Production and Operations Management (POM) is a required business course offered at almost all business schools accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) in the US. As a core curriculum requirement, all business majors must take this course for graduation. The purpose of this study is to gain insight on how a POM course can be designed to cover topics that best serve Marketing majors, Business Management majors, Accounting majors, and Supply Chain Management minors, and also how the knowledge of POM topics could better enable students to accomplish their professional goals. The findings of the study may be used to help customize the curriculum of the POM course to better equip students with the knowledge, skills and abilities needed for success in their chosen careers.

The core curriculum of business schools accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) International often includes one course in Production and Operations Management (POM). As a core curriculum requirement, all business majors must take this course for graduation. It is an opportunity for all business students to be exposed to topics ranging from Forecasting to Supply Chain Management (SCM). For many students, this is their only chance to learn about the production and the operations aspects of a business. The concepts of POM are applicable in essentially all business settings; however, some topics are more valuable than others depending on the student’s major program of study. We believe that there is a need to customize the POM course to better meet the needs of students with various majors and minors.

The purpose of this research study is to gain insight on how an SCM course, POM, can be designed, and potentially customized, to cover topics that best serve marketing majors, business management majors, accounting majors, and SCM minors. Additional information will be presented on how students in these different majors and minors view the certainty of their job following graduation, the size of the company they aspire to work for, the specific industry or job they desire, and their long-term career goals. As a required business course, it is vital for POM to be adapted to provide students with information that will allow them to be most successful in their careers. By analyzing and redesigning the curriculum of the POM class, it will serve as a course that provides the business world with students equipped with the knowledge, skills and abilities needed for success in their chosen careers.

Operations Management Journal, Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Materials Requirement Planning (MRP), Total Quality Management (TQM), Just-In-Time (JIT), New Product Development (NPD).