Operations (BUSA90227)

Graduate courseworkPoints: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)

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As part of the University’s response to COVID-19 and the associated Government restrictions and guidelines, most subjects will continue to be delivered online in Winter and Semester 2.
For information about the University’s phased return to campus and in-person activity in Winter and Semester 2, please refer to the on-campus subjects page.

Please refer to the LMS for up-to-date subject information, including assessment and participation requirements, for subjects being offered in 2020.

Overview

Availability(Quotas apply)
January
April
June
September
FeesLook up fees

In fiercely competitive global and dynamic environments, companies face increasing pressures to exceed customer expectations along multiple performance measures, such as cost, quality, flexibility and innovativeness. To outperform their competitors, many firms make the mistake of mimicking their rivals, rather than focusing on developing the organizational capabilities that competitors will find difficult to match over the long term. And although operations are at the core of a firm’s value adding activities, few firms have sought to build a sustainable competitive advantage around these capabilities.

Operations deals with the design, management and continuous improvement of business processes. It aims at providing some of the core concepts in operations that are essential for leveraging a firm’s operational capabilities to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. This course provides a logical and rigorous approach to plan and control process structure and managerial levers to achieve desired business process performance.

Intended learning outcomes

On completion of this subject, students should be able to:



  • Analyse real-world processes and evaluate their consistency with the firm strategy.
  • Apply process analysis techniques for identification of bottlenecks and suggest approaches for de-bottlenecking.
  • Identify managerial levers for controlling inventory and apply simple analytical models for estimating needed safety stock for a desired service level.
  • Identify the drivers of variability in processes and propose solutions to mitigate its ill effects using simple queuing theory concepts.
  • Use robust statistical process control techniques to ensure capability and control of a process.
  • Apply six-sigma and lean concepts to a wide range of business processes.

Last updated: 3 November 2022

Eligibility and requirements

Prerequisites

Code Name Teaching period Credit Points
BUSA90480 Leadership
September (On Campus - Parkville)
March (On Campus - Parkville)
Summer Term (On Campus - Parkville)
June (On Campus - Parkville)
September (On Campus - Parkville)
March (On Campus - Parkville)
 6.25
BUSA90481 Social Responsibility and Ethics
September (On Campus - Parkville)
Summer Term (On Campus - Parkville)
June (On Campus - Parkville)
June (On Campus - Parkville)
September (On Campus - Parkville)
March (On Campus - Parkville)
 6.25
BUSA90060 Data Analysis
September (On Campus - Parkville)
January (On Campus - Parkville)
June (On Campus - Parkville)
April (On Campus - Parkville)
September (On Campus - Parkville)
 12.5

Corequisites

Code Name Teaching period Credit Points
BUSA90193 Managerial Economics
January (On Campus - Parkville)
June (On Campus - Parkville)
September (On Campus - Parkville)
April (On Campus - Parkville)
 12.5

Non-allowed subjects

None

Inherent requirements (core participation requirements)

The University of Melbourne is committed to providing students with reasonable adjustments to assessment and participation under the Disability Standards for Education (2005), and the Assessment and Results Policy (MPF1326). Students are expected to meet the core participation requirements for their course. These can be viewed under Entry and Participation Requirements for the course outlines in the Handbook.

Further details on how to seek academic adjustments can be found on the Student Equity and Disability Support website: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity/home

Last updated: 3 November 2022

Assessment

Due to the impact of COVID-19, assessment may differ from that published in the Handbook. Students are reminded to check the subject assessment requirements published in the subject outline on the LMS

April

DescriptionTimingPercentage

Contribution to class learning

Throughout the teaching period5%

4 quizzes

  • 15 minutes (each)
Throughout the teaching period20%

2 x syndicate case assignments; Equivalent to 300 words per student per assignment. Week 4 and Week 8

  • 600 words (each)
From Week 4 to Week 830%

Final examination

  • 3 hours
Hurdle requirement		End of the teaching period45%

January

DescriptionTimingPercentage

Contribution to class learning

Throughout the teaching period10%

4 quizzes

  • 15 minutes (each)
Throughout the teaching period20%

2 x syndicate case assignments; Equivalent to 300 words per student per assignment. Week 4 and Week 8

