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MGMT90141-excel代写
时间：2024-05-11
MGMT90141
Business Analysis & Decision Making
SUBJECT GUIDE
Semester 1 2024
Prepared by
Prof. William Ho
william.ho@unimelb.edu.au
Department of Management and Marketing
Faculty of Business and Economics
2
Subject Outline
Introduction
Welcome to MGMT90141 Business Analysis and Decision Making.
This subject will focus on developing students’ understanding of a wide variety of strategic
and operational business problems and decisions being faced by managers and decision
makers in the fields of financial management, human resource management, marketing
management, operations management, and international business management. Students
will be shown how to use a range of quantitative approaches to analyze business problems
and, based on these analyses, make effective decisions. The subject will take descriptive
analytic, predictive analytic, and prescriptive analytic approaches. Students will be expected
to be able to calculate and manipulate data as well as interpret the results in order to derive
and evaluate alternative solutions to typical business problems.
The teaching team in this subject look forward to working with you to ensure that your
experience in this subject is an interesting, challenging, and rewarding one.
Subject Overview and Aims
The overall aim of this subject is to demonstrate how a series of business problems and
decisions is analyzed and resolved through the application of quantitative approaches.
Learning Outcomes
Learning Outcomes and Generic Skills
To view the subject objectives and the generic skills you will develop through successful
completion of this subject, please see the University Handbook:
https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/2024/subjects/mgmt90141
Awareness Issues
At a broader level, studying this subject will increase your awareness of issues, such as the
role of and limits to quantitative approaches, under conditions of varying levels of uncertainty,
in the decision making process.
Eligibility and Requirements
To view the eligibility and requirements, including prerequisites, corequisites, recommended
background knowledge and core participation requirements for this subject, please see the
University Handbook:
https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/2024/subjects/mgmt90141/eligibility-and-requirements
3
Academic Staff Contact Details
Please see the subject LMS site for full contact details of the teaching staff in this subject.
Subject Coordinator Contact Details
• Prof. William Ho
Email: william.ho@unimelb.edu.au
Consultation Hours: Please email me for consultation booking.
Subject Stream Lecturer Contact Details
• Dr. Buddhika Mannaperuma Mudiyanselage
Email: b.mannaperuma@unimelb.edu.au
Consultation Hours: Please email me for consultation booking.
• Mr. Agus Wicaksana
Email: agus.wicaksana@unimelb.edu.au
Consultation Hours: Please email me for consultation booking.
• Dr. Arshia Kaul
Email: arshia.kaul.1@unimelb.edu.au
Consultation Hours: Please email me for consultation booking.
Email Protocol
Please note that we are only able to respond to student emails coming from a University email
address. Please do not use personal email addresses such as gmail or even business email
addresses. Emails from non-University email addresses may be filtered by the University’s
spam filter, which means that we may not receive your email. All correspondence relating to
this subject will only be sent to your University email address. Note that you must first activate
your University email address before you can send or receive emails at that address. You can
activate your email account at this link: http://accounts.unimelb.edu.au/.
While academic staff endeavor to address queries received via email, it is more appropriate to
resolve substantive questions during lectures and during normal consultation hours. With this
in mind, we encourage students to attend all lectures and to familiarise themselves with the
consultation hours offered by the lecturers in this subject.
4
Lectures
Lecture Times
Stream Day Time Venue Lecturer
1 Monday 6:15pm – 9:15pm Spot-4014 Buddhika
2 Tuesday 2:15pm – 5:15pm Spot-4014 William
3 Wednesday 6:15pm – 9:15pm Spot-4014 Buddhika
4 Thursday 6:15pm – 9:15pm Spot-4014 Buddhika
6 Wednesday 9:00am – 12:00nn Spot-5008 Arshia
7 Thursday 3:15pm – 6:15pm Spot-5008 Agus
8 Thursday 9:00am – 12:00nn Spot-5008 Arshia
Lecture Participation Requirements
Students are required to attend all the lectures during the semester. Prior to attending the
lectures, students are expected to read the equivalent chapters of the recommended
textbooks and the lecture slides and attempt the questions in the lecture slides in order to be
able to satisfactorily participate and contribute to the discussions during the lectures.
Lecture Schedule
This section provides a timetable of lectures for the entire semester. Note that the non-
teaching period is from Friday 29 March to Sunday 7 April 2024.
Week Date
Commencing
Topic Reading
1 26 February Introduction to Business Analytics
and Linear Programming (LP)
Anderson et al., 2019:
Chapters 1 to 3
2 4 March LP Applications Anderson et al., 2019:
Chapter 4
5
3 11 March LP Applications and Extensions Anderson et al., 2019:
Chapter 6
4 18 March Integer Programming (IP)
Applications
Anderson et al., 2019:
Chapter 7
5 25 March Decision Analysis with Perfect
Information (Assignment 1 due)
Anderson et al., 2019:
Chapter 13
6 8 April Decision Analysis with Sample
Information
Anderson et al., 2019:
Chapter 13
7 15 April Descriptive Statistics and
Probability Basics
Anderson et al., 2020:
Chapters 3 and 4
8 22 April Probability Distributions Anderson et al., 2020:
Chapters 5 and 6
9 29 April Linear Regression Anderson et al., 2020:
Chapter 14
10 6 May Multiple Regression Anderson et al., 2020:
Chapter 15
11 13 May Revision and Mock Examination
(Assignment 2 due)
12 20 May Group oral presentations
Lecture Slides / Materials
Lecture slides will be placed on the LMS prior to each lecture. The lecture slides are located
under the heading “Modules”.
