MBA Training in Operations Management and Quantitative Methods

A survey of 20 top-ranked graduate business schools' course offerings reveals the current state of the art in operations management (OM) and quantitative methods (QM) education. In both cases, the pedagogy appears to be less mathematical and more managerial than it was 10 to 15 years ago. In OM, the proportion of required courses devoted to pure manufacturing is decreasing, and the proportion devoted to service operations increasing. Popular OM electives in service management, quality, technology, and strategy have apparently supplanted more traditional production and inventory systems courses. In QM, less emphasis on mathematical detail translates into more emphasis on formulation, interpretation and application, including the use of cases. The availability of personal computer-based statistics and optimization software packages may be accelerating this trend.