About the course

Operations Management is defined as the design, operation, estimation and improvement of the systems that create and deliver the firm’s primary products and service. For a particular firm, there are three basic functions: marketing, operations and financing. While marketing is responsible for selling the products and financing is regarding how to obtain the necessary resources (debt vs. equity), operations is about how to make the products or provide the service to customers in an efficient and effective way. Our objective in this course is to introduce relevant concepts, techniques and methods. In particular, some of the topics covered include: operations strategy, supply chain coordination, inventory management, business process reengineering, mass customization, and waiting line management etc. Topics also include some cutting-edge technology driven operations management (e.g., Big data, Blockchain and AI) and global supply chain issues such as trade war and CSR. The course relies on a combination of case discussions, lectures, readings, and assignments. To pursue the course objective most effectively, students will have to prepare the assigned cases, readings, and discuss them in class.

· Reference Books

1. Matching supply with demand: an introduction to operations management. Gerard Cachon and Christian Terwiesch. The 2nd edition
2. Designing and Managing the Supply Chain. David Simchi-lvei, Philip Kaminsky, and Edith Simichi-levi. The 3rd edition

About the teacher

Xu Xiaolin is currently a professor at the Business School of Nanjing University and also the director of the Case Center. He received his PH.D. from the System Engineering Department of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. His research interests focus on operations management and supply chain management. His work has been published in the Production and Operations Management, European Journal of Operational Research, etc. He serves as a reviewer for a number of international journals such as Operations Research. He presided over three National Natural Science Foundation of China projects and one youth project.

All materials are contributed by Nanjing University.