Recorded Lectures
Audio and video recordings of lectures delivered in this subject will be made available for
review. These recordings allow you to revise lectures during the semester, or to review them
in preparation for the end of semester exam.
You can access recorded lectures by clicking on the Lecture Recordings (or similar) menu item
on the LMS page for this subject.
Please note that for live classes, recordings are not a substitute for attendance; rather they
are designed for revision. On rare occasions the recordings can fail to take place due to
technical reasons. In such cases, a substitute recording will be made available.
6
Private Tutoring Services
The Faculty has become increasingly concerned about the existence of a number of private
tutoring services operating in Melbourne that heavily target University of Melbourne students
enrolled in FBE subjects.
Students are urged to show caution and exercise their judgement if they are considering using
any of these services, and to please take note of the following:
Any claim by any of these businesses that they have a “special” or “collaborative” or
“partnership” style relationship with the University or Faculty is false and misleading.
Any claim by a private tutoring service that they are in possession of, or can supply you with,
forthcoming University exam or assignment questions or “insider” or “exclusive” information is
also false and misleading.
The University has no relationship whatsoever with any of these services and takes these
claims very seriously as they threaten to damage the University’s reputation and undermine
its independence.
It is also not appropriate for students to provide course materials (including University
curricula, reading materials, exam and assignment questions and answers) to operators of
these businesses for the purposes of allowing them to conduct commercial tutoring activities.
Doing so may amount to misconduct and will be taken seriously. Those materials contain
intellectual property owned or controlled by the University.
We encourage you to bring to the attention of Faculty staff any behaviour or activity that is not
aligned with University expectations or policy as outlined above.
Assessment
Assessment Overview
Your assessment for this subject comprises the following:
Assessment Task Individual or Group Due Weighting
Assignment 1 Group 5pm, 25 March 2024 15%
Assignment 2 Group 5pm, 13 May 2024 30%
Oral presentation of
assignment 2
Group Week c/o 20 May
2024
5%
End-of-semester exam Individual Assessment period 50%
7
Assessment Details
Assignment 1 Specifications – 15%
The assignment is designed to allow you to demonstrate that you can effectively collect,
review, and analyze the relevant academic literatures on a particular topic, which is same as
the topic for your assignment 2. Each group has to select a company (manufacturing-based
OR service-based) with which you are familiar, select an optimization problem being faced by
the company (e.g., media selection at Telstra, employee scheduling in HSBC, make-or-buy at
Toyota, resource allocation at the University of Melbourne, distribution network design at
Pickfords, etc.), and then collect and review 10 international journal articles, from the past 10
years, applying mathematical modelling for the problem to be studied. You should analyze the
strengths of these applications and their “value-add” to the decision making process, and also
identify the knowledge gaps and limitations, if any, and suggest for improvements.
1. Group Formation:
• Students have to form their own group with at least four but no more than five students
in each group to work on and complete the assignment. The group members must
come from the same registered stream. Students must self-enrol in their groups by the
end of Week 2.
2. Expected Contents of Group Report:
• Introduction – company background, description of the business optimization problem,
justification of selection, identification of the company’s requirements or evaluation
criteria, etc.
• Methodology – description of the method used to collect the journal articles, such as
databases, searching and filtering criteria, etc.
• Strengths – analysis of the strengths of the articles with respect to the evaluation
criteria.
• Weaknesses – analysis of the weaknesses of the articles with respect to the evaluation
criteria.
• Discussions and Conclusions – suggestions for improvement.
• References
• Appendices – including the minutes/notes of meetings.
3. Marking Criteria:
Criteria Possible Mark
Identification and description of the problem to be analyzed 2
Collection and discussion of relevant academic literatures 3
8
Analysis of the strengths of these applications and their “value-add”
to the decision making process
4
Identification of the knowledge gaps and limitations, if any, and
suggestion for improvements
4
Structure and presentation. Use of appropriate language, spelling,
grammar, and punctuation
2
Total 15
4. Word Limits:
• The total length of the group report is a maximum of 2,000 words (excluding figures,
tables, references, and appendices).
5. Presentation:
• It is important to give attention to spelling, grammar, and punctuation in order to avoid
ambiguity and confusion. The assignment must be word processed in 12-point type
and double-spaced. Please leave a margin of 3cm on both the left and right hand side
for marker’s comments.
• Students can include relevant graphs, tables, and other exhibits as appendices. They
must be clearly labelled, and will not be included in the word count. However, your
reasons for including these exhibits must be made clear in the main body of the
assignment.
