Lecturer: Giorgio Greco  

Course name: Business Management
Course code: 502505
Degree course: Bioingegneria, Ingegneria Informatica, Ingegneria Elettronica e delle Telecomunicazioni
Disciplinary field of science: ING-IND/35
The course relates to:
University credits: ECTS 6
Course website: n.d.

Specific course objectives

The course aims to give to engineering students managerial basic knowledge to achieve the competitive advantages for business enterprise. From the operations management point of view, capacity and production management, stock management, logistics management, material requirements planning (MRP), Just in Time (JIT) and Project Management Techniques will be considered.

Course programme

COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES
Techniques for analyzing industries and competitors. Porter’s Competitive Strategies. SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis

ACCOUNTING
Final balance. Balance-sheet, Income Statement, Company Report. Profitability Analysis: ROE (Return on Equity); ROI (Return on Investment); ROS(Return on Sales); Rotation of Capital Employed; EVA (Economic Value Added); Residual Income; EBIT (Earnings Before Interests and Taxes); EBITDA (Earnings Before Interests, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization); WACC (Weighted Average Cost of Capital ); ROD (Return on Debt). Financial Analysis.

COST CONCEPT AND CLASSIFICATION
Differential Costs. Sunk Costs. Controllable and Non Controllable Costs. Period Costs. Product Costs. Standard Versus Final Costs. Direct and Indirect Costs. Costing Direct Materials and Direct Labor. Costing Factory Overhead. Cost Allocations. Fixed Costs and Variable Costs. Break-Even Analysis. Applying Cost-Volume Analysis. Full Costing. Direct Costing. The Contribution Margin Approach.

COST SYSTEMS AND COST ACCUMULATION PROCEDURES
Job Order Costing. Process Costing Operation Costing Activity Based Costing

THE BUDGET PROCESS
Sales Forecasting. Sales Budget. Production Budget. The Manufacturing Cost Budget. The Purchases Budget. The Direct Labor Budget. The Factory Overhead Budget. The Selling Expense Budget. The General and Administrative Expense Budget. The Capital Budget. Financial Planning. The Estimated Income Statement. The Estimated Balance Sheet. WorK Sheet. The use of Budgets. Managerial Usefulness of Variance Analysis Development on Managerial Control. Cockpit and Tableau de Board. Balanced Scorecard

CAPITAL INVESTMENT DECISIONS
The Time Value of Money. Future Value of Money. Present Value of Money. The Payback Method ROI Method Net Present Value Internal Rate of Return Business Plan

PRODUCTION AND INVENTORY MANAGEMENT
Phases of a Production Process. Process Representation Techniques (Layout Diagrams, Flow Diagrams, Flowcharts, Organisational Charts). Working and Assembly Cycle: Operations, Timing (Work-Sampling, MTM, Standard Times). Manufacturing Production Systems. Group Technology: Product Family Definition; Opitz Code; Benefit of Group Technology. Linear Programming and the Maximization of Contribution Margin. Linear Programming and the Minimization of Costs. The Bill of Materials.

PULL APPROACH TO PRODUCTION PLANNING
Materials Requirements Planning (MRP): Data and Phases of MRP Procedures. Derivation of Optimum Order Quantity. Stock Management Models (ABC Analysis, Stock Review Methods, EOQ). Operational Planning and Scheduling. Manufacturing Requirements Planning (MRP II). Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).

PUSH APPROACH TO PRODUCTION PLANNING
Japanese management techniques. Just in Time (JIT): JIT Fundamentals, Production Management within JIT. Kan-ban: Operating Rules.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). Gantt Charts. Project Network Diagram Fundamentals. Critical Chain Scheduling. Critical Path Method (CPM). Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). Precedence Diagramming Method. Planning and Controlling Processes.

Course entry requirements

Course structure and teaching

Lectures (hours/year in lecture theatre): 45
Practical class (hours/year in lecture theatre): 0
Practicals / Workshops (hours/year in lecture theatre): 0

Suggested reading materials

Slides and lectures will be available during the Course

G. Greco. Gestione Aziendale. CUSL Pavia.

Testing and exams

Grading • Midterm test 50% • Final test 50% NOTE for students that cannot take midterm and final exam during the term: these students are expected to take both the tests in any exam session.