Doctoral Program: Operations Management Concentration

Department Chair: Professor Sergio Koreisha
Email: sergiok@lcbmail.uoregon.edu

Introduction
The overall objective of the Charles H. Lundquist Doctoral Program in Operations Management is to prepare students seeking academic and research careers.  Operations Management (OM) concerns how organizations should optimize business processes (e.g., production, distribution) and policies (e.g., staffing, pricing) both internally and within the broader supply chain.  Researchers in the OM area address these complex decisions using rigorous research methods that require a solid foundation in model building, theory development, and data analysis.   These foundational skills reflect the strength of the Lundquist Colleges Decision Sciences department, whose faculty work closely with students within the OM doctoral program.  In addition its OM faculty, the Decision Sciences department spans the areas of Information Systems (IS) and Statistics, allowing doctoral students to benefit from coursework and research opportunities in two areas complementary to the OM area.  Due to the quantitative orientation of this Ph.D. option, students entering the program should have interests that lie at the intersection of applied mathematics and business research.

Ph.D. Program Requirements
Successfully completing the Ph.D. involves, in addition to the coursework detailed below, the satisfactory completion of the following sequence of requirements:

         Qualifying exam, consisting of the following two parts (passing the exam requires satisfactory marks on both):

o   Test comprising written and oral portions, administered over two consecutive days at the end of the spring quarter in the second year.  Both the written and oral tests will emphasize students areas of coursework and research concentrations.  The oral exam will emphasize a research article that pertains to such an area of concentration; the article is assigned in advance of the exam date to provide sufficient preparation time for the student.  (Some portion of the 2-hour oral exam will be also be used to explore issues that fall outside the particular article topic.)

o   Second-year paper due 1 month prior to the test portion of the qualifying exam.  This paper gives students an early opportunity to learn research skills and interact with faculty, and may serve as the catalyst for subsequent dissertation work.  Students typically present this research within a departmental seminar series.

         Thesis proposal, to be scheduled after the student has documented his or her research progress to the extent that the trajectory for completing the dissertation is clearly apparent to the students faculty advisor(s).  Prior to holding the proposal defense, the student must meet with each member of the intended thesis committee, to obtain feedback regarding the proposed topic and research methods.  If the proposal defense is successful, then the student will receive a written document that outlines the nature of the additional work that remains to be done.

         Ph.D. dissertation and defense.  The final thesis defense is scheduled by the primary thesis advisor after s/he determines that the Ph.D. candidate has extended his or her research and dissertation draft to satisfactorily address the concerns documented at the time of the proposal defense.  The final thesis committee typically consists of four faculty members, including one from another college within the university.

Coursework
The required coursework for the Operations Management doctoral program falls within three categories: supporting, core, and specialization.  Ph.D. students are expected to plan their course schedules after consulting with their faculty advisor, to help ensure that coursework is sequenced appropriately.

Supporting courses

         First-year MBA courses or equivalent in: Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Statistics (and, if deemed necessary: OM and IS).

         Microeconomics (e.g., Econ 511)

         Linear Algebra (e.g., Math 541)

Core courses (completed prior to the Qualifying Exam)

• Probability and Statistics (Math 561/562)
• Regression (DSC 635)
• Optimization methods (e.g., OSU IE 521)
• Decision Sciences research seminars (typically 2 per year), covering the areas of OM/IS/Statistics.  Topics in each of these areas include:
  • OM: inventory management, supply chains, service operations, closed-loop operations, operations planning & control, and math programming.
  • IS: object-oriented design, databases, congestion management, and pricing.
  • Statistics: time series analysis, data mining, and advanced econometrics.

Throughout the duration of the Ph.D. program, all full-time Ph.D. students must enroll in these Decision Sciences research seminars. 

Ph.D. students focus on the core classes during the first two years of their studies, in preparation for the qualifying exam.  The supporting courses in microeconomics and linear algebra in particular are also useful background material for the exam and thus should be completed within the first two years.  While the full set of supporting courses is a formal requirement for completing the Ph.D., a significant proportion of incoming students may be able to obtain a written waiver (from the Ph.D. coordinator) for some or all of those courses, as a result of having equivalent prior coursework.

In the second or third year of the Ph.D. program and beyond, students choose a set of specialization courses to gain exposure to new methodologies and problem areas.

Specialization courses

            Functional area focus choose at least 3

         DSC 533 (4 cr.): Information Analysis for Managerial Decisions

         DSC 544 (4 cr.): Business Database Management Systems

         DSC 566 (4 cr.): Project and Operations Management Models

         DSC 577 (4 cr.): Supply Chain Operations and Information

         DSC 588 (4 cr.): eBusiness

Research methods focuschoose at least 3

         DSC 610 (3cr.): Multivariate Methods

         OSU IE 563 (3cr.): Advanced Production Planning & Control

         OSU IE 521/522 (3cr. each): Industrial Systems Optimization I/II

         OSU ST  583  (3cr.): Non-Linear Optimization

         OSU ST  515  (3cr.): Design of Experiments

         OSU ST 543 (3cr.): Applied Stochastic Models

         Math 513 (4cr.) Introduction to (Real) Analysis

         Math 555 (4cr.): Mathematical Modeling

         Math 556 (4cr.): Networks and Combinatorics

         Math 564/565/566 (4 cr. each): Mathematical Statistics I / II / III

         Econ 523/524/525 (3cr. each):  Econometrics

         Econ  527 (4cr.): Games and Decisions

Note: the above courses with the OSU prefix are taught at nearby Oregon State University (typical OSU tuition fees are waived for full-time University of Oregon students).

Due to differences in backgrounds across incoming students, it is difficult to define an exact timeline for each students progression through the program, but students should be able to complete their degree requirements in four to five years.

Training in Effective Teaching
Developing effective teaching skills is a significant part of the Ph.D. program and increasingly important in attracting offers in the academic job market. Students participate in teacher training activities conducted by the Lundquist College and by the Teaching Effectiveness Program at the University of Oregon. In addition, Ph.D. students may serve as teaching assistants during their first two years in the program, with the intention of learning the skills required to fully teach classes (typically in the undergraduate program at the 2xx/3xx level) after the second year.

Financial Support
Almost all Ph.D. students receive financial support in the form of an appointment as a graduate teaching fellow, assisting faculty with teaching and/or research.  Typical appointments carry a 9-month stipend of approximately $13,750, plus health insurance and a waiver of tuition. The Lundquist College also offers several competitive $2500 summer research awards to Ph.D. students, as a potential means to supplement the 9-month stipends.

Admission Procedures
Students should have a solid foundation in mathematics and have proficient English writing and speaking skills.  An MBA or other Masters degree in business is not required, but a student lacking the necessary business training may need to take additional classes to supplement the specialized coursework of the doctoral program detailed above.

Students should have a Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) score of 600 or higher (GRE scores can also be submitted); both verbal and quantitative scores should correspond to the top quartile (i.e., 75% or higher). International students whose native language is not English must have excellent English speaking and writing skills and achieve a TOEFL score of at least 600 (250 or higher on the computer-based version of the exam). A TOEFL score is good for two years.

The application deadline for the Ph.D. program for fall term is the preceding January 15.   See the Charles H. Lundquist College of Business website for the application forms and submission details.

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