Assignment 2 Specifications – 30%
The assignment is designed to allow you to demonstrate that you can effectively analyze the
business optimization problems, apply the mathematical modelling approaches such as LP
and IP to formulate the problems, use the Excel Solver to obtain the optimal solutions,
generate the sensitivity analysis report, and suggest courses of action to the focal company.
Each group has to base on the same company and optimization problem selected for the
assignment 1, and then apply the LP or IP to formulate the optimization problem with primary
or notional data.
1. Group Formation:
• Students should work with the same group for assignments 1 and 2 throughout the
semester.
2. Expected Contents of Group Report:
• Introduction – company background, description of the business optimization problem,
justification of selection, etc.
• Literature review – summary of the findings from the assignment 1.
9
• Methodology – description and illustration of the mathematical modelling approach for
the problem.
• Implementation – formulation of the problem by using the mathematical modelling
approach, application of the Excel Solver to optimize the mathematical model, and
execution of the sensitivity analysis.
• Discussions and Conclusions – suggestions for courses of action to the selected
company as well as the evaluation of the mathematical modelling approach.
• References
• Appendices – including the minutes/notes of meetings.
3. Marking Criteria:
Criteria Possible Mark
Identification and description of the problem to be analyzed 3
Summary of literature review 2
Description and application of the mathematical modelling
approach to analyze and solve the problem
16
Suggestions for courses of action to the company, and critical
evaluation of the mathematical modelling approach
7
Structure and presentation. Use of appropriate language, spelling,
grammar, and punctuation
2
Total 30
4. Word Limits:
• The total length of the group report is a maximum of 4,000 words (excluding figures,
tables, references, and appendices).
5. Presentation:
• It is the same as that for assignment 1.
Oral Presentation of Assignment 2 Specifications – 5%
The presentation is designed to provide student groups an opportunity to orally share their
work (for Group Assignment) with their class as well as learn from other groups’ work, and to
demonstrate effective communication of analytical techniques and findings with non-experts.
This oral presentation contributes 5% to the overall mark, no file submission is required.
1. Due Dates and Presentation Mode:
10
All groups will present their work in the last lecture in Week 12 commencing on 20 May
2024. Your group must present live.
2. Presenters:
• The group is completely free to choose which members deliver the presentation. One
member may deliver the entire presentation, or each member of the group may
participate in the presentation or any combination of members is acceptable.
• Regardless of who presents on behalf of the group, all members will receive the same
score, unless you formally communicate and raise issues/concerns/problems with a
specific group member to your stream lecturer and/or subject coordinator well before
the due date of Group Assignment submission in Week 11. In such cases, students
who do not contribute to a group assignment may be allocated a lower mark or
assigned a mark of zero in presentation as well as group assignment.
3. Presentation Content:
• All groups are expected to first introduce their selected organisation, the optimisation
problem studied, and company requirements/evaluation criteria. Second, you are
expected to summarise the literature review. Third, you will present and describe your
mathematical programming model for the problem, followed by a brief live demo on
how the model is solved (note that there is no need to show every step of the analysis,
just the key steps). Last, but not least, you will discuss the managerial and theoretical
contributions of your work.
4. Presentation Length:
• Please note that the ideal length of time for the presentation is 10 minutes, with +/- 1
minute flexibility. This means that the presentation needs to be prepared, rehearsed
and coordinated well by the group members.
5. Marking Criteria:
Criteria Possible Mark
Structure of presentation, communication and group presentation
skills
5
Assignment Submission
Assignment submission is via the LMS Assignments link for all written assignments.
Please note that you are required to keep a copy of your assignment after it has been
submitted as you must be able to produce a copy of your assignment at the request of teaching
staff at any time after the submission due date.
Penalties for Late Submission
In order to ensure equality for all students, assignments must be completed within specified
time limits. Late submissions will attract a marking penalty where approval for late submission
11
has not been given. The mark awarded will be reduced by 10% for each day the work is late.
Assignments submitted later than 5 working days after the due date will not be marked and
will receive no marks.
Assignments that exceed the word limits by 10%, inclusive of footnotes, will attract a marking
penalty of 10% of the marks that would otherwise have been awarded. Assignments that
exceed the word limits by 25% or more will attract a higher penalty, including a cap on the
maximum grade awarded.
Students with a genuine and acceptable reason for not completing an assignment (or other
assessment task), such as illness, can apply for special consideration (see policy below).
Subject Resources
Prescribed References
• Anderson, D.R., Sweeney, D.J., Williams, T.A., Camm, J.D., Cochran, J.J., and Fry,
M.J. (2019), An Introduction to Management Science: Quantitative Approaches to
Decision Making, 15th Edition, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning. (Note that the
older versions are acceptable for this subject. However, the equivalent chapter for
each week may vary.)
• Anderson, D.R., Sweeney, D.J., Williams, T.A., Camm, J.D., and Cochran, J.J. (2020),
Statistics for Business and Economics, 14th Edition, Ohio: South-Western Cengage
Learning. (Note that the older versions are acceptable for this subject. However, the
equivalent chapter for each week may vary.)
Supplementary Readings
More supplementary readings will be provided in particular weeks.
