COP introduction

We had over 80,000 participants enrolled in last course Over 80% were in business; not students, but running real operations As a professor, I believe that everyone benefits from the academic content of my course This is supported by our first offering But: the needs for somebody running an operation and a student new to the area are different - different reason to be here in this course - desire for clean theory vs desire to change a business tomorrow - Student might be better at math / formulas - Some of the formulas might not easily fit the world of business

Coursera Operations Challenge

Source: submissions from the Coursera Operations Challenge

The Coursera Operations Project My Vision Take this to the next level A project with multiple deliverables that mirror a true operations improvement project Peer feed-back along the way Community level problem solving on some of the things that emerge as common problems The reward: we will rewrite the books of business; almost like a Wikipedia, this will generate a library of operations projects across industries and across the world So, here is how it works

The Coursera Operations Project Outline

Problem Solving step Question to be answered Sense the problem broadly What type of operational problems do I have access to? Where do I sense a performance gap? Collect data to analyze the What does the process flow look like? status quo Define a specific outcome you want to achieve and define the performance gap What specific outcome measure are you trying to improve? What does success look like? What is the status quo; does this measure vary over time? How far are you from the target? What are the inhibitors to improvement? What alternatives are there to the current process flow? Potential tools Four dimensions of performance Efficient frontier Process flow diagram I, R, T

Three system inhibitors; variability lecture Labor content; Flow time efficiency (% value add time from customers perspective)

Consider opportunities for improvement

Where are waste, variability, and inflexibility? Responsiveness module: service blue print Staffing to demand / takt time Make-to-stock Create flexibility

Understand the benefits of What would be the value of an improvement KPI tree improvements; What can you learn about the most promising Problem solving loop (from problem, to abstraction, now back to reality) Pick one opportunity and alternative in 1 day and with $100? create a small experiment

Generic Process should work across industries Linked to the course / course material For each milestone, I will provide you with detailed instructions Example calculations for two local businesses here in Philadelphia

The Coursera Operations Project An Alternative Way of Taking the Course

With Course Project Without Course Project With HW/Exam Without HW/Exam With Distinction Ops Certificate Ops Certificate Audit