Teaching Tips – Page 13 – The OM Blog by Heizer, Render, & Munson

Teaching Tip: Examining Supply Chains

In Chapter 11, Figure 11.1, we present a Supply Chain with costs for beer. This figure provides an opportunity to discuss both the value added and the risks associated with each step in the supply chain. And, because students can often relate to the product, beer, the presentation encourages a discussion of not only the multiple tiers, but also the processing delays, logistics, storage, cooling, and where and how costs might be reduced in the supply chain. Finding other examples of Supply / Value Chains can be a challenge, but we found very timely and good examples (and perhaps almost as interesting as beer), by PetroStrategies, Inc. — supply chains of the oil and gas industries.

PetroStrategies shows both the Crude Oil Value Chain and the Natural Gas Value Chain. The great thing about their presentation is that in addition to the ‘chains’ being shown, so are estimates of Costs, Value (selling price at each stage), Gross Margins, Net Margins, and Percent of selling price for each component in the chain.

Given the current interest in oil and gasoline prices, a lively discussion of costs and values in the supply chain from wellhead to gasoline pump should ensue. You might note that although the data is relatively recent (2007), gasoline costs are shown at $2.00 per gallon.

Discussion Questions:

1. Where are the risks in these supply chains?

2. What can be done to enhance supply and / or reduce the risks?

3. Have you any suggestions about what could be done to reduce costs in these supply chains?

Teaching Tip: Inventory Simulation Game

Inventory Simulation Game

An excellent exercise for a hands-on understanding of the impact and cost of inventory policies was developed by Keith Willoughby (Bucknell University) and Ken Klassen (Brock University). The objective, not unexpectedly, is to maximize revenue against one of three normally distributed demand functions while driving ordering, shortage, and holding cost to a minimum.

The game, He Shoots, He Scores, is described in Chapter 12 of the Instructor’s Resource Manual. The Student Instructions handout is also there. These are also available in myomlab (see below). EOQ material is presented in the text in Chapter 12 and 14, while lot-for-lot and PPB are presented in Chapter 14. All are available in POM for Windows software as are Wagner-Whitin, Period Order Quantity, and a User Defined option.

The IRM and the Instructor Resources Section of myomlab suggest 30 to 40 minutes, but with any summary / analysis that is tight. I have run the game in a 50-minute period, but even then, I needed to keep an undergraduate class moving. Any introduction to inventory policies or software mechanics suggests a longer class.

To enliven the class, I give points for the team with the highest profit (say 10 points for the highest profit) and reduce the scores down to 1 point. With ten 3-person teams, a 30-student class is easily accommodated. I let the students be as creative as they want in selecting and implementing an inventory policy (EOQ, PPB, Wagner-Whitten, or something of their own creation, etc.) and use any software they want.

Another option is to assign various inventory policies to teams and then compare the results. This has the advantage of moving the class to a more structured discussion of inventory management…but it is less fun.

The instructions, student handout, and excel spreadsheet are available in myomlab under the ‘Instructor Resources’ button on the left hand navigation. Once on the ‘Instructors Resources’ page, look under the heading ‘Instructor Supplements’ for the bullet point, ‘See the Simulation Games.’ This shows three simulation exercises; click on the first one, the ‘Inventory Simulation Game;’ then click on ‘spreadsheet’ on the left top of the first page to get to the Excel spreadsheet.

My experience with the exercise is all positive … I recommend it.

Teaching Tip: Taking Your OM Students on a Company Visit

If a picture is worth a 1,000 words, then taking your OM class on a company tour is probably worth 1,000 pictures. Every semester, Jay and I plan at least one outing. When I was at UNO, my classes toured the operations of a washing machine manufacturer, a tie maker, and a toilet maker (American Standard). Here in Orlando, we have toured Regal Marine and Wheeled Coach (both featured in our video case series), the Orlando Sentinel newspaper, Lucent’s $1 billion chip plant, and an auto parts manufacturer.

While at George Mason U., my OM classes had over 300 students, making tours impossible. Jay and I recognized the need for OM videos, and our series now has over 30 custom-made films tied to the text chapters. If it’s service organizations you want to show, we have Hard Rock, Arnold Palmer Hospital, and Darden Restaurants. For manufacturing videos, the series features Frito-Lay, Wheeled Coach(ambulances), and Regal Marine (luxury boats).

Either way, the sad fact is that probably 99% of our students have never seen the inside of a factory, or the operations side of an airline, hospital, or newspaper.