Academic Integrity
Academic Honesty
The University maintains high academic standards in its courses and subjects and expects
students to conduct themselves in a manner which is fair, honest and consistent with the
principles of academic integrity, particularly when undertaking assessment and research.
http://academicintegrity.unimelb.edu.au/
Referencing
All sources used for a written piece of assessment must be referenced. This is to acknowledge
that your material is not based entirely on your own ideas, but is based, in part, on the ideas,
information, and evidence of others. This is desirable as you are attending University in order
to learn from others.
12
You will be required to use the APA system of referencing. The library has prepared a website
to help students correctly reference:
http://www.library.unimelb.edu.au/recite
It is important that all material you present for assessment is referenced correctly. Material
that has not been referenced correctly may be considered to be plagiarised, and as such may
be penalised. We will also look for evidence that material included in the bibliography has
been used in the assignment.
The Academic Skills Unit has produced resources to assist students with referencing
https://services.unimelb.edu.au/academicskills/undergrads/top_resources
The Library also provides advice on referencing: http://library.unimelb.edu.au/cite
University Services
Timetable
MyTimetable is a class timetabling system that creates individual timetables for students
based on submitted class preferences, ensuring everyone has an equitable opportunity of
getting their preferred class timetable. You will use this system to create your class timetable
prior to each study period.
By following a preference-based model, students who have other commitments, such as
employment or carer responsibilities, or who are returning or living overseas during the
timetabling period, aren’t disadvantaged by their limited availability. When allocating class
timetables, MyTimetable also takes into consideration factors such as class size limits and
potential clashes to ensure all students are equally accommodated. Further information is
available on the web at https://students.unimelb.edu.au/admin/class-timetable
Stop 1: Connecting Students and Services
Stop 1 is here to provide you with a range of support services throughout your university
degree, from help with enrolment, administration and wellbeing to advice on building your
skills and experiences. https://students.unimelb.edu.au/stop1
Academic Skills
Academic Skills offers a range of workshops and resources to help you with study skills
including researching, writing and referencing, presentation skills and preparing for exams.
Visit their website via http://services.unimelb.edu.au/academicskills.
Service Finder
The University of Melbourne offers one of the most comprehensive student support networks
in Australia. Use this site to locate a wide range of services
http://services.unimelb.edu.au/finder
13
Student Counselling
Students attend counselling to talk about personal, emotional, or mental health issues which
might be affecting their study and life. The University’s Counselling and Psychological
Services (CAPS) provides free, confidential, short-term professional counselling to currently
enrolled students and staff. https://services.unimelb.edu.au/counsel/individual
Student Equity and Disability Support
Student Equity and Disability Support provides services for students who need ongoing
support with their studies. They understand that adjustments to learning and assessment are
sometimes required to allow all students to reach their full potential. Learn more about the
services provided, how to find support and how to register for assistance.
http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity
University of Melbourne Library Services
As well as holding an extensive collection of books, ebooks, digital media and periodicals,
library staff provide research guidance and support for students. http://library.unimelb.edu.au/
These Business and Economics Library Guides have been designed specifically for Faculty
of Business and Economics staff and students.
http://unimelb.libguides.com/sb.php?subject_id=80310
Policy
Alternative Exam Arrangements (AEA)
The definition of and eligibility requirements for alternative exam arrangements (AEA) can be
found via http://students.unimelb.edu.au/admin/alternate.
Assessment and Results Policy
The University’s assessment policy provides a framework for the design, delivery and
implementation of assessment of students in award and non-award courses and subjects.
Assessment is designed to contribute to high quality learning by students, and to allow for
quality assurance and the maintenance of high academic standards.
https://policy.unimelb.edu.au/MPF1326
Assignment Extension
Requests for an assignment extension should be submitted here:
http://go.unimelb.edu.au/yh9n.
Before completing this form, please read the Assignment Extension Policy, which can be
found at: http://policy.unimelb.edu.au/MPF1326#section-4.37
14
Exam Policy
The University requires that you are available for the entire examination period. Please see
the University's Principal Dates via http://www.unimelb.edu.au/dates for the full annual
calendar. Supplementary exams will not be provided in cases of absence during the
examination period unless the absence is due to serious illness or other serious
circumstances and a Special Consideration application is submitted and approved.
Information on Calculators in Examinations
Effective from 1 January 2017, the approved calculator for all subjects is the Casio FX82 (any
suffix). No equivalent models of calculators will be permitted in exams.
You are required to purchase your own calculator and are responsible for ensuring your
calculator is in good working order with fresh batteries.
Plagiarism and Collusion
Plagiarism (failure to cite your sources correctly and completely) and collusion (unauthorised
collaboration with another person to prepare an assessment task) are considered academic
misconduct and attract severe penalties. More information is available on the University’s
Academic Integrity website via http://go.unimelb.edu.au/rha6.
Special Consideration
As a student, you may experience extraordinary or unusual circumstances, or ongoing
circumstances that adversely affect your academic performance. The University has policies
in place to support students who are experiencing academic disadvantage. For more
information, visit http://students.unimelb.edu.au/admin/special.
