Where to locate? A project-based learning activity for a graduate-level course on operations management

Abstract

Location decisions represent an integral part of the strategic planning process of firms. Because these decisions do have a significant impact on the organisation, location analysis is a recurrent topic in operations management courses. In this study we posit that students enrolled in such courses should experience in an active way location decisions. To this end, this paper proposes an activity that, by adopting a student-centred approach, allows students getting involved in location decisions (technical skill) while simultaneously helps them boosting some of the soft skills that operation managers should possess (teamwork and use of new technologies). By mimicking a real life situation, students are asked to decide where to locate a specific new public service in the city of Barcelona. This activity was part of a course on Operations Management, included in the Master’s Degree in Engineering Management and Production Systems taught at Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (Barcelona, Spain).