We present an exercise for teaching the transportation problem using a mix of spatial and randomly generated data. It illustrates the potential of using qualitative and quantitative data and is suitable for undergraduate or introductory business school courses on operations research (OR), logistics, and supply chain management. It poses two…

The simple vehicle routing problem (VRP) is a common topic of discussion in introductory operations research/management science courses. The VRP can be framed in a variety of ways, and it can be difficult to solve to optimality. For solution purposes, introductory textbooks demonstrate how Excel's Evolutionary Solver (ES) add-in produces a…

The Tangibles in Operations Strategy (TANGOS) exercise provides students with the direct experience of designing a firm's operations function. Specifically, students must engage in decision making with respect to the structural decision areas in a firm's operations strategy, by considering the firm's product strategy and span of control, process…

Facility placement is of strategic importance to most organizations as a well-placed distribution center minimizes delivery costs and reduces fulfillment lead times, thus improving customer service levels. Because organizations value the location planning process, this teaching brief offers an exercise that analyzes the planning process using the…

It is often challenging to make decisions about how to teach planning within an undergraduate operations management module. This article defines and compares the two standard options available to instructors: (a) the traditional "technical" approach or (b) the "conceptual" or "conversational" approach. Through a…

This paper proposes the production of animated comics in POWTOON to serve as a visual collaborative tool and a teaching-learning strategy for a course on Operations Research. This proposal aims to achieve meaningful learning of the subject matter, incentivizing the creativity of undergraduate students of marketing and business at the Guadalajara…

This article investigates the current use of case studies in the teaching of Operational Research (OR) in the UK: how and where they are used; how they are developed; and whether there is an interest in training this area. It is aimed at lecturers teaching OR who are using or planning to use case studies in their teaching. It may also be of…

Decision making in most universities is taught within the conventional OR/MS (Operations Research/Management Science) paradigm. This paradigm is known to be "hard" since it is consisted of mathematical tools, and normally suitable for solving structured problems. In complex situations the conventional OR/MS paradigm proves to be…

Often, users of information systems (both automated and manual) must analyze those systems in a "black box" fashion, without being able to see the internals of how the system is supposed to work. In this case of business process outsourcing, an insurance industry customer encounters an ongoing stream of customer service issues, with both…

According to the literature, in recent years, developing experiential learning has fulfilled the requirement of a deep understanding of lean philosophy by engineering students, demonstrating the advantages and disadvantages of some of the key principles of lean manufacturing. On the other hand, the literature evidences how some kinds of game-based…

Discrete Mathematics instructors and students have long been struggling with various labelling and scanning algorithms for solving many important problems. This paper shows how to solve a wide variety of Discrete Mathematics and OR problems using assignment matrices and linear programming, specifically using Excel Solvers although the same…

A3 Thinking is fundamental to Toyota's benchmark management philosophy and to their lean production system. It is used to solve problems, gain agreement, mentor team members, and lead organizational improvements. A structured problem-solving approach, A3 Thinking builds improvement opportunities through experience. We used "The Toyota…

Finance students today live in the midst of an enormous financial crisis. Institutions both large and small are failing or being rescued through government intervention. This environment presents a host of learning opportunities for instructors as well as students. This paper discusses financial autopsies as a form of experiential learning…

This study investigates the use of using complexity theory--the study of nonlinear dynamical systems of which chaos and catastrophe theory are subsets--in the analysis of a non temporal data set to derive valuable insights into the functioning of university schools of business. The approach is unusual in that studies of nonlinearity in complex…

Business students are typically introduced to the concept of process management in their introductory course on operations management. A very important learning outcome here is an appreciation that the management of processes is a key to the management of quality. Some of the related concepts are qualitative, such as strategic and behavioral…