Sustainable Operations Management
Course Content
Operations management is about designing, managing, and improving the activities involved in creating products and services and delivering them to customers. The requirement for any company to act sustainably is key to address climate change and its consequences. Sustainable Operations Management sets out to combine the operations and sustainability perspective. An operating process is the basic building block of any operating system. Every organization organizes its work through operating processes. In this course, we strive to thoroughly characterize operating processes in terms of “how is this process doing” and “how can the process be improved”, for instance to make it more efficient and therefore less resource intensive. To this end, we shall deal with process analysis, capacity management, forecasting, queueing models, scheduling and quality management. We will furthermore develop spreadsheet models that support decision making. For many such decisions we will determine the environmental impact and the consequences for society at large.
Intended Learning Outcomes and Competencies
Participants are introduced to academically grounded concepts and insights on operations management, specifically process analysis, process improvement and operations strategy. Students will be introduced to the opportunities of digital transformation, embodied in the concept of industry 4.0, and the interlinkages between operations and sustainability. By means of class exercises and case assignments, participants will learn to apply the provided insights and frameworks in practice.
Instruction Type
Combination of asynchronous videos and readings and live sessions.
Form of Examination
Team-based case studies (50%) and individual take home exam (case study) (50%).
Literature
Lee J. Krajewski / Manoj K. Malhotra (2021): Operations Management: Processes and Supply Chains. 13th edition, Pearson. Further readings, for example articles from the Financial Times, will be provided via moodle.
Next events
| 1/4 | Lecture | Sa, 25.04.2026 | 09:00 Uhr | 18:15 Uhr | |
| 2/4 | Lecture | Sa, 02.05.2026 | 13:00 Uhr | 18:15 Uhr | |
| 3/4 | Lecture | Sa, 09.05.2026 | 13:00 Uhr | 18:15 Uhr | |
| 4/4 | Lecture | Sa, 16.05.2026 | 13:00 Uhr | 18:15 Uhr |
Lecturers
Indicative Student Workload
| Workload per week including live sessions (approx.18.5) | 73 h |
| Examination | 2 h |