All class policies subject to change at instructor's discretion.

Quick Overview:

• Time:  Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:20-4:40PM
  • Except: September 7 class moved to Tuesday, September 8.
• Place: Usually Beck 252
  • On September 8 and November 2 only, we will instead meet in the Levin 005 computer lab.  Since the class is about 20 students larger than the lab, we will have to split the lab class into two shifts.  Students with last names starting A-L should attend at the usual 3:20PM time; those with last names M-Z should arrive at 4:00.
• Instructor: Jonathan Eckstein
• E-mail contact: jeckstei@rci.rutgers.edu
• Class websites:
  • For unlimited-distribution materials: http://eckstein.rutgers.edu/om-fall-2009.html
  • For limited-distribution materials: http://sakai.rutgers.edu 
    • Log in using your Rutgers NetID password
    • Select the Operations Management, Fall 2009 tab
• Office: 255 J. H. Levin Building, Livingston Campus
• Telephone: (732) 445-0510; also (732) 445-3272 for urgent calls.
• Office hours:
  • Tentatively Tuesday 2:30-4:30PM and Friday 2:30-4:00PM.
  • These times may be changed if they are not convenient for most students.
  • Changes to the normal office hour schedule (for exams, holidays, instructor schedule conflicts, travel, etc.) will be announced on the class mailing list and http://eckstein.rutgers.edu/om-fall-2009.html.  
• Text: There is only one text, a course pack called "Operations Management" from University Publishing Solutions.  The most recent edition is Spring 2005.
• Software: Excel, and the Solver and YASAI add-ins.   
• First meeting: Wednesday, September 2, 2009.  
• Final exam:  Tuesday, December 22, 12-3 PM; room(s) to be announced.
• Other Sections: This is the only section of Operations Management offered this semester.

Course Content

There are two key ideas in applying MS/OR: the first is modeling decision making and planning as a mathematical optimization problem with variables, and objective function, and constraints.  The second is to model uncertainty using the tools of probability theory.  We will spend the first 15 regular classes exploring the first idea, and the last 10 regular classes exploring the second.  We will cover a relatively small set of subtopics in each case, but try to explore them in depth so you get a better feeling for the modeling process.  Note that optimization and stochastic models can be combined much more closely than we attempt in this course, but that is a more advanced topic (called stochastic programming)  

MS/OR is most helpful in situations where quantitative information is plentiful and there are relatively few intangible or psychological considerations, making it easier to produce accurate mathematical models. It is also particularly beneficial when the decision or planning situation is complex, making it hard for managers to simply "eyeball" the decision or "fly by the seat of their pants." Such situations arise most at the operational level of the management hierarchy, and progressively less at the higher levels (tactical and strategic), although they are still useful there. Hence the application to operations management. "Operations management" courses at many other schools may deal more with qualitative generalities of managing business operations; this course basically focuses on the key quantitative tools.

General Information

• Attendance:  I do not take formal attendance, and attendance has no direct affect on your grade.  My view is that you are supposed to be adults, and if you can learn that material without my help, I will not be personally offended.  However, I do informally monitor attendance, and most students find regular attendance essential to performing well in the class.  Also, if you don't come to class, please don't come to office hours with questions about the material I discussed there.  In severe weather, please check the class website -- if at all possible, I will post any class cancellation or schedule change information there as soon as I can.  You can also monitor the Rutgers main website, WCTC AM 1450, or Rutgers INFO AM 530 for possible university closing information.
• E-Mail List:  I will occasionally use Rutgers' RAMS mail system to post important information such as class cancellations or homework problem corrections and hints.  I expect you to check your e-mail regularly for class announcements -- it will be your responsibility if you miss any of them.  RAMS uses whatever e-mail Rutgers has on file for you, which is usually your "eden" e-mail account.  If you prefer to receive e-mail at another address, you must do one of the following two things.  
  • Configure your eden account to forward mail by following the instructions in http://faq.rutgers.edu/?q=node/315.
  • Update the address Rutgers officially has on file by modifying your student record online at https://www.acs.rutgers.edu/pls/pdb_p/Pdb_Update.sign_on. 
• Questions: Unless you have skipped class, questions are strongly encouraged during class, during office hours, and via e-mail.
• Exams: There will be two in-class midterm exams and a final. All exams will be closed book. I usually allow you to consult one two-sided sheet of notes in your own handwriting in each midterm, and two such sheets in the final.  The final will be "cumulative", covering all topics in the course.
• Homework: I am planning on 11 homework assignments. Typically, homework assignments will be handed out on Wednesday, and due in class the following Wednesday.  There is zero credit for late homework (although I may make exceptions in documented cases of genuine medical or family emergency). I will drop your lowest two assignment scores in computing your overall homework performance, with late or missing assignments counting as a score of zero.  This policy effectively allows you to skip one or two homework assignments without penalty.  However, I would definitely recommend against skipping a homework early in the term, or planning in advance to skip more than one homework.  Most homework problems will involve computer work.
• Collaboration and Cheating: You are allowed to seek or give help to other students on homework assignments. However, although there is no formal penalty for copying homework, I have found it critical for the learning process that you work through the problems yourself (especially on the computer) and hand in your own work.  Otherwise, you will probably "crash and burn" on the exams. No collaboration of any kind is permitted on exams. 
• Computers:  All software needed for this course is installed in the computer lab in the Levin building basement.  You may also use other university computer clusters, or your own computers.  If Solver does not appear on the "Tools" menu in Excel, you may have to go to "Add-ins..." and check the box marked "Solver".  If Solver is not installed on your own computer, you can install it from the Microsoft Office CD-ROM (you are out of luck if you no installation CD-ROM).  On computers outside the lab, you will probably have to download the YASAI add-in from its website.
• Textbooks and related material:  There is only one text, a course pack called "Operations Management" from University Publishing Solutions.  As the semester goes by, I hope to create additional material, especially companion notes to the lecture and example problems.  I hope to include this material in next semester's course pack, but in the meantime I plan to make most of it available online, most likely on the Sakai site.  
• Bringing Books to Class:  Bring the course pack to all classes, except exams.
• Grading: No letter grades are assigned to individual assignments or exams, only numeric scores from 0 to 100. Your course letter grade will be based on your aggregate score, combining your scores on all written class work with following weights:
  • 20% First midterm
  • 20% Second midterm
  • 40% Final
  • 20% Homework (excluding your two worst scores)
  • If your final is higher than your lower midterm, then the final counts 50%, and the lower midterm only 10%

• I then rank students according to these aggregate scores, and assign grades by class rank, with some subjective judgment applied to borderline cases. Thus, the grades for all your class work are jointly "curved" once at the end of the course; there are no "curves" for individual assignments or exams.  Homework scores in this class have historically tended, with a few exceptions, to be in the 90's and vary much less than exam scores. In the past, getting an above-average grade (A or B+) in the class requires doing at least 9 of the 11 homework assignments and getting a suitably above-average grade on at least two of the three exams. I reserve the right to make changes to the grade calculation scheme. For further information, see my "how I grade" page.

• The homework assignments are a significant amount of work, and I often get complaints that they count for so little a percentage of the grade.  Regrettably, I have run into problems in the past when I have placed more emphasis on homework in the grading scheme.   Think of the homework as a critical part of the learning process:  I evaluate that learning process mainly by exams, but you learn mainly through the homework (provided you don't abuse your freedom to collaborate).  Do not count on high homework scores to boost your overall grade.  You can certainly seriously damage your course letter grade by poor or missing homework assignments, but historically, it is unlikely you will be able to lift your class rank very much through above-average homework.

Projected Syllabus

Detailed schedule, subject to change: