Online Course
Introduction to Operations Management
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and University of Pennsylvania via Coursera
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- Provider Coursera
- Cost Free Online Course (Audit)
- Session Upcoming
- Language English
- Certificate Paid Certificate Available
- Effort 5-7 hours a week
- Duration 4 weeks long
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Overview
Class Central Tips
Learn to analyze and improve business processes in services or in manufacturing by learning how to increase productivity and deliver higher quality standards. Key concepts include process analysis, bottlenecks, flows rates, and inventory levels, and more. After successfully completing this course, you can apply these skills to a real-world business challenge as part of the Wharton Business Foundations Specialization.
Syllabus
Introduction
-This short module was designed to introduce you to the course, and to give you an overview of what you can expect from the course and the instructor!
Process Analysis
-In this module, you'll learn how to identify key elements of process analysis: flow rates, and flow times, how to uncover bottlenecks, how to optimize labor and inventory, and how to handle the complexities of multiple flow units. At the end of this module, you'll be able to break down operations into processes which can then be improved to maximize profits and efficiency.
Productivity
-You'll learn the key components of productivity in this module. Beginning with the academic definitions of productivity, you'll move on to the common blockers, measurements, indicators of effectiveness, improvement techniques and financial values. By the end of this module, you'll be able to identify, describe and measure the relationship between inputs and outputs and also be able to develop strategies for decreasing inputs while increasing outputs, thereby boosting productivity wherever you see the need to.
Quality
-Quality is not only a cornerstone of operations management, but also a critical component of an organization's long-term viability and success. This module covers all the major aspects of quality in operations, from examining the common reasons for defects to the most widely used implementation techniques for addressing problems of quality and ensuring reliability and standards. At the end of this module, you'll be able to anticipate where defects may occur and recommend a sound strategy for maintaining quality and stability.
-This short module was designed to introduce you to the course, and to give you an overview of what you can expect from the course and the instructor!
Process Analysis
-In this module, you'll learn how to identify key elements of process analysis: flow rates, and flow times, how to uncover bottlenecks, how to optimize labor and inventory, and how to handle the complexities of multiple flow units. At the end of this module, you'll be able to break down operations into processes which can then be improved to maximize profits and efficiency.
Productivity
-You'll learn the key components of productivity in this module. Beginning with the academic definitions of productivity, you'll move on to the common blockers, measurements, indicators of effectiveness, improvement techniques and financial values. By the end of this module, you'll be able to identify, describe and measure the relationship between inputs and outputs and also be able to develop strategies for decreasing inputs while increasing outputs, thereby boosting productivity wherever you see the need to.
Quality
-Quality is not only a cornerstone of operations management, but also a critical component of an organization's long-term viability and success. This module covers all the major aspects of quality in operations, from examining the common reasons for defects to the most widely used implementation techniques for addressing problems of quality and ensuring reliability and standards. At the end of this module, you'll be able to anticipate where defects may occur and recommend a sound strategy for maintaining quality and stability.
Taught by
Christian Terwiesch
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Reviews for Coursera's Introduction to Operations Management Based on 29 reviews
- 5 stars 48%
- 4 stars 24%
- 3 stars 7%
- 2 stars 10%
- 1 stars 10%
Did you take this course? Share your experience with other students.
Write a review- 1
Vijayakumar N
by
Vijayakumar
completed this course, spending 4 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be medium.
Introduction to Operations Management is a great course that gives you a lot of knowledge on how to improve operations in an organization. It introduces the learners to the 4 dimensions of operations performance - Efficiency, Quality, Responsiveness and Variety. Prof Christian Terwiesch is a good teacher. The quizzes and tests help you to learn the concepts well. When I did this course, there were three ways one could do the course - academic track, practitioners track and both tracks together. You had to do both tracks for getting a distinction. For the practitioner track, you had to sele…
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Dissipate D
by
Dissipate
completed this course.
Unlike the other people who have commented on this course, I do not think it was very good overall.
First of all, the audio in the videos was of poor quality. That coupled with an accent and mistakes in the subtitles... it just made the course harder to get through.
Second, while there seems to be some structure to the videos, definitions were given in a somewhat haphazard manner, with different terms and formulas being used without having been declared or clarified upfront when they were first explained by the lecturer. Most explanations via a Google search were consistent with each other, but not the terms and formulas used in the lectures. This made in particular the section on process analysis, the calculation of flow rate, flow time, labour utilization, etc, confusion and immensely tedious. It was a struggle to get through and it made me feel like dropping the unit.
I think I would have done better learning the concepts from a book.
First of all, the audio in the videos was of poor quality. That coupled with an accent and mistakes in the subtitles... it just made the course harder to get through.
