Tag: teaching videos

Video Tips: How We Use Videos in the New 15th Edition

We are big believers that videos are a valuable teaching and learning tool in our OM and SCM courses. With the newly published 15th edition we offer the following free video features.

New video cases: We provide over fifty 8-12 minute integrated Video Cases to help readers see and understand operations and supply chain management in action within a variety of industries. With this edition, we take you behind the scenes at Oregon State University, which recently rebuilt a major portion of its football stadium and re-envisioned the game day experience for fans. .
These new OSU videos provide an inside look at:
• Project Management in Rebuilding OSU’s Football Stadium (Ch. 3);
• Capacity Planning for Oregon State University’s Football Stadium (Supp. 7);
• Designing a New Stadium Experience at Oregon State University (Ch. 9); and
• Planning for a Home Football Game at Oregon State University (Ch. 15).
In addition, we continue to offer our previous Video Cases that cover: Celebrity Cruises, the Nautique Boat Company, Alaska Airlines, the Orlando Magic basketball team, Frito-Lay, Darden/Red Lobster Restaurants, Hard Rock Cafe, Arnold Palmer Hospital, and Wheeled Coach Ambulances. All of these were filmed by the author team specifically to match the chapters and topics in the text.

New Video Clips: In addition, hundreds of 1-2 minute clips from these videos are now imbedded throughout the interactive digital text to provide students with brief snapshots of the techniques they’re reading about being applied in industry. With a quick click, students can see the immediate topic brought to light.

Excel Spreadsheet Videos: We include “Creating Your Own Excel Spreadsheets” in 12 chapters of the book to illustrate how students can build their own spreadsheets to solve OM problems. We also have videos to accompany these examples.

Solved Problem Videos:  There are over 90 solved problems at the end of chapters to help students review models they studied in the text. We have filmed ourselves walking step-by-step through each of these in 5-15 minute videos.

Recent Graduate Videos: Want your students to learn about jobs in OM/SCM? Here are a dozen 4-minute videos filmed by recent grads describing their work in the discipline. Each grad also includes personal tips for landing a job and future success.

To order your desk copy of the 15th edition, just click on the link above.

 

Introducing Our Newest Text Editions

Has it been three years already? I guess so, since our newest editions of Operations Management (13th ed.) and Principles of Operations Management (11th ed.) are due out on January 15th! Jay and Chuck and I really excited about all the new features in these books and in MyLab Operations Management. Over the next few weeks we will highlight the changes for you. But today, we want to describe the themes of the books.

About 21 years ago, Jay and I decided to focus on a different well-known company in each edition. We created a series of video case studies featuring the strengths of each firm, and discussed those firms throughout the edition. The covers of each edition, starting with Hard Rock in 2001, also tied the book to that organization. Arnold Palmer Hospital followed, then Darden (Red Lobster/ Olive Garden), Frito-Lay, the Orlando Magic, and Alaska Airlines. As you see, we provide students with a broad coverage of industries, stressing the service sector, as that is where most jobs lie. The idea is to show how important OM is in the real world, with these 45 motivational short films.

With our new editions, we decided to talk about the floating cities called cruise lines. What a vast range of OM issues are faced by the Captain of a vessel with 3,000 passengers and 1,800 crew from three dozen countries! The featured firm, on the covers as usual, is the leader in the “premium” market, Celebrity Cruises, based in Miami. We think the students will really enjoy the five new video cases, which are featured in Chapter 1 (overall use of OM) , Chapter 5 (design of the new ships), Supplement 5 (sustainability), Chapter 6 (quality), and Chapter 12 (inventory). We will take you inside this cruise line for a fascinating look at how operations drives almost every decision on board. Welcome aboard!

Barry in the Celebrity Edge control room on its maiden voyage this week.

 

 

 

MyOMLab: Three New Types of Homework Assignments

myomlabAs you start to use MyOMLab in your fall classes, Jay and I want to make sure you are aware of 3 features we have added as homework options. They are: Conceptual Multiple Choice questions, Video questions, and OM in the News questions. To review these, just go to Instructor’s tools, then Assignment manager, and Create assignment. You can check the boxes for these three categories to see what is available.

