The Lee Kong Chian School of Business

Academic Year 2016/17

Term 2

OPIM 101 DECISION ANALYSIS

Instructor:
Title:
Tel:
Email:
Office:

Low Chee Seng

Adjunct Faculty of Operations Management
6828 0713
cslow@smu.edu.sg
LKCSB Level 5 Adjunct Office

COURSE DESCRIPTION
The objective of this course is to introduce students to decision analysis, which is the application of the
scientific method to managerial and personal decision-making. Selected decision analysis tools will be
introduced to help making decisions in certain and uncertain environments, such as linear and integer
programming and decision trees. The usefulness of these tools will be illustrated through examples drawn from
all functional areas of business. These example applications include capacity and inventory management,
portfolio management, supply chain management and project scheduling.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Analyze business or personal problem situations and structure them
- Formulate a quantitative model to represent the problem situations using the techniques learned
- Solve problems using the techniques learned
- Interpret the results and perform what-if analyses to gain insights
- Explain the usefulness and the limitations of the modeling approach for solving decision problems

PRE-REQUISITE/ CO-REQUISITE/ MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE COURSE(S)

Please refer to the Course Catalogue on OASIS for the most updated list of pre-requisites / co-requisites for
this particular course. Do note that if this course has a co-requisite, it means that the course has to be taken
together with another course. Dropping one course during BOSS bidding would result in both courses being
dropped at the same time.

ASSESSMENT METHODS
Class Participation:
Homework Assignments:
Midterm Exam:
Final Exam:

10%
20%
30%
40%

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
All acts of academic dishonesty (including, but not limited to, plagiarism, cheating, fabrication, facilitation of acts
of academic dishonesty by others, unauthorized possession of exam questions, or tampering with the academic
work of other students) are serious offences.
All work (whether oral or written) submitted for purposes of assessment must be the students own work.
Penalties for violation of the policy range from zero marks for the component assessment to expulsion,
depending on the nature of the offence. When in doubt, students should consult the course instructor. Details
on the SMU Code of Academic Integrity may be accessed at http://www.smuscd.org/resources.html.

ACCESSIBILITY
SMU strives to make learning experiences accessible for all. If you anticipate or experience physical or
academic barriers due to disability, please let me know immediately. You are also welcome to contact the
university's disability services team if you have questions or concerns about academic provisions:
included@smu.edu.sg.
Please be aware that the accessible tables in our seminar room should remain available for students who
require them.

INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS AND EXPECTATIONS

Class Participation
Participation is a central part of the learning process for you and your classmates. When you contribute, you
help others learn. Your participation mark reflects your contribution to your classmates learning. This includes
attendance, contribution of ideas, and active participation in class discussions and group activities.
Homework Assignments
There will be some homework assignments throughout the semester. The students will form small groups of 3
members to do these homework assignments. The assignments focus on problem solving and are designed to
help students to have a better grasp of the course materials. The deadlines are given in the homework
documents. Overdue assignments will be given a zero mark.
Note: the answers to the homework assignments will be revealed in class but the marked documents will not
be returned to students.
Examinations
There will be a mid-term exam and a final exam. Both exams are closed-booked and no notes are allowed.
Exams will be focus on materials covered in the course. Please note that, for mid-term exam, the answers will
be revealed in class but the marked papers will not be returned to students.
I expect all students to follow the schools examination policy for both exams. Among other things, you need
to bring your own calculator(s) to the exams; you are not allowed to share calculator(s) with one another; you
also need to silence your cell phone and keep it away from the desk during the entire duration of the exams.

CLASS TIMINGS
This course will be taught in one 3-hour session per week.

RECOMMENDED TEXT AND READINGS

Main Text:
Author/s Name: Anderson , Sweeney, Williams & Martin
Title: An Introduction to Management Science, 13th Edition
International Edition. Publisher: South-Western
Other Texts:
Spreadsheet Modeling and Decision Analysis: A Practical Introduction to Business Analytics, Ragsdale,
Cengage Learning. 7th Edition
Introduction to Management Science, Taylor, Pearson. 11th Edition

CLASS SCHEDULE
Week
No.

Topic

Reading

Introduction to Decision Analysis and Management Science

(including Breakeven Analysis, EOQ)

Chapter 1

Decision Making Under Certainty - Linear Programing I: Formulation

and Solution

Chapter 2

Decision Making Under Certainty - Linear Programing II: Sensitivity

Analysis and solving with software

Chapter 3

Decision Making Under Certainty - Linear Programming III: Applications

Chapter 4

Decision Making Under Certainty - Distribution and Network Models:

Transportation, Assignment, and Transshipment

Chapter 6

Decision Making Under Certainty - Distribution and Network Models:

Shortest Route, Maximal Flow, and Minimal Spanning Tree

Chapter 6

Mid Term Exam (Note: 2 hours, in-class, no make-up)

Term Break

Decision Making Under Certainty - Integer Linear Programming, Logical

Constraints

Chapter 7

10

Decision Making Under Certainty - Project Management

Chapter 9

11

Decision Making under Risk and Uncertainty Decision Rules, Newsvendor Model, Decision Tree

Chapter 13

12

Decision Making under Risk and Uncertainty Risk and Sensitivity Analysis, Decision Analysis with Sample Information

Chapter 13

13

Review

14

Self-Study Week

15

Final Examination (Note: 3 hours)