A key element in my tours, though, is encouraging the students to really learn from the talks and walks. Each must turn in a paper with a paragraph on how the company we visited deals with the 10 OM decisions about which the text is organized. In other words, what is the company’s product strategy? What is its quality plan? How did it select this location? How does it manage its supply chain, etc?

A colleague at FIU likes to take his students for a behind-the-scenes tour of Miami’s Hard Rock Cafe. He first shows several of the Hard Rock videos in class to set the stage. Wherever you tour, your students will come away with a better appreciation of the critical role of OM.

Teaching Tip: Time & Motion and Monopoly Sets

There is no question that we crave more decent-paying factory jobs in this country. But to keep things in perspective, most of us (and our students) would probably not enjoy making our living with these jobs. Today’s Fortune (Feb.7, 2011, pp. 80-81) lists the “100 Best Companies to Work For”, with Hasbro ( the toy and game maker) ranked #59. In a world of ruthless outsourcing, the Hasbro plant in Springfield, Mass., is an anachronism. Even though more of its Monopoly, Scrabble, and Mousetrap games are now made in Southern China, Hasbro employees are deeply loyal to a company that just committed to $40 million in capital upgrades to keep their US plant’s assembly lines going.

But in a humorous article (not as yet on-line), Fortune reporter David Kaplan goes to work at Hasbro to see why the company is so beloved. He lasts a day, as a sort of George Plimpton in overalls– a cog in the assembly line for Monopoly boxes. Here is his tale:

“I’m at the back end of the assembly line, doing quality control. On a conveyor belt that mercilessly keeps advancing to my left comes open Monopoly box after Monopoly box. My dual task–every 1.81 seconds–is to place a plastic bag of dice and game tokens in a tray, while also ensuring that each box includes a container of 12 hotels and 32 houses, instructions, and a shrink-wrapped stack of money. I know just how Lucy and Ethel felt when they couldn’t keep up with the chocolates at the candy factory–except I can’t stuff the accumulating boxes in my bra….Who knew you could get motion sickness on an assembly line?”

Kaplan last only 4 minutes before vomiting. But Hasbro’s 600 employees, with average seniority of 21 years, seem to have mastered the manual dexterity, automatous concentration, and the need for a refined inner-ear. How many of us could do so for 21 years? The Fortune piece provides a good chance to discuss job enrichment and enlargement in Ch.10.

Myomlab: Homework vs. Quiz

As we receive comments and questions regarding Myomlab, I am reminded just how rich a teaching tool myomlab is. So here are some hints that you may find helpful.

Hint: You can create homework assignments using quiz mode, but the homework assignment defaults offer more student learning aids than the quiz option. The difference in problem presentation is that in homework, problems are presented in smaller chunks while in quiz/test they are unrolled and presented all at once. Additionally, if assignments set-up as homework the students can have more options in the help menu. Quiz has fewer options.

It may help to think of homework is a practice tool and not an assessment tool. For assessment use, assign graded homework as a quiz where you have more controls over how the assignment is presented and when students can view results. You may create ungraded practice homework and make those available to students, but not required. Then, if you would like to assign a grade for the practice homework, create a quiz covering the relevant learning objectives.

Hint: If you make an assignment so that it will give the correct answers after the due date, students who do not take the assignment cannot see the correct answers. The answers do not appear until after they attempt something.

Hint: The learning aids: text pages, guided solutions, and tutorial video tabs are all available to the student at faculty discretion as learning aids within myomlab. The guided solutions will walk a student through the same problem, but with different numbers. This helps them understand how to complete the problem, but does not disclose the answer to the exact problem they are working.

I think students will find all of the leaning aids helpful, but the guided solutions are wonderful!

Heather Kazakoff heather.kazakoff@pearson.com is the myomlab expert available to answer questions for current adopters. Prospective users should contact Anne Fahlgren, Anne.Fahlgren@pearson.com.

Teaching Tip: Building an SPC Chart with Airline Safety Data

A very interesting article just came out in US News and World Report (Jan.25,2011) that deals with airline safety “incidence reports”. I thought the data might make a good in class example of how to build and interpret a p-chart when you teach SPC in Supp.6. Here is the scenario US News reports:

All the major US airlines are very, very safe, to begin. Rarely do they end with a fatal crash (the last one was Feb.12, 2009 when Continental Connection #3407 killed 50 people when it crashed in Buffalo). But safety incidents do occur. (Recall the plane that landed in the Hudson River not long ago). Using FAA and other sources, documented incidents (such as mechanical issues) for the 8 largest carriers follow.