Business Analysis & Decision Making
SUBJECT GUIDE
Semester 1 2024
Prepared by
Prof. William Ho
william.ho@unimelb.edu.au
Department of Management and Marketing
Faculty of Business and Economics
2
Subject Outline
Introduction
Welcome to MGMT90141 Business Analysis and Decision Making.
This subject will focus on developing students’ understanding of a wide variety of strategic
and operational business problems and decisions being faced by managers and decision
makers in the fields of financial management, human resource management, marketing
management, operations management, and international business management. Students
will be shown how to use a range of quantitative approaches to analyze business problems
and, based on these analyses, make effective decisions. The subject will take descriptive
analytic, predictive analytic, and prescriptive analytic approaches. Students will be expected
to be able to calculate and manipulate data as well as interpret the results in order to derive
and evaluate alternative solutions to typical business problems.
The teaching team in this subject look forward to working with you to ensure that your
experience in this subject is an interesting, challenging, and rewarding one.
Subject Overview and Aims
The overall aim of this subject is to demonstrate how a series of business problems and
decisions is analyzed and resolved through the application of quantitative approaches.
Learning Outcomes
Learning Outcomes and Generic Skills
To view the subject objectives and the generic skills you will develop through successful
completion of this subject, please see the University Handbook:
https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/2024/subjects/mgmt90141
Awareness Issues
At a broader level, studying this subject will increase your awareness of issues, such as the
role of and limits to quantitative approaches, under conditions of varying levels of uncertainty,
in the decision making process.
Eligibility and Requirements
To view the eligibility and requirements, including prerequisites, corequisites, recommended
background knowledge and core participation requirements for this subject, please see the
University Handbook:
https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/2024/subjects/mgmt90141/eligibility-and-requirements
3
Academic Staff Contact Details
Please see the subject LMS site for full contact details of the teaching staff in this subject.
Subject Coordinator Contact Details
• Prof. William Ho
Email: william.ho@unimelb.edu.au
Consultation Hours: Please email me for consultation booking.
Subject Stream Lecturer Contact Details
• Dr. Buddhika Mannaperuma Mudiyanselage
Email: b.mannaperuma@unimelb.edu.au
Consultation Hours: Please email me for consultation booking.
• Mr. Agus Wicaksana
Email: agus.wicaksana@unimelb.edu.au
Consultation Hours: Please email me for consultation booking.
• Dr. Arshia Kaul
Email: arshia.kaul.1@unimelb.edu.au
Consultation Hours: Please email me for consultation booking.
Email Protocol
Please note that we are only able to respond to student emails coming from a University email
address. Please do not use personal email addresses such as gmail or even business email
addresses. Emails from non-University email addresses may be filtered by the University’s
spam filter, which means that we may not receive your email. All correspondence relating to
this subject will only be sent to your University email address. Note that you must first activate
your University email address before you can send or receive emails at that address. You can
activate your email account at this link: http://accounts.unimelb.edu.au/.
While academic staff endeavor to address queries received via email, it is more appropriate to
resolve substantive questions during lectures and during normal consultation hours. With this
in mind, we encourage students to attend all lectures and to familiarise themselves with the
consultation hours offered by the lecturers in this subject.
4
Lectures
Lecture Times
Stream Day Time Venue Lecturer
1 Monday 6:15pm – 9:15pm Spot-4014 Buddhika
2 Tuesday 2:15pm – 5:15pm Spot-4014 William
3 Wednesday 6:15pm – 9:15pm Spot-4014 Buddhika
4 Thursday 6:15pm – 9:15pm Spot-4014 Buddhika
6 Wednesday 9:00am – 12:00nn Spot-5008 Arshia
7 Thursday 3:15pm – 6:15pm Spot-5008 Agus
8 Thursday 9:00am – 12:00nn Spot-5008 Arshia
Lecture Participation Requirements
Students are required to attend all the lectures during the semester. Prior to attending the
lectures, students are expected to read the equivalent chapters of the recommended
textbooks and the lecture slides and attempt the questions in the lecture slides in order to be
able to satisfactorily participate and contribute to the discussions during the lectures.
Lecture Schedule
This section provides a timetable of lectures for the entire semester. Note that the non-
teaching period is from Friday 29 March to Sunday 7 April 2024.
Week Date
Commencing
Topic Reading
1 26 February Introduction to Business Analytics
and Linear Programming (LP)
Anderson et al., 2019:
Chapters 1 to 3
2 4 March LP Applications Anderson et al., 2019:
Chapter 4
5
3 11 March LP Applications and Extensions Anderson et al., 2019:
Chapter 6
4 18 March Integer Programming (IP)
Applications
Anderson et al., 2019:
Chapter 7
5 25 March Decision Analysis with Perfect
Information (Assignment 1 due)
Anderson et al., 2019:
Chapter 13
6 8 April Decision Analysis with Sample
Information
Anderson et al., 2019:
Chapter 13
7 15 April Descriptive Statistics and
Probability Basics
Anderson et al., 2020:
Chapters 3 and 4
8 22 April Probability Distributions Anderson et al., 2020:
Chapters 5 and 6
9 29 April Linear Regression Anderson et al., 2020:
Chapter 14
10 6 May Multiple Regression Anderson et al., 2020:
Chapter 15
11 13 May Revision and Mock Examination
(Assignment 2 due)
12 20 May Group oral presentations
Lecture Slides / Materials
Lecture slides will be placed on the LMS prior to each lecture. The lecture slides are located
under the heading “Modules”.
