Curriculum

The Business Process Center emcompasses two classes:

In the Quality Management class students gain experience in management and control of a process to help improve process outputs by reducing non-value added time, scrap, and rework.  In the Systems and Simulations class, processes are simulated to determine how to improve resource use, lower process costs, and/or increase throughput.
BUS 456 - Quality Management: As a member of process-management team, students look at firm culture and compare it to the best practices of Total Quality Management, Six Sigma, and Lean Production. Then students develop a process-policy for the actual company which contain.
1) Purpose of the process, expected output, and interactions with other processes
2) A process flow diagram
3) Methods of controlling that process real time
4) What and how an input, output, and/or contextual condition should be measured
5) How to display measures
6) How to respond to a given measure
7) Who to communicate the state of a process to identifying the recession of communications
8) How to ensure that the control process they develop is controlling the process question

BUS 439 - Systems and Simulation: The class project concentrates on any process that displays variability in inputs, processing, and outputs. Student teams simulate a process and, from the information provided from the simulation, determine improvements. Students then explore the costs and benefits from a selected improvement. They report their findings and recommendations to executives of the partner firms in a firm setting.

Degrees associated with the program are Operations Management and Mechanical Engineering (students are able to substitute instead of their senior design).