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Operations and Technology Management Major


What You’ll Learn

Analyze business processes and use data to improve performance. Build skills that can be used across a broad range of in-demand organizations and industries.

Topics, skills, and concepts

  • Operations in manufacturing and service industries (health care, airlines, hospitality, retail, etc.)
  • Quality and process improvement, supply chain management, analytics
  • Identifying challenges, developing insights and solutions to business problems

16
in the U.S. for undergraduate production/ operation management programs
U.S. News & World Report, 2022

Prepare for Your Career in Operations and Technology

72,007
average starting salary

Key employers

3M LogoTarget logoMilwaukee Electric Tool logo
Grainger logoSpaulding Ridge logoDeloitte logo

Knowledge and abilities

  • Data analysis, proficiency in several leading software packages
  • Critical thinking, project management, creative problem solving

Common job titles

  • Business Process Management Specialist
  • Operations Manager
  • Project Manager
  • Material Planning Analyst
  • Business Analyst
  • Consultant

Common Career Paths

A process or improvement analyst can serve many roles in an organization. Overall, they facilitate process workflow modeling in order to collaborate on process improvements. They create process documentation and workflows as well as knowledge articles and self-service guidance. A process or improvement analyst may review information and trends at a company to ensure that they are achieving the desired results and that the services are meeting the agreed upon services. They identify issues and risks, as well as bring inconsistencies and problems to the attention of management and then participate in the problem resolution. They extract reports and provide a high-level analysis of data for review. They also understand policies and procedures and their impact on workflow.

Project managers are responsible for client engagements from the planning phase through implementation and delivery. Project management involves determining the scope of client engagements, allocating resources to implementation teams, and determining effective approaches to work completion. Those working in this area must be able to meet deadlines and to interact extensively with clients, developers, and external departments. A project manager may also be required to design performance and expense comparisons. Above all else, project management is concerned with ensuring accuracy and quality of client deliverables.

Planning and analytics is the forward-looking process of coordinating assets to optimize the delivery of goods, services, and information from supplier to customer, balancing supply and demand. Planning is necessary at just about every stage in the supply chain. Different planning roles include supply chain planner, demand planner, or inventory planner, analyst.

Both large and boutique consulting firms hire talent to focus on specific practice areas or industries (i.e. Specialists). These firms and their employees provide deep expertise on a similar topic area or industry for their clients. These niche areas require a higher level of expertise and personnel in these areas are usually referred to as SMEs (Subject Matter Experts). Consultants in this pathway have a more focused and specialized path, while still serving a variety of clients. There are many boutique firms that only consult in one of these specialties.

  • Operations and Process: Support clients and provide guidance around increasing efficiencies across the entire value chain. This can include cost reduction, operational improvements, optimization of technology or processes and more.
  • Supply Chain: Work on the value delivery chain that encompasses suppliers all the way to customer delivery of the intended product/goods/services. Supply-Chain management consultants traditionally work on the improvement of some portion of this value chain such as logistics of in-bound freight, or reduction in working-capital (inventory) as examples.

Go Beyond the Classroom

Professor Katie Krueger helping students

In the quality/process improvement courses and the operations analytics course, students complete projects that mirror the work of real operations and technology professionals.

There is additionally an emphasis on using case studies and real data to prepare you for your career.

Join a Student or Professional Org

Meet the Operations and Technology Management Team

Career coach

Use Starfish to make an appointment with your career coach.

Debbie Whitman

Debbie Whitman

Career Coach

Pathway consultant

Tim McClurg

Tim McClurg

Senior Lecturer