For example, under Conceptual MC questions, you will find four questions that apply to each major heading throughout the text. These are perfect questions to assign to students the week before you lecture on a particular topic. Jay has been doing this for many years and finds students much better prepared for class than they were before they were encouraged to scan the topics and answer the questions.

The Video questions relate to the 30+ videos we have created for the text, ranging from the Orlando Magic (the latest set) to Frito Lay, Hard Rock, Arnold Palmer Hospital, Regal Marine, Darden, and Wheeled Coach Ambulances. You can ask your students to watch a video and then assign one or more of the four questions (multiple choice) that we have created for that video.

If you like the OM in the News features in this OM Blog, you may find that your students benefit from reading about current news relating to OM as well. There are now 1-3 readings listed in each chapter, with 4 multiple choice questions you may assign for each reading. The readings are short–300 to 400 words–and directly linked to the chapter you are covering.

More and more options for keeping your students engaged, current, and graded without any effort on your part. Let us know what you think.

 

 

Teaching Tip: Preparing for Your On-Line Operations Course


online teachingA few simple rules that can help you set up your first online operations management course just appeared in Faculty Focus (March 3, 2014). Do you have some tips of your own you would like to add in a comment?

1: Provide Extra Detail in Your Online Syllabus Most of us spend much of the first day of class going through the syllabus, taking time to elaborate on different points, and answering questions as we go along. Online classrooms lack this time, and so the syllabus must be more detailed.
2: Design for the Web The online environment is fundamentally visual, built on videos, interaction, and exploration. All effective communication requires an understanding of the rules of that environment. Don’t view the online environment through the paradigm of the face-to-face environment. Use the 35 company videos Jay and I have developed to match the chapters in the text. Insert the Virtual Office Hours we have created for the 80 Solved Problems as well. 
3: If Someone Can Say it Better Than You, Then Let Them Faculty often think they must develop every piece of content from scratch, but nearly all of the information in their head is available somewhere else. Use the web to your advantage by curating, rather than creating, content whenever possible.
4: Use a Consistent Format Create a template of what you will want from students in each module and follow it. It might be that your modules start with a video overview of the material, links to various content, three discussion questions, etc.
5: Remember the Workload Parameters Faculty commonly assign too much content in an online class. If you assign too much, students will only view part of it, and the part they choose may not be what you think is most important. Better to define a workload range and stay within it. MyOMLab can certainly help with this.
 6: It Takes Longer Than You Think  Most faculty underestimate how long it will take to develop online content. So try to develop your content during the semester prior to the course going live.

Video Tip: Tesla and a Factory Full of Robots

teslaElon Musk recently made the cover of Fortune (Dec.9, 2013) as its 2013 Business Person of the Year for his famous creation of both Tesla and Space X.  The article recalls that just a few years back, the best most people could say about electric cars was that they would be great for sustainability, but for the foreseeable future they’d be horribly limited by range and wouldn’t be very appealing to drive. Battery technology was simply too expensive and too heavy for it to be otherwise. The key breakthrough was to switch to lithium-ion battery technology, an expensive technology used not in cars, but in computers and phones.  Musk believed that if you could combine large enough numbers of lithium-ion cells into a single battery, you could provide not only adequate range for a car but also power capable of turning the humble electric car into an object of desire.

Musk wasn’t the first person to have that insight. His genius was to take that core idea to its logical conclusion and integrate it into a broader picture of how a series of such cars could be manufactured and marketed for ever-shrinking costs, in a sequence that would eventually bring Tesla to the mass market. A full seven years ago, he posted an article titled “The Secret Tesla Motors Master Plan,” which outlined the basics: three generations of cars, first the super high-end sports car, then a sporty 4-door family car, then a mass market car. And underpinning it all, the conviction that the cars wouldn’t just work, but be lusted after.

He had no certainty that the company would succeed. But he was convinced that (a) the laws of physics meant that electric power could deliver a profoundly better automobile, (b) there was a path to possible success via three generations of cars, and (c) the goal was essential if humanity was to have a shot at a sustainable-energy future. This  5 minute video of the Tesla S production is one your students will enjoy as it shows the power of robotics in manufacturing.

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.