean Management” concepts, starting with the automotive industry, and then in many other industries. He has been a well known contributor to the methodology of consulting in industrial firms in creating a standardized assessment tool as well as a method to implement improvement plans based on numerical indicators and proven change “levers”. His methodology has been used by himself and numerous other consultants in hundred firms.
Gerard Baglin graduated from HEC Schools of Management (Paris) and holds a Master in Law.
