Business Process Center
This center enables students to gain real-world business experience by finding a damaged business process then redesigning and improving that business process to increase a company’s effectiveness.
The Business Process Center generally consists of 3 to 5 students per team and up to 10 teams per semester.
Students become familiar with the business process modeling and process control software and gain experience in management and control of a process with two classes: Bus 456 - Quality Management students help improve business process outcomes by reducing wasted time. In Bus 439 - Systems and Simulations, similar processes are simulated to determine how to improve resource cost, lower process cost and increase output.
Bus 456 - Quality Management
As a member of a process-management team, students examine 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 that includes the following:
- Purpose of process, expected output, interaction with other processes
- Process flow diagram
- Methods of controlling the process in real time
- How an input, output, and dependent condition should be measured
- How to display the measure
- How to respond to a given measure
- Who to communicate the condition of the process in identifying decline in communications
- How to ensure the control process they develop is controlling the process question
BUS 439 - Systems and Simulation
The class project focuses on any process that displays variability in input, processing, and output. 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 (can take as a technical elective)