17:54 Dec 7 -- the latest Announcements update

- Final exam grades are on the eLearning site. The average is about 85%. Final 11 solutions are posted on the left, you are welcome to compare these with your exam paper available from the TA.

- New course on "Managing Energy: Risk, Investment and Technology" (MERIT) in Spring 2012. I shall offer this interesting, time- (heard of gas revolution, smart grid, deep-drilling, photovoltaic cells) and location- (Texas is the center of US energy sector) appropriate course. To learn more check syllabus from http://www.utdallas.edu/~metin/teaching.html. The course is available at UTD course lookup, serach for Spring 2012 and instructor last name Cakanyildirim (first 3 letters suffice).

- Jan De Meulder, Global Trade Compliance, Texas Instruments will discuss TI's Global Supply Chain at 7pm on Nov 23. He was able to confirm only recently. But I expect this to be a great talk. Jan is an expert on trading with China, trade rules, etc. If you are interested in SCM positions at TI in China, you may forward your resume to me.

- If you wish, you can submit your case report on Nov 30 (the original due date was Nov 23).

- WalMart supplement is updated 1t 10:25 on Nov 8. This case was retired. We are not doing it anymore. But you can get a sense of how financial services idea has started, evolved and succeeded at WalMart. This is optional material. You do not have to read it.

- Cisco supplement posted at 9:12 on Nov 6 and updated at 10:46 on Nov 7. It is under Currently-used Cases on the left.

- Michaels has a pricing manager position, jobid 13240; details are here

- JCPenney is to hire about 60 supply chain students for training in the next year or so. Supply Chain Trainee Position.

- JCPenney Procurement Specialist Position; not available on the JcPenney website yet.

- You can nominate your instructor for a teaching award.

- Please check your syllabus and http://www.utdallas.edu/judicialaffairs/UTDJudicialAffairs-Basicexamples.html for examples that violate academic honesty.

- You can use a pencil and an eraser in the exams.

- For the quiz, you are responsible for Chapters 1,2,3 (intro); 4,5,6,13 (design); 8,9 (aggregate) and sections 10.1, 10.2, 10.3 and 10.4 of the 10th chapter (deterministic inventory). I can prioritize the exam material for you:
1. Read ppt slides.
2. Read book chapters.
3. Solve exercises at the end of course notes and the textbook chapters.

- In exams, you cannot use wired/wireless communication devices, so no laptops or telephones. Bring a pencil and an eraser.

- Formulas for the closde book exam posted on Oct 9. Please use this formula sheet when you are solving exercises. If you find typos/mistakes in the formula sheet, let me know immediately. If I am missing a formula, tell me, I shall add it.

- Facebook group UTDOM is created to allow its memebers to discuss operations management (supply chain, revenue management, etc.) issues. UTDOM stands for UTD Operations Management.

- Please submit a printed copy of your homework. I received about 8 emailed homework submissions. I replied all of them back to confirm the recipt of the hw and ask them to submit a printed copy next time. Due to encryption, security measures in the UTD email system, your attachments can bounce back or be encyrpted. You may receive notices reagrding these. To be on the safe side, please submit a printed copy.

- FYI: CSCMP (Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals, www.cscmp.org) is a nation-wide society that also arranges roundtable talks in DFW (www.dfwcscmp.org).

- Please read LP and Transportation, Location formulations under Supplements.

- Welcome to my OPRE 6366 class. Please read these announcements first whenever you have a question. If your question is not answered, e-mail me.

- HW questions are coming from course notes not from the textbook but they may refer to textbook.

- Formulation examples and solutions for quiz preparation.

- You must come to this exam with a fresh mind. Otherwise, you may make silly mistakes. If possible, leave your work couple hours early. Take a nap for at most an hour. Stay outdoors for 5-10 mins immediately before th exam and take deep breaths to store oxygen in your brain cells. Wash your face with cold water which also increases blood and oxygen flow. For more clues about how to take tests, see Jennifer Hartman at the UTD Student counseling center more details are below.

- In a closed book exam, you do not have to remember the details; just know what is where (underline the text, use post-it notes in the pages) so that you can rapidly access info in the textbook during the exam.

- If you have graduated from UTD, keep in touch with us via Alumni Link .

- If your Microsoft Office does not come with solver add-in, what to do? First secure the following files from a friend: Solver.xla (microsoft excel add in), Solver.cnt (cnt file), Solver (help file), Dotprd32 (microsoft excell xll add in), Solver32.dll. Copy these files into Program files/Microsoft office/Library/Solver. Before you need solver in excel click on Solver.xla, allow for macros. Go back to Excel, you will find solver add in under Tools menu. If you are brave enough, you may want to load Windows from scratch (not suggested due to instability) and set options to extensive set up.

- You may want to join APICS , a US wide organization of operation management professionalls. I am told that student membership is $20/year and student members receive discounts from APICS certification tests. For more info e-mail: apicsutd@yahoo.com .

- I reserve the right to modify course notes before I discuss them. Any modification after the discussion will be announced here. Course materials can be updated during the course so do not print all of them.

- There is a short discussion on probability at the begining of inventory course notes, but this discussion is by no means sufficient to learn the concepts. It is rather to remind you the concepts.

- My dear ex-students, you ask me questions about SCM in your current jobs. I try to answer these as fast as I can. Please be patient and do not give up on me. Please define your problem as exact as possible.

- Need counseling on effective Test Taking and Time Management, see Dr. Jennifer Hartman of UTD Student counseling center. For more info call 972.883.2575 or e-mail jhartman@utdallas.edu.

- So what really is the difference between 1. and 2. editions of the textbook? You may read a review for both editions here .

- Sections and questions in course notes that start with the word "PhD" require a higher level of understanding and can be skipped by non-PhD OPRE 6366 students. Operations management PhD students must understand these as they may be questioned on these concepts in their comprehensive exams.

- Late hw submissions delay the process of grading and posting. Please do not submit late unless you get permission to do so. Unauthorized late submissions will be subject to grade adjustments.

- For supply chain issues/questions/discussion/job announcements, join Yahoo's Supply Chain Management Group .

- Midterm course evaluations/suggestions: Please fill out an evaluation form and put into my office. These evaluations are just for me to improve the course.

- Since I have many students, I cannot possibly send personal e-mails to tell grades.

- § is the section sign, for example § 1.7 is the first chapter section 7 of the course notes.

- What is the difference between notations A:=B and A=:B? You may see these rarely in the notes. A:=B means A is defined to be equal to B. A=:B means B is defined to be equal to A. In both cases, A=B. But := and =: tell us whether B existed first or A existed first. This is a kind of a chicken and egg issue. However the notation can be helpful in exposition.