Jet Blue: 17 incidents per 219,000 flights in 2010. This averages to a p- value of .0000776

American Airlines: 87 per 1,241,000 or p=.0000701

United Airlines: 49 per 1,204,500 or p=.0000407

Delta Airlines: 77 per 1,994,725 or p=.0000386

Continental Airlines: 23 per 884,395 or p=.0000260

US Air: 24 per 1,131,865 or p= .0000212

Southwest Air: 23 per 1,131,500 or p=.0000203

Air Tran: 5 per 255,500 or p=.0000196

Take these 8 observations and have the class create a p-chart using these timely, real-world data. Are any of the major airlines “out-of-control”? ( I computed that the overall p-bar =.000038 (at 95% confidence). The UCL=.000042, and the LCL=.000033. Only two airlines are “in control”, but 4 are better than the LCL. I did this by computing the total sample size to be 8,062,985 with no. incidences =305).

Thanks to Prof. Kevin Watson at Iowa State for today’s link and idea.

Teaching Tip: The Secret to the Airline Pricing Model

This will probably be the 1st blog we do that can save you and your students money! The Wall Street Journal (Jan.27,2011) just reported that whatever you do, don’t buy your next airline ticket on a weekend.

We all know that airlines use revenue management (Ch.13) to maximize seat revenue. But the airlines don’t manage their inventory as actively on weekends, so if cheap seats sell on some flights, prices automatically jump higher. When is the best time to buy? The answer is Tuesday and Wednesday—and to be exact, it is at 3 pm on a Tuesday. “That’s when the maximum number of cheapest seats are on the marketplace”, says the CEO of FareCompare.com.

Though prices fluctuate frequently and the ups and downs of air fares can frustrate and anger us, it turns out that pricing has followed the same cycle during the week for many years. Discounts of 15-25% for seats are typically launched on Monday nights. “There is a method to the madness… behind the moves for airlines”, adds Expedia’s strategy director. “But for consumers it does seem crazy”. A ticket can be $199 on certain days and $499 other days, even months ahead of a flight.

Two weeks ago, reports the Journal, a Chicago-Atlanta round-trip ticket for April (on both American and Delta) cost $209 on Tuesday and Wednesday, but then $301 for the next 4 days. When Tuesday rolled around one week ago, the fares went to $219 —then back up to $307 by Friday.

This is certainly a topic that will interest your students.

Teaching Tip: The Key to OM Learning–Testing, Testing, Testing

Kevin Watson, at Iowa State U., just sent me a New York Times (Jan.20,2011) article titled “To Really Learn, Quit Studying and Take a Test“, based on research that appeared last week in Science. The piece opens: “Taking a test is not just a passive mechanism for assessing how much people know. It actually helps learn, and works better than a number of other studying methods”.

It turns out that students who are tested on a passage they read have a 50% improvement in recall than those using other techniques. Even getting an answer wrong had positive recall benefits. Experts call the results in Science striking.

The Times adds, “Testing, of course, is a highly charged issue in education, drawing criticism that too much promotes rote learning, swallows valuable time for learning new things, and causes excessive student anxiety”.

I disagree with this criticism. Not only do I like the idea of testing, I am a firm believer in weekly quizzes and even “pre-tests” assigned to students before each class. In this era of mass distractions available to students sitting in class (e-mail, texting, Solitaire), the one item that helps student focus is gathering the knowledge needed for a test.

By sheer coincidence, Prof. Bill Quain, at Stockton College, sent me the same NYT article the same day. When I asked how he kept the students’ attention, he laughed and said the magic words are “this will be on the test”. Even when he shows a You-Tube clip, he tells the class they will be quizzed on it.

How can we help? It turns out that our MyOMLab assessment system, which you can master in a half-hour, may be the cure. You can give pre-tests, quizzes, tests, all on-line. Each takes only 5 minutes to create and the grading is automated. Email anne.fahlgren@pearson.com for an on-line demo, or ask Anne to send a rep to your office for a personal tutorial.

Teaching Tip: Product Development Needs Revolution As Well As Evolution

Which is better? To create dramatic new products that wow the market–or to incrementally improve an existing product that performs well. Boeing, of course, has done both. It took its 737 and has gradually upgraded it dozens of times over the past 3 decades, making it the best selling plane of all times. But the firm also decided to bet the farm on its all new 787, the 1st large jet to have a structure made of high-tech lightweight composites. The headline in Tribune newspapers around the country yesterday pretty much sums up how that company’s operations managers feel these days: “Dreamliner Still in a Tailspin: Delay Plagued 787 a Huge Headache for Boeing and Suppliers”. Now 3 years late, about 100 orders have been cancelled by frustrated customers, and Boeing has spent close to $10 billion in cost overruns and penalties.

