I Study

University of Minnesota Twin Cities - Minneapolis, MN

I majored in Manufacturing Operations Management, with a business management minor from the Carlson School of Management, at the University of Minnesota.

From the University of Minnesota Program Catalog:

"Manufacturing operations management (MM) is the study and application of methods to improve manufacturing operations and productivity to enhance a company's competitiveness in the global arena. The curriculum combines a strong foundation in manufacturing systems and processes, supply chain/quality/project, and operations management."

I was very lucky to be electrified, challenged, and stimulated by my program every day. I chose Manufacturing Operations Management because I am energized to fix and improve what I am given, and I'm always looking for what's next. How can process flow be optimized to increase output? How can new technology and ideas be integrated to improve quality and reduce cost? MM gave me the ability to balance technical skills with business acumen to tackle this type of business pain; it's the best of both worlds!

Sample Coursework

• Quality Management and Lean Six Sigma

  • Process management from Quality Management and Six Sigma perspective. Managerial/technical aspects of improvement. Strategy, improvement tools/methods, Malcolm Baldrige Award, ISO 9000, Six Sigma.

• Supply Chain Planning and Control

  • Decisions/trade-offs when directing operations of supply chain. Forecasting, capacity/production planning, just-in-time, theory of constraints, supply chain flows, enterprise resource planning, supply chain design.

• Supply Chain and Operations

  • Managing the operations function within manufacturing and service organizations, and across the supply chains of these organizations. The supply chain is the set of organizations and the work that they complete to collectively create customer-valued goods and services. Course emphasizes decision making in work processes, including decision related to managing processes, quality, capacity, inventory, and supply chain activities. Quantitative and qualitative methods are used for improving management of operations.

• Engineering Economics

  • Cost/design process, cost estimation models, cash flow analysis, interest rate models, time value of money, evaluation of projects, internal rate of return, depreciation/income taxes, price changes/inflation, capital budgeting, decision making under uncertainty.