Category: Guest Posts

Guest Post: Reinforcing Key Concepts in Your OM Course with Discussion Boards

Dr. Wende Huehn-Brown, at  St. Petersburg College, provides her Guest Post today on the interesting subject of discussion boards.

With students retaining less than 20% of what we may say in a physical class, figuring out a communication system to reinforce key concepts can be vital to learning.  In MyOMlab there are tools for real-time communications such as Chat and ClassLive, as well as traditional email communication tools.  This guest blog will focus on how a Discussion Board may be used.

Two years ago, I read “Weblog Technology for Instruction, Learning, and Information Delivery” ( by J.P. Shim and C. Guo, Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education, Jan., 2009).   The authors showed how discussion boards can be used in a Learning Management System (LMS).  This was kind of a light bulb moment for me and led to rethinking how I create discussion boards.  According to B.W. Dearstyne’s article “Blogs, The New Information Revolution?” ( Information Management Journal, 2005), boards are a “… means of collecting and organizing fresh insights and opinions … fostering knowledge and information sharing as a way of enhancing productivity”.  Doing a blog outside the LMS can further enhance connectivity to other people, organizations, other classes, etc.

I originally started with further discussion of key concepts and case questions in the lesson.  This often extended into service management and integrating other disciplines (such as  marketing and  finance) through adaptive learning concepts, and to providing further tips on completing submissions (i.e., additional tutorials, as I have quite a few students that struggle with math).  There is further peer-to-peer learning that provides a perception of personalized learning and interaction with the profession.  My discussion boards have evolved to include Frequently Asked Questions on assignments to help students in an open format–especially those students that seem to fear asking questions.  Additionally, I  share events going on; either local ones they can attend (i.e. competitions, scholarships, professional organization networking, etc.) or news stories relative to the lessons (thanks, Jay and Barry … I often use your OM blog).

Students frequently comment positively on the way discussion boards work in this class.  What are your creative ways to use discussion boards?

Guest Post: Teaching OM in Both Online and Blended Courses

Dr. Wende Huehn-Brown is Professor of Business at St. Petersburg College. She has 17 years of engineering and management experience and holds a Ph.D. from the U. of Missouri-Rolla. She can be reached at huehnbrown.wende@spcollege.edu.

Five years ago I began teaching Operations Management using the Heizer-Render text entirely online.  I quickly saw how online students struggled with learning the lessons compared to my blended students.  So I spent many hours creating screen capture tutorials that worked through similar homework problems, as well as a lecture series to help students integrate the concepts and evaluate how they are applied in organizations.  I have used this technology in my classes for the past four and a half years. 

Currently, there is quite a bit of discussion about the evolving focus in online courses, but I want to emphasize we cannot overlook the impact on student learning.  In the blended classes I am able to add to this online format with active learning activities, simulations, and games at physical class meetings.  In January, 2012 I started using the New Design MyOMLab (I began the prior version in Fall, 2010).  I have always seen how blended student grades were significantly better than the grades of entirely online students.   (In the New Design instructor tools you can now view student performance by AASCB standards).  At this point my sample size is small, but blended students showed a 14% improvement in analytical skills and reflective thinking skills over online students.  These are vital skills our organizations need to be more competitive in today’s global marketplace.

Considering that all other course resources were the same, except for the blended physical class meeting, it left me pondering that modality value to student learning.  I acknowledge the integration of active learning activities, simulations, and games in our OM discipline.  Obviously, I have more data to collect, but I wanted to share the major impact on vital learning standards and encourage colleagues in this field to share their results.  What are your results?

Guest Post: Teaching Operations at the University of Tennessee

Dr. Bogdan C. Bichescu is Assistant Professor of Management Science in the College of Business Administration at the University of Tennessee. He teaches OM in very large classes and shares his experiences with us. Click here to see his syllabus.

The introductory Operations class at the University of  Tennessee often exceeds 600 students a semester. It  meets as a single section and is required for all business majors. Therefore, the topics included aim to be relevant to a wide audience of majors. The class features concepts (such as Theory of Constraints,  lean manufacturing, and waiting line management) that  demonstrate  principles useful in the streamlining of processes in different services environments. Additional topics, such as decision analysis and project management, seek to develop students’ organizational skills and decision-making abilities. Students report finding these topics interesting and practical. 