Recorded Lectures
Audio and video recordings of lectures delivered in this subject will be made available for
review. These recordings allow you to revise lectures during the semester, or to review them
in preparation for the end of semester exam.
You can access recorded lectures by clicking on the Lecture Recordings (or similar) menu item
on the LMS page for this subject.
Please note that for live classes, recordings are not a substitute for attendance; rather they
are designed for revision. On rare occasions the recordings can fail to take place due to
technical reasons. In such cases, a substitute recording will be made available.
6
Private Tutoring Services
The Faculty has become increasingly concerned about the existence of a number of private
tutoring services operating in Melbourne that heavily target University of Melbourne students
enrolled in FBE subjects.
Students are urged to show caution and exercise their judgement if they are considering using
any of these services, and to please take note of the following:
Any claim by any of these businesses that they have a “special” or “collaborative” or
“partnership” style relationship with the University or Faculty is false and misleading.
Any claim by a private tutoring service that they are in possession of, or can supply you with,
forthcoming University exam or assignment questions or “insider” or “exclusive” information is
also false and misleading.
The University has no relationship whatsoever with any of these services and takes these
claims very seriously as they threaten to damage the University’s reputation and undermine
its independence.
It is also not appropriate for students to provide course materials (including University
curricula, reading materials, exam and assignment questions and answers) to operators of
these businesses for the purposes of allowing them to conduct commercial tutoring activities.
Doing so may amount to misconduct and will be taken seriously. Those materials contain
intellectual property owned or controlled by the University.
We encourage you to bring to the attention of Faculty staff any behaviour or activity that is not
aligned with University expectations or policy as outlined above.
Assessment
Assessment Overview
Your assessment for this subject comprises the following:
Assessment Task Individual or Group Due Weighting
Assignment 1 Group 5pm, 25 March 2024 15%
Assignment 2 Group 5pm, 13 May 2024 30%
Oral presentation of
assignment 2
Group Week c/o 20 May
2024
5%
End-of-semester exam Individual Assessment period 50%
7
Assessment Details
Assignment 1 Specifications – 15%
The assignment is designed to allow you to demonstrate that you can effectively collect,
review, and analyze the relevant academic literatures on a particular topic, which is same as
the topic for your assignment 2. Each group has to select a company (manufacturing-based
OR service-based) with which you are familiar, select an optimization problem being faced by
the company (e.g., media selection at Telstra, employee scheduling in HSBC, make-or-buy at
Toyota, resource allocation at the University of Melbourne, distribution network design at
Pickfords, etc.), and then collect and review 10 international journal articles, from the past 10
years, applying mathematical modelling for the problem to be studied. You should analyze the
strengths of these applications and their “value-add” to the decision making process, and also
identify the knowledge gaps and limitations, if any, and suggest for improvements.
1. Group Formation:
• Students have to form their own group with at least four but no more than five students
in each group to work on and complete the assignment. The group members must
come from the same registered stream. Students must self-enrol in their groups by the
end of Week 2.
2. Expected Contents of Group Report:
• Introduction – company background, description of the business optimization problem,
justification of selection, identification of the company’s requirements or evaluation
criteria, etc.
• Methodology – description of the method used to collect the journal articles, such as
databases, searching and filtering criteria, etc.
• Strengths – analysis of the strengths of the articles with respect to the evaluation
criteria.
• Weaknesses – analysis of the weaknesses of the articles with respect to the evaluation
criteria.
• Discussions and Conclusions – suggestions for improvement.
• References
• Appendices – including the minutes/notes of meetings.
3. Marking Criteria:
Criteria Possible Mark
Identification and description of the problem to be analyzed 2
Collection and discussion of relevant academic literatures 3
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Analysis of the strengths of these applications and their “value-add”
to the decision making process
4
Identification of the knowledge gaps and limitations, if any, and
suggestion for improvements
4
Structure and presentation. Use of appropriate language, spelling,
grammar, and punctuation
2
Total 15
4. Word Limits:
• The total length of the group report is a maximum of 2,000 words (excluding figures,
tables, references, and appendices).
5. Presentation:
• It is important to give attention to spelling, grammar, and punctuation in order to avoid
ambiguity and confusion. The assignment must be word processed in 12-point type
and double-spaced. Please leave a margin of 3cm on both the left and right hand side
for marker’s comments.
• Students can include relevant graphs, tables, and other exhibits as appendices. They
must be clearly labelled, and will not be included in the word count. However, your
reasons for including these exhibits must be made clear in the main body of the
assignment.
