Business Process Improvement and Creative Problem Solving

3 credits · Graduate Programs

Business process improvement and creative problem solving as critical components of competitiveness. The adjective "business" is used to indicate that the course emphasizes improvements in non-manufacturing processes (of relevance to all organizations) in such areas as development, distribution, financial accounting/planning, order entry, personnel, and purchasing. Topics covered include the relationship to Total Quality Management and Time-Based Competition, incremental versus radical improvement, selection of key processes for study (including bench-marking and the role of capacity constraints), process flow diagramming, Pareto analysis, cause-and-effect analysis, statistical control charts, affinity diagrams, and steps in creative problem solving. Prerequisite(s): Operations Management 601. Also known as: (formerly Management Studies 741)