Today’s Guest Post comes from Dr. Albena Ivanova, who is Professor of OM at Robert Morris University in Pennsylvania.
Excel OM software, which comes free with your Heizer/Render/Munson text, is an excellent tool for students to learn the various concepts of Operations Management. I have been using this software in conjunction with MyOMLab ever since I started teaching. I have found that using this software has not only made the homework completion process smoother but also helped students gain a better understanding of the course concepts.
The first thing that I do is show students how to arrange their tabs so they can have the two screens open at the same time next to each other. I usually pick algorithmic problems for class practice, where we are all working on the same problem, but with different numbers. I use the Study Plan for class practice and then give similar questions (but with different numbers) for homework and for the exam. My homework is not time limited, however, the students have only one (1) attempt. If they need to practice, they can do that in the Study Plan before completing the homework.
In the attached video I explain the process of using the Excel OM software to complete an Aggregate Problem homework in MyOMLab. The software has been slightly modified, and I have explained these modifications in detail in the video. I think that these small edits provide additional learning experience for the students, as they can see how to create or edit their own templates.
Overall, using Excel OM software has been a game-changer in my classroom. It has helped students better understand the course concepts. I hope my experience and the attached video will be helpful to fellow operations management professors in their efforts to enhance the learning of their students.
The video is an outstanding display of Using Excel OM to help solve a problem for problems where Excel OM does not directly solve the problem. In this case, Excel OM does not allow for the input of days per month but Excel makes it easy to modify the Excel OM spreadsheet to include days per month as Professor Ivanova did. The step-by-step explanation in the video was exceptionally clear.
I have three observations.
1. At the initialization time, Excel OM could have been set to generate 6 periods rather than generating 12 and deleting 6 periods.
2.It was excellent that Professor Ivanova used column C to label the cells in column B.
3. I told my students not to hard code numbers, such as 1.6 hours per unit, into cells but to create a cell for those numbers and then refer to the cells when creating formulas rather than entering numbers directly into formulas. This makes it much easier to change the spreadsheet for what-if analysis.
Thank you, Howard. You developed a wonderful package for us and I am thrilled to see Prof. Ivanova use it so cleverly.