  • 600 words (each)
From Week 4 to Week 825%

Final examination

  • 3 hours
Hurdle requirement		End of the teaching period45%

Additional details

Gerardo Berbeglia: (April)

  • Contribution to class learning (5%)
    • Throughout subject
  • 4 quizzes (20%)
    • 15 minutes each
    • Throughout subject
  • 2 x syndicate case assignments (30%)
    • Equivalent to 300 words per student per assignment
    • Week 4 and Week 8
  • Final examination (45%)
    • hurdle requirement
    • 3 hours
    • End of subject

Kannan Sethuraman: (January)

  • Contribution to class learning (10%)
    • Throughout subject
  • 4 quizzes (20%)
    • 15 minutes each
    • Throughout subject
  • 2 x syndicate case assignments (25%)
    • Equivalent to 300 words per student per assignment
    • Week 4 and Week 8
  • Final examination (45%)
    • hurdle requirement
    • 3 hours
    • End of subject

EMBA:

  • Class Contribution (15%)
    • Throughout subject
  • Class preparation activities (15%)
    • E.g. completion of short basic questions/exercise sets
    • Total: 1,000 words
    • Throughout subject
  • Ongoing syndicate case studies (30%)
    • Total: 2,500 words
    • Throughout subject
  • Final Exam (40%)
    • Hurdle requirement
    • 90 minutes
    • End of module

Last updated: 3 November 2022

Quotas apply to this subject

Dates & times

  • January
    Mode of deliveryOn Campus (Parkville)
    Contact hours30 hours
    Total time commitment170 hours
    Pre teaching start date 6 January 2020
    Pre teaching requirementsstudents are required to complete approximately 15 hours of readings to prepare for the subject during pre-teaching period
    Teaching period13 January 2020 to 19 March 2020
    Last self-enrol date 1 December 2019
    Census date24 January 2020
    Last date to withdraw without fail28 February 2020
    Assessment period ends26 March 2020

    January contact information

    Melbourne Business School

    Degree Program Services

    Email: programservices@mbs.edu

  • April
    Mode of deliveryOn Campus (Parkville)
    Contact hours30 hours
    Total time commitment170 hours
    Pre teaching start date30 March 2020
    Pre teaching requirementsstudents are required to complete approximately 15 hours of readings to prepare for the subject during pre-teaching period
    Teaching period 6 April 2020 to 11 June 2020
    Last self-enrol date 2 February 2020
    Census date24 April 2020
    Last date to withdraw without fail22 May 2020
    Assessment period ends18 June 2020

    April contact information

    Melbourne Business School

    Degree Program Services

    Email: programservices@mbs.edu

  • June
    Mode of deliveryOn Campus (Parkville)
    Contact hours30 hours
    Total time commitment170 hours
    Pre teaching start date22 June 2020
    Pre teaching requirementsstudents are required to complete approximately 15 hours of readings to prepare for the subject during pre-teaching period
    Teaching period29 June 2020 to 3 September 2020
    Last self-enrol date26 April 2020
    Census date17 July 2020
    Last date to withdraw without fail14 August 2020
    Assessment period ends10 September 2020
  • September
    Mode of deliveryOn Campus (Parkville)
    Contact hours30 hours
    Total time commitment170 hours
    Pre teaching start date14 September 2020
    Pre teaching requirementsstudents are required to complete approximately 15 hours of readings to prepare for the subject during pre-teaching period
    Teaching period21 September 2020 to 26 November 2020
    Last self-enrol date19 July 2020
    Census date 9 October 2020
    Last date to withdraw without fail13 November 2020
    Assessment period ends 3 December 2020

    September contact information

    Melbourne Business School

    Degree Program Services

    Email: programservices@mbs.edu

Additional delivery details

This subject is only available to students admitted to GD-BA, MC-BAPT, MC-BAPTME, or students with permission of the MBA Course coordinator

This subject has a quota of 80 students. Students will be selected on a first come, first serve basis. However if any student is approaching their completion date, they will get priority in enrolment.

This subject is equivalent to BUSA90228 in MC-BAPTME

Last updated: 3 November 2022

Further information

Last updated: 3 November 2022