Assignment 2 Specifications – 30%
The assignment is designed to allow you to demonstrate that you can effectively analyze the
business optimization problems, apply the mathematical modelling approaches such as LP
and IP to formulate the problems, use the Excel Solver to obtain the optimal solutions,
generate the sensitivity analysis report, and suggest courses of action to the focal company.
Each group has to base on the same company and optimization problem selected for the
assignment 1, and then apply the LP or IP to formulate the optimization problem with primary
or notional data.
1. Group Formation:
• Students should work with the same group for assignments 1 and 2 throughout the
semester.
2. Expected Contents of Group Report:
• Introduction – company background, description of the business optimization problem,
justification of selection, etc.
• Literature review – summary of the findings from the assignment 1.
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• Methodology – description and illustration of the mathematical modelling approach for
the problem.
• Implementation – formulation of the problem by using the mathematical modelling
approach, application of the Excel Solver to optimize the mathematical model, and
execution of the sensitivity analysis.
• Discussions and Conclusions – suggestions for courses of action to the selected
company as well as the evaluation of the mathematical modelling approach.
• References
• Appendices – including the minutes/notes of meetings.
3. Marking Criteria:
Criteria Possible Mark
Identification and description of the problem to be analyzed 3
Summary of literature review 2
Description and application of the mathematical modelling
approach to analyze and solve the problem
16
Suggestions for courses of action to the company, and critical
evaluation of the mathematical modelling approach
7
Structure and presentation. Use of appropriate language, spelling,
grammar, and punctuation
2
Total 30
4. Word Limits:
• The total length of the group report is a maximum of 4,000 words (excluding figures,
tables, references, and appendices).
5. Presentation:
• It is the same as that for assignment 1.
Oral Presentation of Assignment 2 Specifications – 5%
The presentation is designed to provide student groups an opportunity to orally share their
work (for Group Assignment) with their class as well as learn from other groups’ work, and to
demonstrate effective communication of analytical techniques and findings with non-experts.
This oral presentation contributes 5% to the overall mark, no file submission is required.
1. Due Dates and Presentation Mode:
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All groups will present their work in the last lecture in Week 12 commencing on 20 May
2024. Your group must present live.
2. Presenters:
• The group is completely free to choose which members deliver the presentation. One
member may deliver the entire presentation, or each member of the group may
participate in the presentation or any combination of members is acceptable.
• Regardless of who presents on behalf of the group, all members will receive the same
score, unless you formally communicate and raise issues/concerns/problems with a
specific group member to your stream lecturer and/or subject coordinator well before
the due date of Group Assignment submission in Week 11. In such cases, students
who do not contribute to a group assignment may be allocated a lower mark or
assigned a mark of zero in presentation as well as group assignment.
3. Presentation Content:
• All groups are expected to first introduce their selected organisation, the optimisation
problem studied, and company requirements/evaluation criteria. Second, you are
expected to summarise the literature review. Third, you will present and describe your
mathematical programming model for the problem, followed by a brief live demo on
how the model is solved (note that there is no need to show every step of the analysis,
just the key steps). Last, but not least, you will discuss the managerial and theoretical
contributions of your work.
4. Presentation Length:
• Please note that the ideal length of time for the presentation is 10 minutes, with +/- 1
minute flexibility. This means that the presentation needs to be prepared, rehearsed
and coordinated well by the group members.
5. Marking Criteria:
Criteria Possible Mark
Structure of presentation, communication and group presentation
skills
5
Assignment Submission
Assignment submission is via the LMS Assignments link for all written assignments.
Please note that you are required to keep a copy of your assignment after it has been
submitted as you must be able to produce a copy of your assignment at the request of teaching
staff at any time after the submission due date.
Penalties for Late Submission
In order to ensure equality for all students, assignments must be completed within specified
time limits. Late submissions will attract a marking penalty where approval for late submission
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has not been given. The mark awarded will be reduced by 10% for each day the work is late.
Assignments submitted later than 5 working days after the due date will not be marked and
will receive no marks.
Assignments that exceed the word limits by 10%, inclusive of footnotes, will attract a marking
penalty of 10% of the marks that would otherwise have been awarded. Assignments that
exceed the word limits by 25% or more will attract a higher penalty, including a cap on the
maximum grade awarded.
Students with a genuine and acceptable reason for not completing an assignment (or other
assessment task), such as illness, can apply for special consideration (see policy below).
Subject Resources
Prescribed References
• Anderson, D.R., Sweeney, D.J., Williams, T.A., Camm, J.D., Cochran, J.J., and Fry,
M.J. (2019), An Introduction to Management Science: Quantitative Approaches to
Decision Making, 15th Edition, Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning. (Note that the
older versions are acceptable for this subject. However, the equivalent chapter for
each week may vary.)
• Anderson, D.R., Sweeney, D.J., Williams, T.A., Camm, J.D., and Cochran, J.J. (2020),
Statistics for Business and Economics, 14th Edition, Ohio: South-Western Cengage
Learning. (Note that the older versions are acceptable for this subject. However, the
equivalent chapter for each week may vary.)
Supplementary Readings
More supplementary readings will be provided in particular weeks.