So when you teach this topic in Ch.5, I have two examples to share, both from recent TED talks. These short lectures, often by famous people, present some pretty amazing ideas. Let me start with the evolutionary example . My friend Allen Kupetz just gave a TED talk on how the pencil has changed over the past 445 years. He makes a good case for why small, incremental changes in product design are as important as revolutionary new products. (Allen traces from the start of the pencil in 1565, to the change to 6-sided in 1839, to the addition of an eraser in 1858, and so on). Try to show the last 5 minutes to your class.

How about revolutionary change? Perhaps the most inspiring talk you will ever hear is from Frank Reynolds, paralyzed with a permanent spinal cord injury while in grad school at St. Josephs U. Frank layed in bed for 5 years and taught himself everything he could about medicine. In the end, this amazing man has developed a cure for such injuries and has started a firm called InVivo Technologies. I was so impressed that I invested in his company! This video is worth your time.

Pretest Using Myomlab

To follow-up on last week’s Blog regarding Myomlab, I’ll comment on what I found to be a very successful application. I use a Pretest. That is, when introducing a new topic, I choose 6 to 10 introductory questions from Myomlab. These are usually multiple choice and perhaps a simple introductory problem. These problems are due via Myomlab prior to class. All I have to do is select the questions; the grading and posting are done automatically. I set-up a cutoff time a few minutes prior to class (I find student are often in the lab down the hall doing the problems at the last minute……what a surprise). With cumulative points on the pretests at 10 to 15% of the course grade, I find I get the attention of most students. However, a few words in class reminding students that the pretests are a part of the course that is an easy ‘A’ can be helpful.

The pretests can be a real aid in stimulating class interest and enhancing class participation. Pretests are a win-win. Students are more involved, your classes are more interesting, students are learning more, and your class evaluations go up.

I think you and your students will like Pretests. Give them a try.

Myomlab updates and enhancements

The Guided Solutions for all of the problems in Myomlab are now completed and available for spring semester. This means that students have the opportunity to click on the 123 tab on the upper left of the problem screen for help (a problem specific tutorial) when solving a bookmatch problem. The Guided Solutions are in addition to the Examples and Videos that are available with many problems.

As you may know, thousands of questions from the Test Item File are also available in Myomlab. With the good help of Chuck Munson (Washington State University), we have reviewed all of the True/False and Multiple Choice questions for accuracy. We have also made a special effort to remove any ‘tricky’ problems or problems with any ambiguity. These revisions too, are now available.

Additionally, the Myomlab platform has some enhancements. Among these are:

Track Time Spent on Media Students now will have to explicitly click the ‘submit’ button after viewing the media relevant to the assignment. This enables instructors to track the time students spent on each media file.

Custom Question Builder Updates For those of you adding your own questions, you are now able to edit table properties in Word-like tables.

Mobile App for iPhones, Pads, and Android phones (or it is a hi-tech world) This enhancement allows students to login and review information from the dashboard of their course. This means that course announcements, assignments, and results for completed work are readily available. However, students may not complete assignments from their mobile devices.

Teaching Tip: Incentive Systems Work in Sports Too!

If you are over 30 and have followed the NBA along the way, you probably remember one of the most colorful players of the game—Dennis Rodman. Green hair, difficult team player, a pattern of not showing up for games, Chicago Bulls NBA championship, and one of the most unusual incentive systems set up outside the C-suite….those are my memories. Rodman’s base was $4.5 million, with another $5.95 million (which he actually collected!) for completing each of the following: playing every game, leading the league in rebounding, having a 1.5 to 1 assist-to-turnover ratio, and hitting over 66% from the free-throw line. (Details from USA Today, Nov.26,1997, p.12).

Since we cover incentive systems in Ch.10, I am always looking for more current examples to use in class that will be of interest to our sports-oriented students–and I found one. ESPN.com just reported (Dec. 28, 2010) that NY Jets QB Mark Sanchez and Baltimore Ravens QB Joe Flacco stand to make millions in post-season contract incentives in early 2011.

Sanchez can pick up $1.875 million if he leads the Jets to a Super Bowl XLV victory on Feb.6 in Texas, and also lands the Lombardi Trophy. He gets $250,000 for every playoff win even if the final victory is elusive.

Flacco will be paid $200,000 per post-season win by the Ravens. This means a maximum of $800,000 for leading his team to the a Superbowl title.

One could question the need for such incentive systems in general. After all, they are already paid a small fortune to do their jobs. Maybe it only bothers me because my dean never gave out such bonuses in the B-school!

Guest Post: Using Personal Response System “Clickers” at Texas Tech U.

