Operations Planning and Process Improvement

This unit develops skills in forecasting demand, balancing capacity and inventory, and creating aggregate plans that align operations with business strategy. Students will also examine quality, process improvement tools, risk mitigation, and basic project approaches (including agile) to prepare operational plans that sustain customer service and respond to disruption.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze historical and market data to build demand forecasts using at least two quantitative methods and justify forecast selection for operational planning
• Apply capacity, inventory, and aggregate planning techniques to create a production or service plan that balances cost, lead time, and customer service (including make-to-stock and make-to-order scenarios)
• Evaluate process performance and quality using baseline metrics, root-cause analysis, and improvement tools (e.g., lean, waste reduction, PDCA) and propose specific changes to reduce wait time and nonconformance
• Develop a risk register and contingency strategies that align supply chain decisions and project approaches (traditional vs. agile) to mitigate disruptions and maintain service levels