Learn how to manage the creation and delivery of products and services in organisations across a wide variety of industries – public and private, small and large.

This course gives you the knowledge and skills to ensure that processes run smoothly, particularly in the face of opportunities and challenges arising from the increasingly global reach of business.

It covers the service, manufacturing, public and private sectors, showing how operations management, project management, and supply chain management works, whether the customer is a patient in hospital, a traveller on a transport system or a consumer buying a new iPad.

The course provides you with the knowledge and practical skills vital for the professional operations, project or supply chain manager. It also gives you a strong foundation for any subsequent doctoral work or an academic career within the field.

You have the opportunity to concentrate on particular aspects of operations management, supply chain management (helping towards membership of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply), project management and process improvement.

Recent recruiters include:

AC Nielsen, Akzo Nobel, Airbus Operations Ltd, Boston Consulting Group, GlaxoSmithKline, H&M, Lidl, Nestlé, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Procter & Gamble, Santander, Thomson Reuters

Course structure

(All taught course units are 15 credits)

Semester 1

• Global Operations Management*
• Managing Projects*
• Strategic Supply Chain Management*

One elective unit from:

• Commercial Management of Projects
• Decision Behaviour, Analysis and Support
• IS Strategy and Enterprise Systems

Semester 2

• Research Methods

Three elective units, including at least two from**:

• Business Improvement Tools, Techniques and Systems
• Business-to-Business Marketing
• Data Analytics for Business Decision Making
• Digital Technologies for Marketing
• Games Businesses Play
• Global Supply Chain Management*
• Information and Knowledge Management
• Megaproject Leadership and Strategy
• Psychology of Behaviour and Decision Making
• Risk, Performance and Decision Analysis
• Simulation and Risk Analysis

*Required for CIPS accreditation pathway

** By agreement with your course director, you may choose one elective from another Masters course such as Corporate Communications, Business Analysis and Strategic Management, Accounting and Finance, Computing or Mathematics.

This is subject to availability, timetabling constraints and what you have studied previously.

Summer research period

Research dissertation (60 credits)

You must complete a satisfactory dissertation to be awarded your MSc. This piece of work, undertaken in your third term and over the summer, gives you the opportunity to apply the techniques and theories you have learned during the taught modules. Dissertation topics reflect the expertise of your lecturers and you may be asked to choose from a list of options.

The dissertation itself normally consists of a literature review followed by a piece of empirical work, involving either qualitative or quantitative research.

Examples of recent dissertation topics include:

• The future green supply chain in retail industry: a shared value strategic perspective
• Evaluation of cost performance in inventory management in reverse logistics
• Using e-procurement to improve supply chain management practices
• Globalisation, risk, ethics and global supply chains: an operations perspective
• The implementation, use and effectiveness of the balanced scorecard

Home/EU £10,500
Overseas £18,500

Rolling admission - please apply as early as possible.

Entry requirements

First or upper second class honours (2:1) degree from a UK university or the overseas equivalent, in any discipline.

Application details

We’re delighted that you are considering applying for one of our postgraduate courses. Please view the most up-to-date admission information on the MBS website and follow the How to Apply guide to submit an online application. Our guide is designed to make the application process as straightforward as possible for you, and to ensure that your application is correct and submitted in plenty of time. All courses start on 21 September 2015.

English Language requirements

If English is not your first language, you are required to take an English language test to prove your level of proficiency.