Operations and 
Information Management
OPIM 2010-3. Business Application Programming. Uses computer programming to teach a complex problem solving skill. Objectives are: (1) learn to use a structured problem decomposition method, designed to help decompose a complex problem into manageable sub-problems. This method is best exemplified in programming but is applicable to any complex business problem. (2) understand the core concepts of programming such as variable, object model, and control flow–that will help not only appreciate the power of programming behind modern technologies but also better understand business process models Formerly SYST 2010.
OPIM 3000-3. Systems Thinking. Introduces systems thinking and the analysis of the interactions of a complex collection of people, processes, organizations, and technologies. Students learn to be creative and critical thinkers who can conceptually model very complex systems. Prereqs., BCOR 1010, 1020, and 52 hours completed. Formerly SYST 3000.
OPIM 3030-3. Management of Service Operations. Examines concepts, tools, and techniques used in the management of service operations. Focuses on how firms add value and compete with high quality and efficient services. Emphasizes the use of models for designing new services and improving the effectiveness of service processes. Studies the application of technology in the context of productivity, growth, and the globalization of services. Prereqs., BCOR 1010, 1020, 2500, and 52 hours completed. Same as OPIM 6030. Formerly SYST 3030.
OPIM 3100-3. Business Intelligence. Focuses on accurate and timely knowledge to make effective operational, tactical and strategic decisions. This course focuses on how to create and use such knowledge. Topics include problem definition; critical factor isolation; data collection, storage, and querying; transformation of data into knowledge through appropriate analyses and aggregation; and the presentation of the knowledge to decision makers in meaningful ways. Prereqs., BCOR 1010, 1020, and 2500. Recommended prereq., OPIM 3000. Formerly SYST 3100.
OPIM 3101-3. Business Technologies. Covers major technologies that underlie today’s businesses and e-Commerce, including but not limited to WWW technologies. Emphasizes the security privacy issues and solutions at multiple levels of network, systems, personal, organization, and inter-organizational commerce. Aims to help students better understand and evaluate technology-related issues, alternatives, and tradeoffs. Provides core technology background for students entering a technology-related field. Prereqs., BCOR 1010, 1020, and 2500. Formerly SYST 3101.
OPIM 4040-3. IT and Business Strategy. Combines theories and frameworks with practical approaches to provide students with the skills required to help companies identify business opportunities, find appropriate information related technologies, and lead adoption efforts to success. Prereqs., BCOR 1010, 1020, and 2500, and 52 hours completed. Same as OPIM 5040, MGMT 4090, and TLEN 5140. Formerly SYST 4040.
OPIM 4050-3. Supply Chain Management. Explores the key issues related to the design and management of supply chains. Covers the efficient integration of suppliers, production facilities, warehouses, and stores so that the right products in the right quantity reach customers at the right time. Focuses on the minimization of the total supply chain cost subject to service requirements imposed by a variety of industries. Prereqs., BCOR 1010, 1020, 2500, and 52 hours completed. Same as MBAX 6460. Formerly SYST 4050.
OPIM 4060-3. Managing Business Processes. Covers the concepts and tools to design and manage business processes. Emphasizes modeling an analysis, information technology support for process activities, and management of process flows. Graphical simulation software is used to create dynamic models of business processes and predict the effect of changes. Prereqs., BCOR 1010, 1020, 2500, and 52 hours completed. Same as OPIM 5060. Formerly SYST 4060.
OPIM 4065-3. International Operations Management. Compares systems of operations management in the United States with those in Japan, Europe, Asia, and South America. Contrasts various regional and national approaches to business, quality management, labor practices, management styles, international competitiveness, productivity, distribution systems, trade practices, and strategies for penetrating foreign markets. Examines different sociocultural environments, government-business relationships, banking industries, operations strategies, and the potential for transferring operations management practices and techniques between countries. Prereqs., BCOR 2150 or 2300 and 52 hours completed. Same as MGMT 4070.
OPIM 4075-3. Sustainable Operations. Addresses important topics in sustainable operations, and how firms use principles of sustainability to reduce costs, add value, and increase competitiveness. Various approaches to reducing waste-streams are considered, including reuse, recycling, recovery, and topics in industrial ecology. Other topics include the role of government regulation and public pressure, comparisons between different national approaches to sustainable operations, individual company programs, and prospects for the future. Prereqs., BCOR 2150 or 2300 or 2500 and 52 hours completed. Same as MGMT 4080.
OPIM 4080-3. Project Management Systems. Acquaints the student with multidisciplinary aspects of project management, including the relationship between schedule, project cost, and performance. Uses qualitative and quantitative tools to facilitate project management skills. Prereqs., BCOR 1010, 1020, 2500 and 52 hours completed. Same as OPIM 4850 and MGMT 4085. OPIM major students should not take this course. Formerly SYST 4080.
OPIM 4510-3. Design of Usable Business Systems. Focuses on the usefulness and usability of systems in organizations. Examines the bottom line implications of information systems and how to create systems that are easy to use for all potential users. Creative and critical thinking to design and build systems are stressed through individual and team exercises. Prereqs., BCOR 1010, 1020, 2500 and 52 hours completed. Same as OPIM 5510. Formerly SYST 4510.
OPIM 4820-3. Special Topics in Operations and Information Systems. Experimental seminar offered irregularly to provide opportunity for investigation of new frontiers in operations and information management. Formerly SYST 4820.
OPIM 4825-3. Experimental Seminar. Offered irregularly to provide opportunity for investigation of new frontiers in operations and information management. Restricted to juniors/seniors.
