Some of the areas studied this week include Operations Planning and Strategy, Facilities Layout, Operations Control, Design Controls, and EOQ, MRP, and JIT. We also looked at the management of International Expansion and Operations. Specific areas studied include why businesses expand into International Markets, multinational corporations, the economic, legal, sociocultural and technological environment that must be considered when going international, and how to control International Operations. Probably few of us in this course have had experience in either of these fields.

In your journaling, you are to think about the concepts and key phrases learned this week. Listed below are some thought provoking questions to stimulate your thinking. They are there to help you focus on the concepts and management tools you have studied. Use these questions as thought provokers, and journal thoughts that you have already formulated on the material covered up to this point in the course. (If you do not have direct experience in any of these areas you can use situations that you have been told about or observed).

1. Have you experienced any situations where Operations Strategy and Management were prevalent or needed?
2. If you have never participated in a facilities layout of an office or factory, you probably did a layout for your home, workshop, activity room. How did that work? Did you intuitively use any of the ideas expressed on the subject in the text?
3. Have you ever been in a situation where EOQ, MRP, KRPll, or JIT were used? If yes, explain how they were used.
4. Does your business market internationally? How do your activities compare with the concepts in this Appendix?
5. Those who live and work in the DC area are exposed to more cultural diversity than most areas in the United States. Does this give you an idea of how you might work with cultural diversity when marketing outside of the United States?
6. How about your experience with the technological, legal and political environment where you work? Can these be related to what you might expect in international markets?
7. If you have direct experience with international business, consider how your experience compares with the concepts in the Appendix.

Directions:

Choose two of the questions listed above and record your personal reflections (at least 1-2 paragraphs) in your journal for future use. Try to choose questions that you have a strong opinion on, or where your opinion has changed as a result of this weeks activities. As the course moves along you will see that the journal will evolve into a cohesive philosophy of management which you will use to complete this course and also use in your role as a manager.