MGMT 30600: Management Science

Purdue University, Spring 2023

Lectures: Room number, days of week, times
Instructor: Alex L. Wang, office, email
Office hours:
Syllabus: link

Note Please take time to read the syllabus. Students are expected to be familiar with the course policies.

Course description: With abundant and powerful processing capabilities, low-cost data storage solutions, and a ruthlessly competitive, yet incredibly lucrative marketplace, every company in the world seeks data-driven insights to drive strategic goals and objectives. In this course, we will study management science, which focuses on quantitative methods that aid in making effective decisions in a business environment. Students will learn to formulate, solve, and interpret optimization models from various application areas in management, including operations, marketing, accounting, and finance. Insights gained from the mathematical modeling and solution process will be discussed and analyzed. Results will be examined in the context of the decision problem and revision of the model will be proposed and analyzed.

Primary emphasis will be placed on formulating decision problems as optimization or simulation models and solving them in Excel using add-ins (Solver and @Risk). This course will require the use of personal computers and spreadsheet-based decision tool software.

Required text: Management Science with Spreadsheet Modeling 4th Edition, Patrick Johanns

Schedule

Week 1

8/23

Lec 1 Introduction, syllabus, linear programming: Ch. 1

8/25

Lec 2 Linear programming cont.: Ch. 1

Week 2

8/30

Lec 3 Graphical solution method: Ch. 2

9/1

Lec 4 Solving LPs with Excel: Ch. 3

9/4

HW1 due

Week 3

9/6

Lec 5 Solving LPs with Excel cont.: Ch. 4

9/8

Lec 6 Ratio constraints, solver examples: Ch. 4

9/11

HW2, YD1 due

Week 4

9/13

Lec 7 LP sensitivity analysis: Ch. 4

9/15

Lec 8 LP applications: Ch. 4

Week 5

9/20

Lec 9 Quiz 1 LP applications cont.: Ch. 5

Notes:

9/22

Lec 10 LP applications cont.: Ch. 5

9/25

HW3, YD2 due