An early format for the class included a lab component, in addition to the weekly lecture. The labs offered the opportunity to cover several different HBR cases (e.g., Manzana Insurance, National Cranberry Cooperative) and experiential simulations (e.g., variations of the Dice Game, Project Simulation) to  illustrate the concepts discussed in the lecture. Student teams were assigned various case questions and had to deliver an oral presentation of their findings. TAs were responsible for teaching the labs and grading student presentations. Overall, students enjoyed working on cases and welcomed the opportunity for interaction in the labs. 

The current format removes the labs from the structure of the class. The lecture-only format eliminates the challenge of coordinating 6-7 teaching assistants and allows for more consistent grading. However, this format makes the inclusion of cases and simulations more difficult and revives the challenge of engaging the students. To address these limitations, I made The Goal, by Eli Goldratt, a required class reading (the book never fails to generate a lively class discussion) and I created an online discussion board where students ask questions and discuss class material. Bonus points are awarded to the most active board participants. MyOMLab also helps engage students through weekly assignments which comprise a combination of quantitative problems, readings, and cases.

Guest Post: The Numbers Don’t Lie

 Professor Howard Weiss at Temple University’s Fox School of Business writes about his experiences with MyOMLab. Howard, the developer of both Excel OM and POM for Windows,  is also Academic Director of  Temple’s EMBA program.

I just received my teaching evaluation scores from the Fall 2011 semester and once again they have improved. I have evaluations that go back to 2005, but Temple U. changed evaluation questions beginning in 2008 so I can only compare evaluations from 2008 and later. Fall of 2008 was the last year that I taught the course without MyOMLab.  The two questions that we consider the most important are:

  • The instructor taught this course well
  • I learned a great deal in this course.

My average score in 2008 on the first question above was 4.15. The average during my last 3 MyOMLab years is 4.43. On the second question, I have seen a steady increase. Before using MyOMLab the average was 3.95. Since 2009, the averages have risen each year from 4.1 to 4.3 to 4.4 this past Fall. Since the only change in the course has been my adoption of MyOMLab, I have to believe that use of MyOMLab is a major reason for the increase.

On the evaluations, several students write: “ MyOMLab was very helpful” or “MyOMLab contributes to my learning”. From discussions,  it is clear that they write this because  MyOMLab offers instant help when doing homework problems. They appreciate the feedback they receive when they enter an incorrect answer, and also the Help Me Solve This Option, which breaks down the problem step-by-step. They value the eText option which takes them directly to the right pages in the textbook. They don’t have to carry their textbook around, nor do they have to page through the textbook to find the relevant information. Of course, when they are stuck on a problem, they like the Ask My Instructor option and my responsiveness to their questions sent to me from MyOMLab. (I appreciate that the homework problem from MyOMLab is included in the email I am sent.)

 The only negative comment on the evaluations was in 2009, and was about  MyOMLab having little tolerance for round off errors. This has been corrected  and is no  longer an issue.  My hope is that MyOMLab will get even better and that my evaluation scores will also!

Guest Post: How I Deal With the 1st Day of Class Syndrome at Texas Tech

Phillip Flamm, who is the Core Course Coordinator for OM at Texas Tech U., provides today’s Guest Post–his 6th for us.  Phillip teaches in the ISQS Department at the Rawls College of Business. He can be reached at p.flamm@ttu.edu.

It seems that large classes (>150) tend to have certain challenging characteristics no matter what the course. One of the most maddening issues is the impact of the student syndrome. In short, students feel less engaged in large classes and therefore sometimes start very slowly. I have incorporated several tactics that help motivate students to start course work immediately:

  • I pick a good student from past classes to speak briefly the first day. I leave the room so the class will expect an honest appraisal from the ex-student. They detail exactly what it takes to make a good grade in the course with an emphasis on getting started (purchasing the book, joining a focus group, time management calendar, etc.) immediately.
  • My course, Operations Management, is half lecture and half lab (semester long project requirement). I teach all the lectures and I have 7 or 8 lab instructors who teach 14 labs. The first day, lab instructors show recorded video descriptions of lab project requirements so each student will get the same idea of what is required. 
  • Also in the first day’s lecture I detail exactly what it takes to make a good grade:
    • Join a focus group (7 different times available) to verify their notes.
    • Utilize PRS clickers to answer extra credit questions.
    • Utilize custom notes pages in the back of the text book to record their personal lecture notes.
    • Point out poor grade statistics of students with no text book.
    • And what’s in it for them:
      • Develop skills that recruiters want (work well in teams, verbal and written presentations, developing a business plan)
      • Evidence that students have used their projects as successful talking points in interview situations to get a job.