Academic Integrity
Academic Honesty
The University maintains high academic standards in its courses and subjects and expects
students to conduct themselves in a manner which is fair, honest and consistent with the
principles of academic integrity, particularly when undertaking assessment and research.
http://academicintegrity.unimelb.edu.au/
Referencing
All sources used for a written piece of assessment must be referenced. This is to acknowledge
that your material is not based entirely on your own ideas, but is based, in part, on the ideas,
information, and evidence of others. This is desirable as you are attending University in order
to learn from others.
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You will be required to use the APA system of referencing. The library has prepared a website
to help students correctly reference:
http://www.library.unimelb.edu.au/recite
It is important that all material you present for assessment is referenced correctly. Material
that has not been referenced correctly may be considered to be plagiarised, and as such may
be penalised. We will also look for evidence that material included in the bibliography has
been used in the assignment.
The Academic Skills Unit has produced resources to assist students with referencing
https://services.unimelb.edu.au/academicskills/undergrads/top_resources
The Library also provides advice on referencing: http://library.unimelb.edu.au/cite
University Services
Timetable
MyTimetable is a class timetabling system that creates individual timetables for students
based on submitted class preferences, ensuring everyone has an equitable opportunity of
getting their preferred class timetable. You will use this system to create your class timetable
prior to each study period.
By following a preference-based model, students who have other commitments, such as
employment or carer responsibilities, or who are returning or living overseas during the
timetabling period, aren’t disadvantaged by their limited availability. When allocating class
timetables, MyTimetable also takes into consideration factors such as class size limits and
potential clashes to ensure all students are equally accommodated. Further information is
available on the web at https://students.unimelb.edu.au/admin/class-timetable
Stop 1: Connecting Students and Services
Stop 1 is here to provide you with a range of support services throughout your university
degree, from help with enrolment, administration and wellbeing to advice on building your
skills and experiences. https://students.unimelb.edu.au/stop1
Academic Skills
Academic Skills offers a range of workshops and resources to help you with study skills
including researching, writing and referencing, presentation skills and preparing for exams.
Visit their website via http://services.unimelb.edu.au/academicskills.
Service Finder
The University of Melbourne offers one of the most comprehensive student support networks
in Australia. Use this site to locate a wide range of services
http://services.unimelb.edu.au/finder
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Student Counselling
Students attend counselling to talk about personal, emotional, or mental health issues which
might be affecting their study and life. The University’s Counselling and Psychological
Services (CAPS) provides free, confidential, short-term professional counselling to currently
enrolled students and staff. https://services.unimelb.edu.au/counsel/individual
Student Equity and Disability Support
Student Equity and Disability Support provides services for students who need ongoing
support with their studies. They understand that adjustments to learning and assessment are
sometimes required to allow all students to reach their full potential. Learn more about the
services provided, how to find support and how to register for assistance.
http://services.unimelb.edu.au/student-equity
University of Melbourne Library Services
As well as holding an extensive collection of books, ebooks, digital media and periodicals,
library staff provide research guidance and support for students. http://library.unimelb.edu.au/
These Business and Economics Library Guides have been designed specifically for Faculty
of Business and Economics staff and students.
http://unimelb.libguides.com/sb.php?subject_id=80310
Policy
Alternative Exam Arrangements (AEA)
The definition of and eligibility requirements for alternative exam arrangements (AEA) can be
found via http://students.unimelb.edu.au/admin/alternate.
Assessment and Results Policy
The University’s assessment policy provides a framework for the design, delivery and
implementation of assessment of students in award and non-award courses and subjects.
Assessment is designed to contribute to high quality learning by students, and to allow for
quality assurance and the maintenance of high academic standards.
https://policy.unimelb.edu.au/MPF1326
Assignment Extension
Requests for an assignment extension should be submitted here:
http://go.unimelb.edu.au/yh9n.
Before completing this form, please read the Assignment Extension Policy, which can be
found at: http://policy.unimelb.edu.au/MPF1326#section-4.37
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Exam Policy
The University requires that you are available for the entire examination period. Please see
the University's Principal Dates via http://www.unimelb.edu.au/dates for the full annual
calendar. Supplementary exams will not be provided in cases of absence during the
examination period unless the absence is due to serious illness or other serious
circumstances and a Special Consideration application is submitted and approved.
Information on Calculators in Examinations
Effective from 1 January 2017, the approved calculator for all subjects is the Casio FX82 (any
suffix). No equivalent models of calculators will be permitted in exams.
You are required to purchase your own calculator and are responsible for ensuring your
calculator is in good working order with fresh batteries.
Plagiarism and Collusion
Plagiarism (failure to cite your sources correctly and completely) and collusion (unauthorised
collaboration with another person to prepare an assessment task) are considered academic
misconduct and attract severe penalties. More information is available on the University’s
Academic Integrity website via http://go.unimelb.edu.au/rha6.
Special Consideration
As a student, you may experience extraordinary or unusual circumstances, or ongoing
circumstances that adversely affect your academic performance. The University has policies
in place to support students who are experiencing academic disadvantage. For more
information, visit http://students.unimelb.edu.au/admin/special.