Our Guest Post today is from Phillip Flamm, who is an Instructor in the ISQS Dept. of the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University. His earlier Guest Post talked about teaching large OM sections.

I began my affair with personal response system clickers in 2004. I teach large sections (300- 400 students) of Intro to OM. The most serious problems I faced were getting the students to come to class and once they were there, keeping them engaged. At that time “clickers” were just starting to be noticed in higher education. I had what I thought at the time was a great idea: require the students to have clickers for answering questions in class. This was what I call the “Ugly” period. The first devices used microwave signals. Students complained about the prices ($40) and when 300 students all sent answers in at the same time about half of them weren’t recorded. As a result, I decided to use the system for extra credit only.

The next 3 years ushered in what I call the “bad” period . Microwave signals were replaced with radio frequency signals. Now all signals were received, but the new devices were still expensive and were very easily damaged. Batteries lasted about two weeks. I was swamped with complaints.

In 2010 the “good” era began. Clickers were dependable, albeit pricey. Fortunately, Texas Tech had adopted Turning Point as a campus-wide vendor and used clickers became available at every book store. But tracking results required downloading an Excel spreadsheet after class on a memory stick and transferring it to my office computer for totaling semester extra credit results.

Will 2011 be the beginning of the “great” era? Software is now available that allows students to use a clicker, a cell phone, or a laptop to answer questions. This should be an improvement depending upon whether it is actually easier to collect and summarize data. I’m switching to Turning Point Response Ware . From my experience I can tell you that use of clickers does provide the following advantages:

Refocuses the students’ attention (4 to 5 questions per lecture)
Allows for collaborative learning
Reinforces key points that may be exam questions (if students don’t get the correct answer I back track to bolster understanding).
Can be an excellent method of substantiating assessment for accreditation purposes.

Happy clicking!

Teaching Tip: Do Your Students Really Want an E-Textbook?

As Jay and I start writing the 11th edition of our OM text, we are excited about a whole variety of changes and additions we plan to make. But one discussion we have now had for over a decade is how to deal with the way students want to learn. And this always leads to the growing interest in e-books.

Our books have been available in an e-book format for a dozen years now, but students still buy, in overwhelming quantities, the printed text. This is despite the fact that students using our MyOMLab assessment software get a free version of the book on-line. Our editor just sent us an article from The Chronicle of Higher Education that may explain it.

The article opens with this line: “The vast majority of students say they prefer print textbooks over electronic ones, and attitudes have not shifted markedly in the past year”. The recent survey shows that 76% of students would pick a printed book over an e-textbook if given the choice. About 13% of the students had purchased an e-book, but most did so because their prof required that version. Why would that be, we wonder?

Maybe it’s because students are still uncomfortable with the technology. Only 8% of students own an e-reader device. Or perhaps the right technology has yet to hit us. I just reviewed the Kno and think it may be the machine that makes note-taking and interaction with the internet more comfortable to many of us. After you watch a 1-2 minute video at www.kno.com you may want to show it to your class and see what they think. Would you like your copy of the 11th edition delivered on a Kno?

Teaching Tip: Planning for Next Semester

As you wrap up one semester and look forward to a much-deserved winter holiday, it’s also time to think ahead to the next term. Here are just a few thoughts that summarize some of the blogs we have posted this semester:

1. Try to build some videos into the class schedule. They make a nice 10 minutes break and can lead to lively discussions. Jay and I have created 31 videos with short cases. They range from ambulance, boat, and potato chip manufacturers, to Hard Rock, Olive Garden, and Arnold Palmer Hospital.

2. Take MyOMLab for a test run if you haven’t used it as a testing/homework/assessment tool yet. We promise it will save you 10 hours a week in grading time, while raising the average GPA of students in your class almost a whole point. Just email Anne Fahlgren at anne.fahlgren@pearson.com for a personal on-line tour. An earlier blog has more MyOMLab details as well.

3. If you are teaching a very large OM class, check out Phillip Flamm’s Guest Post on how he handles his classes at Texas Tech. Its useful and entertaining!

4. If you would like to try a few in-class exercises, scroll through some of the Teaching Tips we have posted. My favorite is a 10 minute quality control “game” which makes a good point about inspection vs. sampling.

5. As you probably know, we provide 2 great software packages for solving homework problems–Excel OM and POM for Windows–free to students. I have found that students value these programs even long after they graduate. A Guest Post by Howard Weiss, who developed both packages, may be helpful.

6. Try out a guest speaker or two. Students seem to respond very positively to “experts”.

7. Finally, we encourage you to bring current news items about OM into your class. To help, we will be posting 3-4 OM in the News blogs every week.