Operations, Quality, and Project Management

This unit develops integrated operations and project management skills that connect supply chain, production, and service planning with quality and risk management. Students practice Lean/JIT, bottleneck analysis, Agile project techniques, and design-for-operations approaches to prepare for advanced strategic decisions and leadership in the pathway’s final unit.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze supply chain and production scenarios (including the bullwhip effect, inventory levels, and bottlenecks) using case data or simulations and recommend at least two targeted improvements to reduce lead time or inventory risk
• Apply Lean, Just-in-Time, and quality-design principles to redesign a process or product feature and produce a written implementation plan that addresses customer service trade-offs and defect reduction
• Demonstrate project management competency by creating a project plan that maps the project life cycle, defines roles, develops a sprint/backlog schedule for an Agile iteration, and documents a risk response plan
• Evaluate competing operational strategies (e.g., capacity utilization, interchangeable parts, mass production versus Agile/service planning) and justify a selected strategy with a written analysis of cost, quality, and customer impact