It is impossible to motivate everyone to start fast, but hitting the students from several angles initially seems to help.

Guest Post: Using MyOMLab for Exams at Temple University

Today’s Guest Post comes from Professor Howard Weiss at Temple University’s Fox School of Business. Howard, the developer of both Excel OM and POM for Windows,  is also Director of  Temple’s EMBA program.

When myomlab first became available in the Fall of 2009 I had some qualms about using it for my exams because it was new technology and I was worried that there might be technical problems. On my midterm exam, I gave my usual paper exam except that I put one question on myomlab in order to see how the process worked. It worked flawlessly. Even when one or two students had some issue in the middle of the exam, the exam reopened at the same point where it closed. For my final exam I gave half of the problems on paper exams and half on myomlab. The students loved getting their myomlab grade immediately. Of course, I loved not having to grade those exams and I also loved that students had different data from each other for the same problems.

When I surveyed my students they requested that the entire exam should be from myomlab. I am not sure how much of their opinion was positive towards myomlab and how much was negative towards my own questions but I certainly had no reservations about accommodating the students. Since that first semester I have used myomlab exclusively for my undergraduate exams. It is even nicer to use myomlab now than when it first came out because it now has a feature that allows me to enter my own problems or questions into the exam.

There can be one downside to using myomlab. Myomlab does not give partial credit in the way a professor would. For example, on my written exams, if a student entered a wrong demand rate in an inventory model but otherwise interpreted the results properly I would give half credit even though all of the answers would be wrong. In myomlab, the student gets no credit. Of course, I have warned my students about this and told them they need to be extra careful when using myomlab just like they need to be extra careful when filing a tax return. Myomlab is as unforgiving as the IRS when mistakes are made!

Guest Post: Teaching Simulation at Goldey-Beacom College

Today’s Guest Post, by Dr. Robert Donnelly, Professor of Management at Goldey-Beacom College, in Delaware, describes how he teaches simulation (Module F). Bob is the author of a new Business Statistics text appearing in 2012, published by Prentice-Hall.

Simulation is one of my favorite topics in the OM course here at Goldey-Beacom College. Students seem interested in learning how many relatable applications involve simulation. I use the video sports games as an example. I also show them Strat-O-Matic baseball cards which is a dice game based on actual player performance from the previous season.

I like to schedule this topic at the end of the semester because it allows me to revisit the EOQ and waiting line problems that I cover earlier in the course. I present simulation as an alternative approach when the assumptions for the EOQ and waiting line models don’t hold true. Then I apply simulation to the overbooking problem with airlines and hotels. As consumers, most students don’t realize the benefits to overbooking until they work through a simulation model.

I also demonstrate Extend, which is simulation modeling software. I set up the queuing model with this software in class (Problem F.8) and simulate 40,000 customers and compare these results with what we found doing it on the board. I show them an Excel file that simulates the inventory problem from the Render-Stair  Managerial Decision Modeling book (Chapter 10) and compare that to what we did in Module F. We wrap up the topic by talking about two actual business examples where the simulation model resulted in significant savings for the companies.

I like this topic because it catches the students’ attention and, for the most part, they do well solving these types of problems on  exams.

Guest Post: The Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of the Bullwhip Effect

Today’s guest Post comes from Kelly Thomas, who is a supply chain management professional and executive at JDA Software.

Demand variability is among the most important challenges facing supply chain managers today. Demand variability that is not properly managed manifests itself in terms of the well-known bullwhip effect, which results in large inefficiencies. Jay Forrester first described the bullwhip effect in his seminal work Industrial Dynamics, published in 1961. This effect says that a change in independent demand at the consumer level leads to increasing swings in dependent demand at each point upstream in the supply chain. This effect held sway over supply chains since the beginning of the industrial revolution.

However, during the mid 2000s, it appeared that the bullwhip effect had been reduced; studies by the Federal Reserve show the bullwhip effect attenuating dramatically from the beginning of the 1990s through the middle 2000s. These studies attributed this to the widespread adoption of improved supply chain management practices and supporting information technologies. These same studies postulated the overall economy had entered a new era of lower variability.

As we know by now, the Great Recession of 2008-2009 and its lingering effects have changed a lot of this thinking. It appears the bullwhip effect has come back with a vengeance. Increasing variability caused by demand uncertainty, globalization, new product introduction, and escalating customer expectations have outstripped companies’ abilities to effectively manage their supply chains. This has led to increased interest in supply chain segmentation, driving the supply chain from independent demand, visibility and synchronization, and optimizing the use of production and inventory resources.

To support these needs, companies are now going through a technology refresh phase to support higher levels of sophistication in such areas as S&OP, demand management, order promising, inventory optimization, and customer collaboration. For example, companies such as Dell and Sony are transforming their supply chains to stay ahead of the variability curve.

Guest Post: Using a Lab/Project Component in Our Texas Tech Summer OM Class

Phillip Flamm, who is the Core Course Coordinator for OM at Texas Tech U., provides today’s Guest Post–his 5th for us.  Phillip teaches in the ISQS Department at the Rawls College of Business. He can be reached at p.flamm@ttu.edu.

We have used a lab/lecture component successfully for our undergraduate  Introduction to Operations Management course at Texas Tech for several years. During the summer sessions we changed to a strictly lecture/exam format due to the brevity of the session (30 calendar days per session). There have been two negative consequences of the summer session approach: first, the students miss out on the lab portion (preparing a business plan for a start up manufacturing business) and secondly, some students have scheduled the class in the summer to avoid the lab component (enrollment had swelled to 200 total students each summer). This summer we attempted to rectify that situation with a little creative scheduling:

  • Combined 100 students into two sections, one for each summer session
  • Class met Monday-Friday for 1 hour and 50 minutes
  • I handled the lectures for 1 hour and 20 minutes daily
  • For the other 30 minutes I enlisted the help of a very talented PhD student (who had taught the lab portion before) to break the group into two 50 person sections (roughly 16 teams each)
  • During the lab portion teams prepared a slightly shorter version of the manufacturing start up business plan (presented in verbal and written form)
  • Projects were presented and graded the last four days of each session (I graded half the teams and the PhD student graded the other half during the same time slot)

The hybrid approach seemed to be a huge success. Summer school students received the great learning experience of preparing a business plan from an operations perspective and the students attempting to dodge the lab component got a difficult, but necessary life lesson. In addition, the PhD student was able to get a little wider range of teaching experiences (lecturing large sections, organizing/advising student teams, and grading presentations) than is normally available. It was a win/win for all!

Guest Post: Great Homework Problems for Software

Today’s guest post is by Prof. Howard Weiss at the Fox School of Business, Temple University. Howard is also Director of the Fox EMBA program. You can view Howard’s syllabus by clicking here.

As the developer of POM for Windows and Excel OM, I am naturally biased about the use of software in an OM class. I believe that students should not be bogged down in the mechanics of computations but rather should understand concepts, inputs and outputs. While 90% of the homework problems in the Heizer/Render text can be solved with my two programs, I see four types of categories of problems that are strong candidates for assigning students using the software.

(1) Large problems, such as project management are good example of models with simple but tedious computations. There is no reason to ask students to solve CPM models with more than 8 activities by hand.  In forecasting, I want students to understand the meaning and use of the trend and the error measures rather than spending time computing the intercept and slope. For control charts, if a student has computed results for 5 samples by hand or with Excel does it really make sense to ask the student to calculate the results by hand for 30 samples?

(2) Iterative Models, such as LP, assignment, and transportation, should focus on the formulation of the problems and the interpretation of the results.

(3) Models with multiple methods, where it is useful for students to compare the results of these different methods without having to try every method by hand themselves. Models that come to mind are time-series analysis, assembly line balancing and one-machine scheduling. In addition, it is much easier to change the number of servers in a waiting line model in POM or Excel OM than by hand.

