Course Introduction

[Steve Prevette]

This discussion board is for students of City University Richland WA MC506. It is not meant to replace the City University "Blackboard" system, but will allow students to interact with "real world" practitioners in the subject area of the course.

A copy of the course Syllabus is attached to this post.

 

[Govind]

... but will allow students to interact with "real world" practitioners in the subject area of the course.A copy of the course Syllabus is attached to this post.

This course syllabus seem to be more towards "Operations Research" Do you think that students will ask questions in the traditional Quality topics? Or on Operations Research? If from the Quality area, I will certainly attempt to answer their questions. This is a very good idea to introduce students to "real world" practitioners. Do you have an ASQ Student Chapter in your University? This will also help to achieve your objective.

BTW, Is this course offered via distance education? Syllabus is very useful for those in Operations Management,Project Management, and Supply Chain Management.

Regards,
Govind.

 

[Steve Prevette]

This course syllabus seem to be more towards "Operations Research" Do you think that students will ask questions in the traditional Quality topics? Or on Operations Research? If from the Quality area, I will certainly attempt to answer their questions. This is a very good idea to introduce students to "real world" practitioners. Do you have an ASQ Student Chapter in your University? This will also help to achieve your objective.

BTW, Is this course offered via distance education? Syllabus is very useful for those in Operations Management,Project Management, and Supply Chain Management.

Regards,
Govind.

City University http://www.cityu.edu (out of Bellevue WA) does offer most of its courses by distance learning. Actually, I was a little disappointed upon seeing the syllabus, simply because it is "tools" heavy, and the textbook is a Management Science textbook. I do have an Operations Research degree, so teaching the mechanics of the tools is technically straightforward. The textbook is very similar to one used in an undergraduate course, BSC400 Decision Theory and Analysis. However, about 4 years ago, the syllabus for this graduate level course was very Deming heavy.

I did talk with the course developer. My plan is that the students will get exposure to the tools through the 3 practical exercises, but the midterm and final will be completely non-computational. Not even calculators. They will be given the "answers" from the tools and have to critique their use, and discuss which tools to use when and what their limitations are. And I will be working in a few "games" into the course such as the Red Bead Experiement. So, yes, there will be a knowledge necessary of the "quality" impacts of these tools.

We did have a local student chapter at a neighboring college, however, in the 6 years I have been involved with ASQ here, I never saw any activity, and was never able to reach the instructor listed as the point of contact. The chapter was recently folded by ASQ HQ.

Classes start October 6.

 

[Bill Pflanz]

Actually, I was a little disappointed upon seeing the syllabus, simply because it is "tools" heavy, and the textbook is a Management Science textbook. I do have an Operations Research degree, so teaching the mechanics of the tools is technically straightforward. The textbook is very similar to one used in an undergraduate course, BSC400 Decision Theory and Analysis. However, about 4 years ago, the syllabus for this graduate level course was very Deming heavy.

Hi Steve,

The course you are teaching is the same course that I taught at the MBA level. In fact, I used the same textbook. It is a traditionally required course for most MBA degrees and is meant to fulfill one of the quantitative courses that students must take for the program to be accredited. The dean wanted it taught with a similar syllabus as yours due to the accredidation reasons and as a pre-requisite for other quantitative courses. No quality concepts were expected to be part of the course. The college did offer another course (I think it was called Business Operations) that covered quality, ISO 9000, Baldrige etc. in one chapter).

I did talk with the course developer. My plan is that the students will get exposure to the tools through the 3 practical exercises, but the midterm and final will be completely non-computational. Not even calculators. They will be given the "answers" from the tools and have to critique their use, and discuss which tools to use when and what their limitations are. And I will be working in a few "games" into the course such as the Red Bead Experiement. So, yes, there will be a knowledge necessary of the "quality" impacts of these tools.

I only taught the couse once (too time consuming, wanted to stay married ) but I wished I had taken your approach on the tests. Too many of the students did not have the appropriate math skills for the subject. Even if they had statistics in undergrad, many either didn't understand it the first time or had forgotten it (or both).

Even though almost all worked full time, they really struggled trying to relate to the quantitative tools since they were not in jobs involving planning and forecasting. You will also find it challenging to cover all of the material. In hindsight, I would have covered less and gone more slowly. The dean wanted me to stay with the script but I might have been better off throwing in a few games and talking about quality concepts as a break from the math.

Good luck. It was a real experience for me.

Bill

 

[Nestor]

Board Images from Problem 2 Class Discussion

Sorry, I have not posted the board images from class. I discovered that I am unfamiliar with the process to do so. However, I will post my email address, [email protected] and I will be happy to email them to you.