Operations Management In Small Businesses: Key Techniques

A toolkit for making small business operations effective and efficient

What you'll learn

Successfully apply operations management techniques in a small business

Develop and implement operations that can deliver business strategy

Evaluate and select an operations management technique to deliver a specific need

Manage others to implement an operations management technique

Gain an understanding of the key elements of Artificial Intelligence

Gain an awareness of how Artificial Intelligence can be applied to Business Operations to good effect

Be able to converse and work effectively with AI specialists to Business Operations work together effectively to apply AI to

Requirements

There is no requirement for prior theoretical knowledge

To provide a meaningful context to apply the techniques, students should either be working in a small business or be familiar with a small businesss

Description

Small business operations are often developed informally and by trial and error. Operations management can make or break a business. As your business grows there will be a need to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of its operations. Operations management techniques, which have their origins in large organisations, can be applied with great results in small businesses. This course is a practical guide to how these proven techniques can be used in small businesses.This course will take you on a journey through:Learning the key concepts of operations management Exploring how operations management can deliver your business strategyLearning how to design products, services, operations and processesExploring how operations can be planned and delivered Learning how operations can always be improvedThe course is aimed at owners and managers of small businesses. It is also suitable for business studies students, at any level, who are keen to run or work in a small business. You do not need any prior theoretical knowledge to take this course. You will need to have a passion for running a successful business, whether now or in the future. Practical experience of small business management or a general overview of the way a particular small business works will help you to relate these techniques directly to real situations. The course comprises 40 lectures in the form of video presentations and includes:4 quizzes to confirm your understanding of the course sectionsMini case studies of the applications of these techniques in a range of small business sectorsSuggestions for activities for you to apply specific techniques to your own business or a business you are familiar withDiscussions where we can share experiences of applying these techniques We will be learning a myriad of techniques including: fitting operations to strategy, optimising flexibility and cost, designing layouts, maximising yield, supply chain management, lean approaches, project planning and control, risk management and quality improvement.

Overview

Section 1: What is operations management? An introduction to the basic concepts.

Lecture 1 Introduction

Lecture 2 What is Operations Management?

Lecture 3 Introducing NEW lectures on Artificial Intelligence in Operations Management

Lecture 4 How every small business is engaged in transformation.

Lecture 5 The basic building blocks of operations management

Lecture 6 The characteristics of operations

Section 2: Operations management delivers and influences business strategy and performance

Lecture 7 The purpose of operations management

Lecture 8 The relationship between business strategy and operations

Lecture 9 Approaches to setting business strategy

Lecture 10 The contribution of operations

Lecture 11 Four perspectives on operations strategy

Lecture 12 What should an operations strategy contain?

Section 3: Design of of processes, operations, products and services.

Lecture 13 Product and service design

Lecture 14 Process design

Lecture 15 The product-process matrix and the product-service matrix

Lecture 16 Process mapping

Lecture 17 Supply network design

Lecture 18 The location of operations

Lecture 19 Layout and flow

Lecture 20 Process technology

Lecture 21 Innovation

Section 4: Planning and delivering operations

Lecture 22 The key building blocks of planning and control

Lecture 23 Planning activities

Lecture 24 Planning to meet demand

Lecture 25 Yield management

Lecture 26 Managing stock

Lecture 27 Supply chain performance

Lecture 28 Supply chain activities, relationships and behaviour

Lecture 29 Customer relationship management

Lecture 30 Streamlining your business with the LEAN approach

Lecture 31 The LEAN approach to small business set up and growth

Lecture 32 Materials requirements planning

Lecture 33 Enterprise resource planning

Lecture 34 Planning and controlling your projects - the "waterfall " approach

Lecture 35 Planning and controlling your projects - the agile approach

Section 5: Improving operations

Lecture 36 What is quality?

Lecture 37 Quality management approaches

Lecture 38 Quality improvement approaches - Total quality management

Lecture 39 Quality improvement approaches - Improvement cycles

Lecture 40 Quality improvement approaches - Statistical process control

Lecture 41 Quality improvement approaches - Six Sigma

Lecture 42 Managing risk - Identifying the causes of risk

Lecture 43 Preventing failure

Lecture 44 Mitigating the effects of failure

Lecture 45 Recovering from the effects of failure

Lecture 46 Conclusion and next steps

Lecture 47 Introducing NEW lectures on Artificial Intelligence in Operations Management

Section 6: AI in Operations Management - Understanding Artificial Intelligence

Lecture 48 Artificial Intelligence in Operations Management - Introduction

Lecture 49 What is Artificial Intelligence

Lecture 50 What is a Neural Network

Lecture 51 Using AI in Operations Management

Lecture 52 Supervised Machine Learning

Lecture 53 Unsupervised Machine Learning

Lecture 54 Semi-supervised Machine Learning

Lecture 55 Reinforcement Learning

Lecture 56 Natural Language Processing

Section 7: AI in Operations Management - Applying AI to Business Operations

Lecture 57 Artificial Intelligence in Product Design

Lecture 58 Artificial Intelligence in Service Design

Lecture 59 Artificial Intelligence in Supply Network Design

Lecture 60 Artificial Intelligence in Process Technology Design

Lecture 61 Artificial Intelligence in Demand Forecasting

Lecture 62 Artificial Intelligence in Warehouse Operations

Lecture 63 Artificial Intelligence in Logistics

Lecture 64 Artificial Intelligence in CRM, ERP and Project Planning and Control

Lecture 65 Artificial Intelligence in the Improvement of Product Quality

Lecture 66 Artificial Intelligence in the Improvement of Service Quality

Small business owners and managers,Business studies students, at all levels, who plan to set up or work in a small business