Manufacturing Management Course

Lesson 1 • The Manufacturing Management Role

Defines the scope, responsibilities, and authority of a manufacturing manager. Anchors all subsequent chapters in real job context.

Lesson 2 • The Production System Model

Frames manufacturing as an input-process-output system with feedback loops. Builds systems thinking applied in planning and control chapters.

Lesson 3 • Regulatory and Safety Foundations

Covers mandatory workplace safety standards and product compliance obligations. Establishes the non-negotiable baseline for all operational decisions.

Lesson 4 • Types of Manufacturing Environments

Contrasts discrete, process, and hybrid production systems. Enables managers to apply context-appropriate strategies throughout the course.

Lesson 1 • Demand Forecasting for Production

Covers qualitative and quantitative forecasting methods and their accuracy measures. Connects demand signals to the planning inputs used throughout this chapter.

Lesson 2 • Capacity Requirements Planning

Analyzes work center loads against available capacity to identify conflicts. Enables proactive schedule adjustments before production begins.

Lesson 3 • Material Requirements Planning

Explains MRP logic, bill-of-materials explosion, and lead-time offsetting. Provides the material planning foundation for capacity and inventory chapters.

Lesson 4 • Shop-Floor Scheduling Techniques

Applies dispatching rules and sequencing methods to daily production control. Bridges high-level plans to real-time floor execution.

Lesson 1 • Inventory Classification and Analysis

Uses ABC and XYZ analysis to segment inventory by value and demand variability. Directs management attention and policy design in later sections.

Lesson 2 • Warehouse and Storage Management

Addresses layout, slotting, and material handling within the production facility. Supports efficient material flow to and from the shop floor.

Lesson 3 • Inventory Replenishment Models

Covers EOQ, reorder point, and periodic review models with their cost trade-offs. Provides the quantitative tools for setting replenishment policies.

Lesson 4 • Inventory Accuracy and Cycle Counting

Establishes cycle counting programs and root-cause analysis for discrepancies. Ensures the data integrity that planning systems depend on.

Lesson 1 • Inspection and Acceptance Sampling

Covers sampling plan design, operating characteristic curves, and incoming inspection. Balances inspection cost against the risk of accepting nonconforming material.

Lesson 2 • Quality Management Principles

Introduces customer-focused quality philosophy, cost of quality, and prevention vs. detection. Frames quality as a strategic management responsibility.

Lesson 3 • Process Capability Analysis

Calculates Cp, Cpk, and Ppk indices to assess whether processes meet specifications. Links process performance data to customer tolerance requirements.

Lesson 4 • Nonconformance and Corrective Action

Establishes processes for identifying, segregating, and dispositioning nonconforming product. Drives systemic root-cause elimination through structured corrective action.

Lesson 1 • 5S and Visual Management

Implements Sort, Set, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain to create organized workplaces. Visual controls make abnormal conditions immediately visible to operators and managers.

Lesson 2 • Lean Philosophy and the Eight Wastes

Establishes the lean mindset and the eight categories of waste with shop-floor examples. Provides the conceptual lens for all lean tool applications in this chapter.

Lesson 3 • Flow, Pull, and Kanban Systems

Designs one-piece flow cells and pull systems controlled by kanban signals. Replaces push scheduling with demand-driven replenishment to reduce WIP.

Lesson 4 • Value Stream Mapping

Teaches current-state and future-state VSM to visualize and redesign material and information flow. Serves as the primary diagnostic tool for improvement projects.

Lesson 1 • Maintenance Strategy Selection

Compares reactive, preventive, predictive, and reliability-centered maintenance strategies. Guides selection based on equipment criticality and failure consequences.

Lesson 2 • Spare Parts and Maintenance Inventory

Applies inventory principles to critical spare parts to prevent stockout-driven downtime. Balances holding cost against the risk of equipment unavailability.

Lesson 3 • Total Productive Maintenance

Implements TPM pillars including autonomous maintenance and planned maintenance. Engages operators in equipment care to reduce the six big losses.

Lesson 4 • Overall Equipment Effectiveness

Calculates and decomposes OEE into availability, performance, and quality factors. Identifies the dominant loss category for targeted improvement action.

Lesson 1 • Cost of Poor Quality and Waste Costing

Quantifies the financial impact of defects, rework, scrap, and downtime. Builds the business case for quality and lean investments using cost data.

Lesson 2 • Manufacturing Cost Structure

Breaks down direct materials, direct labor, and overhead into their cost drivers. Establishes the cost model used in budgeting and variance analysis sections.

Lesson 3 • Variance Analysis

Decomposes material, labor, and overhead variances into price and efficiency components. Enables managers to diagnose cost problems and assign corrective ownership.

Lesson 4 • Capital Investment Analysis

Applies NPV, IRR, and payback period to evaluate equipment and process investments. Connects operational improvement proposals to financial return expectations.

Lesson 1 • Manufacturing Strategy Frameworks

Applies competitive priorities—cost, quality, speed, and flexibility—to strategic plant decisions. Aligns manufacturing capabilities with overall business strategy.

Lesson 2 • Change Management in Manufacturing

Applies structured change management to technology, process, and cultural transformations. Equips managers to lead people through resistance and sustain new ways of working.

Lesson 3 • Digital Manufacturing and Industry 4.0

Surveys IoT, digital twins, advanced analytics, and automation as strategic enablers. Prepares managers to evaluate and adopt digital tools within their operations.

Lesson 4 • Supply Chain Integration

Extends manufacturing management upstream to suppliers and downstream to customers. Covers supplier development, collaboration, and risk management.

Lesson 5 • Continuous Improvement Culture

Builds organizational systems for sustaining kaizen, idea management, and improvement governance. Moves improvement from projects to embedded daily practice.