Strategy Execution for Engineers (ENGM90013)
Graduate courseworkPoints: 12.5On Campus (Parkville)
To learn more, visit 2023 Course and subject delivery.
Overview
| Availability | Semester 1 |
|---|---|
| Fees | Look 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.
As such, this subject emphasises the critical nature of Operations Management as an essential part of a competent engineer’s portfolio of knowledge and skills. 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
This subject aims to highlight the skills and competencies needed by engineers to ensure their ongoing contribution to an organisation’s operations and competitive position. These include:
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.
- Apply core principles of project management to plan, analyse, and schedule activities and resources for simple business projects
- 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.
Generic skills
In addition to learning specific skills that will assist students in their future careers in science, they will have the opportunity to develop generic skills that will assist them in any future career path. These include:
- problem-solving skills: the ability to engage with relatively unstructured problems and develop appropriate solution strategies using rigorous quantitative analysis
- analytical skills: the ability to construct and express logical arguments and to work in abstract or general terms to increase the clarity and efficiency of analysis;
- collaborative skills: the ability to work in a team; and
- time management skills: the ability to meet regular deadlines while balancing competing commitments.
- written and oral communication skills: the ability to communicate findings and analysis effectively and prepare technical reports according to client specifications
Last updated: 31 January 2024
Eligibility and requirements
Prerequisites
Corequisites
Non-allowed subjects
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: 31 January 2024
Assessment
| Description | Timing | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
One group assignment (6 students per group) consisting of 2000 words. Due in weeks 5/6. Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) 1, 2 and 4 are addressed in this assessment.
| From Week 5 to Week 6 | 20% |
One group assignment (6 students per group) consisting of 2000 words. Due in weeks 9/10. Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) 1, 2, 4 and 5 are addressed in this assessment.
| From Week 9 to Week 10 | 20% |
Class participation will be worth 10%. | Throughout the semester | 10% |
Final three-hour end-of-semester examination (open book). Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs) 1 to 7 are addressed in this assessment.
| End of semester | 50% |
Last updated: 31 January 2024
Dates & times
- Semester 1
Principal coordinator Frank Lai Mode of delivery On Campus (Parkville) Contact hours 36 hours normally delivered as 1 x 3 hour lecture/tutorial per week Total time commitment 200 hours Teaching period 27 February 2023 to 28 May 2023 Last self-enrol date 10 March 2023 Census date 31 March 2023 Last date to withdraw without fail 5 May 2023 Assessment period ends 23 June 2023 Semester 1 contact information
Time commitment details
Estimated 200 hours
What do these dates mean
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- Your tuition fees, academic transcript and statements.
- And for Commonwealth Supported students, your:
- Student Learning Entitlement. This applies to all students enrolled in a Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP).
Subjects withdrawn after the census date (including up to the ‘last day to withdraw without fail’) count toward the Student Learning Entitlement.
Additional delivery details
Coordinator - Frank Lai - frank.lai@unimelb.edu.au
Last updated: 31 January 2024
Further information
- Texts
- Subject notes
LEARNING AND TEACHING METHODS
The subject is delivered through lectures, tutorials, case studies and workshop sessions.
INDICATIVE KEY LEARNING RESOURCES
Students are provided with lecture slides, case studies, tutorial materials and solutions.
CAREERS / INDUSTRY LINKS
Exposure to the tolls and techniques that prepare graduate engineers for leadership roles in operations management and business improvement.
- Related Handbook entries
This subject contributes to the following:
Type Name Specialisation (formal) Mechanical with Business Specialisation (formal) Electrical with Business Specialisation (formal) Biomedical with Business Specialisation (formal) Chemical with Business Specialisation (formal) Software with Business Specialisation (formal) Civil with Business - Available through the Community Access Program
About the Community Access Program (CAP)
This subject is available through the Community Access Program (also called Single Subject Studies) which allows you to enrol in single subjects offered by the University of Melbourne, without the commitment required to complete a whole degree.
Please note Single Subject Studies via Community Access Program is not available to student visa holders or applicants
Entry requirements including prerequisites may apply. Please refer to the CAP applications page for further information.
- Available to Study Abroad and/or Study Exchange Students
Last updated: 31 January 2024