(4) Models for which the software goes a step further than the text, such as: machine scheduling, where Moore’s method is available to minimize the number of late jobs; Wagner-Whitin for lot-sizing; LP for a ranging analysis.

Guest Post: Build It and They Will Learn–Introducing OM at DePaul U.

Dr. Lori Cook is Associate Professor of Management at DePaul University’s School of Business. In her Guest Blog, she describes how important  experiential learning is to her Operations Management classes. You can see her syllabus by clicking here.

I absolutely love the first day of my OM class! As my students enter the classroom, sometimes dreading the start of a new term, I can feel the nervous energy in the air.  After teaching thousands of students, I know with certainty that from day one I need to grab my students’ attention and immediately get them to understand why OM is key to understanding business environments.

On the first day, I use the Paper Puppet activity (see Games and Exercises for Operations Management, by Heineke and Meile, Prentice Hall) to help set the stage.  Upon completion of this exercise, students have an experience they can directly relate to the challenges operations managers are forced to struggle with everyday. It can also be directly linked to the 10 critical decisions of operations introduced in the Heizer and Render OM text. Without the use of the Paper Puppet activity, the majority of the lecture would cover only the basic levels of knowledge. 

Throughout the term, I use a variety of experiential learning activities to simulate “real world” applications of OM.  Research has shown that actively involving students in demonstrations enhances their fundamental understanding of the concepts. My activities tend to level the playing field by providing students with a common understanding of the subject matter.  Each exercise is designed to either introduce or reinforce the lecture topic with the goal of enhancing overall student learning.  If you are looking for experiential activities, I would encourage you to explore the teaching briefs in the Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education. 

The classroom environment is a fundamental building block in the learning process. It is critical to create a classroom experience which is both engaging and enjoyable.  It must be an environment that provides motivation to assist the students in grasping the real world relevance of the material. To see fundamental change in your classroom environment, you will often have to change your process.  While most of us are fearful of change, the long-term rewards far outweigh the short-term costs.

Guest Post: Why Our Students Love MyOMLab at Temple University

Today’s Guest Blog is from Professor Howard Weiss at Temple University’s Fox School of Business and Management. Dr. Weiss is the developer of both POM for Windows and Excel OM, the two problem-solving software packages available free to adopters of our OM texts.

I started using myomlab when it first came out in Fall of 2009. In spite of a few difficulties that occurred with the automated grading that first semester, my students loved myomlab. This past semester has gone even better for my students due to the Copy feature that has been added to myomlab and the Paste from myomlab feature that has been added to POM for Windows and Excel OM. These features enable students  to copy data from problems where the data is expressed in table form. The table of data can be copied from myomlab and then pasted into Excel and then manipulated or pasted directly into either a model created in POM for Windows or a model generated by Excel OM.

The advantages are obvious. Students do not waste their time entering data but rather use the time obtaining and interpreting results. Essentially, my students this year spent less time on homework assignments than my students from last year and also had more time to think about the problems during the exams since they spent less time entering data. In addition, the automated copy of data from myomlab eliminates the possibility that the student will get a problem wrong due to a data entry error. Sadly, students still get problems wrong in other ways, such as by using the wrong model, selecting the wrong method or choosing the wrong output value as their answer but they won’t get a problem wrong by mistyping a number.

I always give my own course evaluation at the end of each semester where I ask students for feedback about the specifics of the course rather than the general feedback that is asked of students by Temple University. Once again, each and every student indicated that I should continue to use myomlab. The best comment was, “That is amazing! I was able to copy the data set right into POM and I solved the problem.”


Guest Post: Spicing Up the Assignment Problem in Class at Washington State U.

Chuck Munson is Associate Professor of Operations Management at Washington State University. He is also the author of the Instructor’s Resource Manual for our OM texts. Here Dr. Munson describes an interesting class exercise for Ch.15.

In an attempt to generate student interest in the assignment problem, I recently created a little in-class exercise called “Celebrity Apprentice,” where the task for the students was to assign each member of a celebrity team to a specific task for a rich potential client. The goal was to secure business from this client, who’s managers are accustomed to responding positively to bribery and favors. The six tasks were: (1) handle the money, (2) take the managers to a bar and drive them home, (3) sing to them in a private concert, (4) take them golfing, (5) locate female escorts for the managers, and (6) negotiate the contract. The six celebrities on the team were: (1) Lindsey Lohan, (2) Tiger Woods, (3) Mel Gibson, (4) Lady Gaga, (5) Charlie Sheen, and (6) Chuck. (By inserting yourself in the list, you can provide several self-deprecating remarks that the students may enjoy regarding your respective abilities to perform tasks.)