Second, while there seems to be some structure to the videos, definitions were given in a somewhat haphazard manner, with different terms and formulas being used without having been declared or clarified upfront when they were first explained by the lecturer. Most explanations via a Google search were consistent with each other, but not the terms and formulas used in the lectures. This made in particular the section on process analysis, the calculation of flow rate, flow time, labour utilization, etc, confusion and immensely tedious. It was a struggle to get through and it made me feel like dropping the unit.
I think I would have done better learning the concepts from a book.
1
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Anonymous
Anonymous
completed this course.
Just finished this course and managed to pass with distinction. Course was excellent. Well paced, interesting examples. Good lectures by the professor . Exercises were difficult enough to be interesting. Very worthwhile.
6
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Anonymous
Anonymous
is taking this course right now.
The course videos are a bit difficult to understand between the quality of the sound and the accent. The course itself seems more about business operation information and analysis and requires previous / background knowledge of statistics and excel even though the introduction makes no mention of this. This requirements makes the course and its quizzes more of a mathematical exercise/challenge than managerial. I expected more information about the management of the operations and solutions for problems in operations and only some background information about the necessary calculations. Being an introduction and all...
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Anonymous
Yuri
completed this course.
The first offering was FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Unreal to explain my impressions. You need to taste to feel.
It gave me good understanding how all works. I have University Diploma in metal processing and this course improved my skills much.
I recommend the course for all managers and technology engineers especially from countries with poor management.
Unreal to explain my impressions. You need to taste to feel.
It gave me good understanding how all works. I have University Diploma in metal processing and this course improved my skills much.
I recommend the course for all managers and technology engineers especially from countries with poor management.
2
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Anonymous C
by
Anonymous
completed this course, spending 5 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be easy.
By far the best MOOC I have ever taken (out of 10). The instructor is an expert in process design and makes the concepts easy to follow. I would love to see other classes by him.
5
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Anonymous
Anonymous
completed this course.
Highly recommended! Professor who definitely knows what he is talking about, great course structure, challenging homework assignments, the knowledge received can be easily applied in a real-life company.
2
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Anonymous
Anonymous
is taking this course right now.
Excellent Course, Wharton is doing a great job with all of their courses. Prof. Tereswich makes it very interesting aswell as challenging.
3
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Anonymous
Anonymous
completed this course.
Excellent example of teaching and one of the best MOOCs I have taken. Plenty of real life examples, challenging and rewarding assignments. Couldn't ask for more.
1
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Anonymous
Anonymous
completed this course.
Excellent course. Lot's of exercises. All main concepts are well explained and demonstrated with examples.
2
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Anonymous
Anonymous
completed this course.
Prof T is very knowledgeable, organized and right on point with this course. Best Coursera experience so far.
2
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Anonymous
Anonymous
is taking this course right now.
I've loved my other Coursera courses but this one ... Exactly what this guy said:
Unlike the other people who have commented on this course, I do not think it was very good overall.
First of all, the audio in the videos was of poor quality. That coupled with an accent and mistakes in the subtitles... it just made the course harder to get through.
Second, while there seems to be some structure to the videos, definitions were given in a somewhat haphazard manner, with different terms and formulas being used without having been declared or clarified upfront…
Unlike the other people who have commented on this course, I do not think it was very good overall.
First of all, the audio in the videos was of poor quality. That coupled with an accent and mistakes in the subtitles... it just made the course harder to get through.
Second, while there seems to be some structure to the videos, definitions were given in a somewhat haphazard manner, with different terms and formulas being used without having been declared or clarified upfront…
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes
Adelyne C
by
Adelyne
completed this course, spending 6 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be medium.
This course is wonderfully structured and has a lot of useful material which can be applied in many different industries. The assignments in particular give very realistic examples to work through, and I felt that they were adequately difficult to challenge a student's understanding of the topic.
Being the second Wharton School course which I have taken (the other being Introduction to Marketing), I am doubly impressed by the quality of MOOCs produced as both of these modules are by far the best ones I have taken so far.
Being the second Wharton School course which I have taken (the other being Introduction to Marketing), I am doubly impressed by the quality of MOOCs produced as both of these modules are by far the best ones I have taken so far.
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Anonymous
Anonymous
completed this course.
This course was excellent. Professor was a pleasure to listen to. However, I misplaced my course syllabus and now require it. The syllabus has drastically changed since 2014 when I took it. Could anyone please assist me?
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Jonathan G
by
Jonathan
completed this course, spending 5 hours a week on it and found the course difficulty to be very hard.
This was introduction to business operations. However, I found it somewhat repetitive and I already knew that it was basically how to run business operations. Also, I found some of the assignments to be redundant and had a lot more math in it than I expected. I have dyscalculia so I didn't expect this. I would not recommend this course to anybody.
3
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David
is taking this course right now, spending 1 hours a week on it.
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