OPIM 4850-3. Senior Seminar in Operations and Information Management. Acquaints the student with multidisciplinary aspects of project management, including the relationship between schedule, project cost, and performance. Uses qualitative and quantitative tools to facilitate project management skills. Prereqs., BCOR 2500, 102 hours completed, and two 4000-level OPIM courses. Restricted to OPIM majors. Same as OPIM 4080 and MGMT 4085. Formerly BCOR 4005.
OPIM 4900 (1-3). Independent Study. Requires prior consent of dean and instructor under whose direction study is taken. Intended only for exceptionally well-qualified business seniors who desire to study an advanced topic. Departmental form required. Formerly SYST 4900.
OPIM 4910 (1-3). Academic Internship in Operations and Information Management. Offers students the opportunity to gain professional work experience in an operations or information management position while still in school. Provides academically relevant work experience that complements students’ studies and enhances their career potential. Includes 100 hours per credit and a course paper. Students may not pre-register for this course, and they must contact the faculty advisor for the OPIM area for approval. Prereq., at least 60 hours of course work completed and instructor consent. Formerly SYST 4910.
OPIM 5040-3. IT and Business Strategy. Same as OPIM 4040, MGMT 4090 and TLEN 5140. Formerly SYST 5040.
OPIM 5060-3. Managing Business Processes. Same as OPIM 4060. Formerly SYST 5060.
OPIM 5510-3. Design of Usable Business Systems. Same as OPIM 4510. Formerly SYST 5510.
OPIM 6030-3. Management of Service Operations. Same as OPIM 3030. Similar to EMEN 5040. Formerly SYST 6030.
OPIM 6070-3. Survey of Operations Research. Applications oriented survey of operations research topics including linear and integer programming, network analysis, dynamic programming, nonlinear programming, decision analysis, Markov chain and Markovian decision models, queuing theory, and simulation. Same as EMEN 5600. Formerly SYST 6070.
OPIM 6080-3. Operations Management. Covers demand forecasting, capacity management, scheduling, inventory planning and management, production planning and control, materials requirements planning, just-in-time production systems, product design and process selection, elements of statistical process control, service operations, and quantitative techniques for operations decision making. Similar to EMEN 5500. Formerly SYST 6080.
OPIM 6820-3. Special Topics in Systems. Offered irregularly to provide opportunity for investigation into new frontiers in systems. May be repeated up to 6 total credit hours. Formerly SYST 6820.
OPIM 6900 (1-3). Independent Study. Requires prior consent of dean and instructor under whose direction study is taken. Intended only for exceptionally well-qualified business seniors who desire to study an advanced topic. Departmental form required. Formerly SYST 6900.
OPIM 6930-3. Assessing Sustainable Energy Technologies. Focuses on the commercialization prospects of emerging energy technologies, including solar, wind, biomass, oceanic, geothermal, hydropower, fuel cell (hydrogen), nuclear, and other more exotic energy sources. Investigates the technology feasibility, economic viability, and progress of each technology, as well as its economic opportunities and challenges.
OPIM 6940 (1-4). Masters Candidate.
OPIM 6950 (1-6). Master’s Thesis.
OPIM 7110-3. Simulation Modeling and Analysis. Introduces the concepts of simulation modeling. Provides practical experience with real examples using popular commercial simulation packages such as Arena or Extend. Emphasizes discrete-event simulation but also covers topics in Monte Carlo simulation and system dynamics. Practical examples from operations management, manufacturing, and services are used to give students an appreciation for the wide scope of application and the robust nature of simulation modeling in the context of decision making. Formerly SYST 7110.
OPIM 7120-3. Discrete Optimization. Covers the modeling and solution of discrete problems that arise in business and engineering. Classical techniques such as cutting planes and branch and bound are covered. Emphasizes the application of metaheuristic procedures, such as tabu search and evolutionary approaches, to the solution of practical combinatorial optimization problems. Formerly SYST 7120.
OPIM 7330-3. Advanced Operations Management Modeling. Covers concepts, models, and solution techniques relevant to the management of the processes required to provide goods or services to consumers. Emphasizes supply chain systems topics such as production, inventory, distribution, and scheduling. Management science and operations research methodology is also applied to problems such as facility capacity planning, facility design, and location analysis. Formerly SYST 7330.
OPIM 7800-3. Doctoral Proseminar in Systems. Provides systems doctoral students with an orientation to current research and the academic discipline in operations and information systems. Familiarizes students with key schools of thought in the field, provides background on reference disciplines, examines significant research streams, and helps students begin developing their own area of interest. Formerly SYST 7800.
OPIM 7805-3. Foundations of Research in Information Systems. Examines foundations of information systems research, including classic readings in information systems and its reference disciplines, different research approaches, processes of research, and classic and contemporary readings in major topics in information systems. Prereq., PhD standing or instructor consent. Formerly SYST 7805.
OPIM 7810-3. Technical Topics in Information Systems Research. Examines in depth a selection of topics in technical areas of information systems. Includes theoretical perspectives for technical topics, critical perspectives on past and current research, appropriate methods for examining technical topics, and development of students’ ability to identify and develop research topics in technical areas. Prereq., PhD standing or instructor consent. Formerly SYST 7810.
OPIM 7815-3. Behavioral Topics in Information Systems Research. Covers both basic and advanced topics. Develops skill in designing, evaluating, and understanding both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Includes the development of research proposals, making and justifying methodological choices, writing research reports, and understanding how to publish in information systems. Prereq., PhD standing or instructor consent. Formerly SYST 7815.
OPIM 7820-3. Advanced Research in Information Systems. Examines advanced topics in information systems research, focusing on the electronic era and eBusiness. Examines foundations of eBusiness, including basic technical, organizational, and behavioral foundations. Covers leading edge research from both topical and methodological perspectives. Focuses on methods appropriate for studying eBusiness and examines future research directions. Prereq., PhD standing or instructor consent. Formerly SYST 7820.
