Operations Management is the study of key operations and logistical issues in both manufacturing and service organizations that have strategic as well as tactical applications. It involves the planning, execution and control of activities that create goods and services by transforming inputs into outputs. Topics include productivity, capacity planning, facility location, facility layout, manufacturing/service operations information technologies, inventory management, resource scheduling, and project management.

Challenges in Operations Management:

• Productivity: to produce goods and services more efficiently, more effectively, with fewer resources
• Quality: to produce goods and services that meet and exceed the customer expectations of quality; to strive for continuous improvement of quality.
• Responsiveness: to be able to meet demands placed on the organizations in a timely fashion. This may be achieved through reduced development time using agile and concurrent processes, and by reducing processing time and delays.
• Flexibility: to be able to cope with changing demands placed on the organizations. In manufacturing, this is often implemented using automation, mass customization, flexible workers, general-purpose equipment, and flexible manufacturing systems (FMS).

Business Statistics consists of a body of analytical methods that have proven to be indispensable in the decision-making process. Important statistical activities ancillary to the decision-making process are the systematization of quantitative data and the measurement of variability. There are specialized areas within the field of statistics that deal with these and similar questions, among them being linear models, sample surveys, forecasting, design of experiments, and data processing. Linear models and sample survey techniques are widely used in accounting, marketing research, industrial management and government applications. Various Statistical methods are used extensively to analyze and interpret financial data for the purpose of portfolio management, investment and corporate decision-making. Consequently, a knowledge of statistical methods is fundamental to all professionals in business and economics.

The Business Statistics major is designed to prepare graduates for careers in business, or government and for graduate work in statistical/quantitative methods. An aptitude for applied mathematics and a desire to understand and apply scientific methods to significant problems are important prerequisites for a statistician...