OIM3536 Scaling Lean Ventures
4 Advanced Management Credits
How do you enable an organization to overcome the constraints and risks posed by the nascent & uncertain operating environment found in an entrepreneurial venture? Scaling Lean Ventures is a capstone course for Operations concentrators and elective course for others targeted to 3rd and 4th year undergraduate students with an interest in strategic operations in small to medium sized organizations.
The approach to the course is driven by Lean Principles of Management including “learn by doing”. The well-studied Toyota Production System serves us as the root file for many of these principles. Students will be assigned to a high priority project with an organization and will be expected to conceive & implement Lean Start-up principles to relieve the organization of a deeply embedded operating constraint on growth. This is not a consulting experience, but a learn-by-doing partnership for fourteen weeks. The students will be expected to be on site with the partner organizations regularly to make implementation progress.
In addition to their on-site time, the course will have an in-class component. During each in-class session, the students will be exposed to a new TPS concept and discuss how to implement it at their project. The students will also provide and receive feedback from their peers, instructors, and guest lecturers to gain insights on their implementation attempts to-date, thus better understanding their assigned problem and charting a path forward to success.
The partner organizations are from a wide variety of industries, including technology, consumer products, food, legal services, and socially-oriented manufacturing and service companies.
Prerequisites: FME and SME ; Juniors and Seniors status