Course Syllabus for students Autumn 2024

After a successful course, the student shall

- display knowledge of key concepts and principles within the interdisciplinary fields of operations strategy and product and service innovation
- display knowledge of different perspectives of operations strategy and the strategic role of innovation and its stages
- demonstrate comprehension of the strategy formation process and of the technologies and organizational structures used in innovation processes

- demonstrate skills of strategic analysis and analysis of product and service innovation sourcing
- demonstrate the ability to use the proper tools in evaluating and improving strategy formation and innovation processes
- demonstrate the ability to formulate issues critically, plan and undertake advanced tasks within predetermined time frames and to collaborate effectively in teams
- demonstrate the ability in speech and writing to clearly report and discuss own findings and conclusions

- demonstrate the ability to make assessments of different measures taken for the direction of operations and be able to evaluate such initiatives
- demonstrate the ability to critically analyse the impact operations strategy and innovation has on economic, social and environmental sustainable development

The course covers the topic of operations strategy and the strategic impact of the operations function. It covers different perspectives of strategic management, operations strategy, strategic alignment and strategic consensus. Further, it addresses the strategy formation and aims to give the student an understanding of the complexities associated with this interdisciplinary process.

Further, the course aims to connect innovation management in products and services to strategy formation. After reviewing the foundations of and the strategic role of innovation, an operations perspective on managing innovation in product/service development processes is brought into focus. Furthermore, the requirements (inputs) and expectations (outputs) of innovation processes are addressed. Specifically, the value chain and resources required to support innovation processes, as well as their performance objectives (e.g., cost, flexibility, and sustainability) are underlined.

Lectures, case study seminars, literature seminars, project work.

The teaching is conducted in English.

The applicant must hold the minimum of a bachelor’s degree (i.e the equivalent of 180 ECTS credits at an accredited university) in engineering or technology. The bachelor’s degree should comprise a minimum of 15 credits in mathematics, and taken course Introduction to Supply Chain Operations Management, 7,5 credits or the equivalent. Proof of English proficiency is required.

The course is graded 5,4,3 or Fail.

The final grade will only be issued after satisfactory completion of all assessments.

Name of the Test	Value	Grading
Examination1	4 credits	5/4/3/U
Course work	2 credits	U/G
Seminars	1.5 credits	U/G

¹ Determines the final grade of the course, which is issued only when all course units have been passed.

The literature list for the course will be provided 8 weeks before the course starts.

Slack, N., & Lewis, M. (2020). Operations strategy (6th ed.). Pearson.