When I tried the exercise, the students laughed a lot, and they enjoyed shouting out ratings and arguing with each other about the scores. Some tasks led to ambiguous ratings, depending on the celebrity. For example, for the “take them to the bar and drive them home” category, certain celebrities might be rated high based on their respective partying skills; however, several of the same celebrities have been picked up for drunk driving or even getting into car accidents while drunk. So what rating would be appropriate? In some cases, the instructor can even assign ratings outside of the normal range for extreme fit or lack thereof (again, this is where self-deprecating remarks can draw some laughs). The students seemed to get a kick out of the whole thing, and I expect to repeat this exercise in the future. If you try it, have fun! The possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

Guest Post: Creating Collaborative Opportunities in Large OM Classes

Phillip Flamm teaches in the ISQS Department at Texas Tech University. This is his 4th Guest Post on tools for teaching OM. His 1st post was on how he handles large sections, 2nd on the use of “clickers”, and most recent on lab components.

Studies suggest that students can comprehend and retain information more quickly when studying in a group environment (collaborative learning). In large class sections (>100) a collaborative learning environment is difficult to create. I have added voluntary “focus groups” to my large sections of Introduction to Operations Management in an effort to create a supplemental collaborative learning environment. Students attend these “focus groups” regularly at a scheduled time after each lecture. Exam grades for members of these groups run 10 to 15 points higher than the average exam score.

At the first of the semester I ask for volunteers to lead the groups. I meet with these students directly after each class and spend 10 to 15 minutes summarizing lecture concepts. Then the group leaders meet later with the members of their respective “focus groups” and guide them through the material (usually one hour). Members are encouraged to ask questions and add comments as needed. This collaborative learning environment allows group leaders as well as group members to increase comprehension of lecture material in a very time effective manner.

I believe in an effort-based grading system and I try to reward students who give extra effort.  Students who are willing to put forth extra effort by attending “focus group” meetings are rewarded with a better understanding of course material and ultimately higher grades. Students that don’t attend meetings generally are pushed farther down the grade pecking order. The lesson here for the group leaders is that teaching a topic is the best way to learn that topic. For students in general the lesson is that the effort required to take advantage of collaborative learning pays off both in comprehension and grade performance.

Guest Post: The OM Course with a Lab Component at Texas Tech

Today’s Guest Post is  from Phillip Flamm, who teaches OM in the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University. For details, feel free to email him at p.flamm@ttu.edu.

When I first began teaching Introduction to Operations Management 8 years ago the course was designed as a highly quantitative, large section (250 students), lecture-only format. This was a nightmare to teach from a lot of different angles which gave me plenty of motivation to “find a better way.” I split the course into one 1 ½ hour lecture session and one 1 ½ lab session per week. The lab focus is a semester long project where the students go through the complete planning cycle for the start up of a manufacturing company (corporate/business strategy, market analysis, customer requirements, product design phases, demand forecasting, break even analysis, capacity planning, location analysis, supply chain strategy, layout and facility design, and JIT concept utilization).

 Students (in teams of three) present the project in two parts, with a verbal presentation and written requirement for each part. They address the audience as if they were potential investors and the audience is required to ask questions to gauge the presenters’ ability to think on their feet. Lecture topics are presented along the same timeline as the development of the project in the lab. Lab instructors are PhD students who may be teaching for the 1st time. The course design is such that the lab instructors don’t have to do much other than learn the material and help the project groups, which is perfect for 1st time instructors.

Recruiters from Fortune 500 companies consistently have the following requirements at the top of their wish lists for college grads:

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills
  • Possess an entrepreneurial spirit
  • Strong problem solving and analytical skills
  • Must thrive and work well in a team environment.

The lab/lecture approach to teaching OM gives the students practice and training in all these areas. In addition, students report utilizing discussion of this project to be very effective during the interviewing process to exemplify the skill level of the student as a potential job candidate.