Top 10 Executive Courses in Operations Management

Top 10 Executive Courses in Operations Management

The demands on chief operating officers and other operations leaders have greatly expanded far beyond simply optimizing resources, cutting costs and spurring efficiencies. Indeed, these leaders are now expected to align their role with wider corporate strategy and collaborate more closely with other C-suite executives to tackle issues such as sustainability and digital transformation.

To help them in that transition, and also to cope with the changing nature of operations management in light of major disruptions arising from the Covid-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine, several business schools run executive education courses tailored to operations leaders. 

On these programs, the participants learn everything from agile manufacturing to design thinking, lean methodologies and even storytelling. Many of the courses link operations to strategy, underscoring the cross-disciplinary nature of these subjects. Other courses focus more on how operations relates to supply chain management, which is increasing under the spotlight in the pandemic.

Stanford, California

Stanford in California runs a course called, The Emerging COO: Driving Innovation and Operational Excellence. On this program, participants learn how to drive and sustain both innovation and operational excellence, while strengthening their collaboration with other C-suite leaders. They learn everything from agile manufacturing to design thinking, lean methodologies and even storytelling.

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Cambridge (USA), Massachusetts

Business Process Design for Strategic Management is a program run by MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge. Participants learn how to optimize business processes to drive sustainable improvements in any function but especially operations. The executives also develop an understanding of how to go about implementing improvement strategies, including why they usually fail, and how to go about problem solving effectively.

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Evanston, Illinois

Kellogg School of Management runs the Lean Operations course. Based on the science of lean operations, this program gives executives to tools and frameworks to optimize their organization’s costs, quality, speed and customer service. They also learn how to align operations with corporate strategy, in order to boost the bottom line.

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Fontainebleau, France

The Supply Chain Management program at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France is designed for managers involved in creating, optimizing or redesigning a supply chain across various functions such as operations. Participants benefit from discovering tools to align core processes for operational excellence. That’s in addition to frameworks to manage risks and opportunities for wider global supply chain management.

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Edmonton, Canada

The Alberta School of Business in Canada offers a course called SMT Operations Management. Participants learn about operations within manufacturing, distribution and services organizations. Among the core topics covered are capacity planning and scheduling, as well as the key operations concepts of MRP and Lean. Participants also discuss how to balance supply with demand, along with forecasting techniques, demand planning and inventory ordering.

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Brussels, Belgium

The Executive Master Class in Supply Chain Management at Vlerick Business School, based in Belgium, helps participants build their knowledge and understanding of managing agile, sustainable, cross-functional and global supply chains. The core modules look at operations, planning, strategies, resilience and risk management, collaboration and sustainability.

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Écully Cedex, France

France’s EMLYON Business School runs the Driving Performance course. Participants hone their ability to design or improve integrated performance measurement and management systems, with a special focus aligning operational decisions with strategy. The program takes an integrated approach that includes allocation of decision-making responsibilities, and the selection of relevant key performance indicators.

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Singapore, Singapore

Singapore Management University puts on the Global Supply Chain Management Program. Participants will learn how to leverage big data analytics in operations and the management of major trends such as sustainability and digitalization. They will also explore the development of supply network resilience strategies.

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Dubai, United Arab Emirates

SP Jain puts on the Certificate Program in Execution Excellence, which is about how to manage value creation processes in an efficient and effective way, in order to drive a competitive advantage. Operations are a big part of the program’s focus, with participants learning about lean methodologies in addition to broader leadership themes.

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Breukelen, Netherlands

Nyenrode in the Netherlands offers a Masterclass in Operational Excellence. Participants learn how to use practical tools to make optimal use of human capital, systematically focusing on customer value and improving work processes too. The executives also learn about lean methodologies and are encouraged to apply their learning in practice.

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