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University of Pennsylvania

Operations Analytics

University of Pennsylvania via Coursera

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Overview

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This course is designed to impact the way you think about transforming data into better decisions. Recent extraordinary improvements in data-collecting technologies have changed the way firms make informed and effective business decisions. The course on operations analytics, taught by three of Wharton’s leading experts, focuses on how the data can be used to profitably match supply with demand in various business settings. In this course, you will learn how to model future demand uncertainties, how to predict the outcomes of competing policy choices and how to choose the best course of action in the face of risk. The course will introduce frameworks and ideas that provide insights into a spectrum of real-world business challenges, will teach you methods and software available for tackling these challenges quantitatively as well as the issues involved in gathering the relevant data. This course is appropriate for beginners and business professionals with no prior analytics experience.

Syllabus

  • Introduction, Descriptive and Predictive Analytics
    • In this module you’ll be introduced to the Newsvendor problem, a fundamental operations problem of matching supply with demand in uncertain settings. You'll also cover the foundations of descriptive analytics for operations, learning how to use historical demand data to build forecasts for future demand. Over the week, you’ll be introduced to underlying analytic concepts, such as random variables, descriptive statistics, common forecasting tools, and measures for judging the quality of your forecasts.
  • Prescriptive Analytics, Low Uncertainty
    • In this module, you'll learn how to identify the best decisions in settings with low uncertainty by building optimization models and applying them to specific business challenges. During the week, you’ll use algebraic formulations to concisely express optimization problems, look at how algebraic models should be converted into a spreadsheet format, and learn how to use spreadsheet Solvers as tools for identifying the best course of action.
  • Predictive Analytics, Risk
    • How can you evaluate and compare decisions when their impact is uncertain? In this module you will learn how to build and interpret simulation models that can help you to evaluate complex business decisions in uncertain settings. During the week, you will be introduced to some common measures of risk and reward, you’ll use simulation to estimate these quantities, and you’ll learn how to interpret and visualize your simulation results.
  • Prescriptive Analytics, High Uncertainty
    • This module introduces decision trees, a useful tool for evaluating decisions made under uncertainty. Using a concrete example, you'll learn how optimization, simulation, and decision trees can be used together to solve more complex business problems with high degrees of uncertainty. You'll also discover how the Newsvendor problem introduced in Week 1 can be solved with the simulation and optimization framework introduced in Weeks 2 and 3.

Taught by

Senthil Veeraraghavan, Sergei Savin and Noah Gans

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Reviews

4.3 rating, based on 6 Class Central reviews

4.7 rating at Coursera based on 5101 ratings

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  • Nan Halberg
    Best course out of the specialization in terms of clear presentation, hands-on learning (in Excel), and exposure to some basic concepts. Very professional preparation and delivery of course content - I wish all MOOCs were done this well.
  • Benny Alamsyah
    I just want to improve my knowledge and do not stop people to learning. In this Coursera I can study even only just as a reviewer.
    I can learn with a good lecturer. Thank You Coursera for this review lesson.
  • Anonymous
    Great course, I picked up some new skills in Excel. Examples used were relevant to the world. Quizzes were a bit too easy considering the content of the lectures.
  • Profile image for Messias Uaissone
    Messias Uaissone @uaissone
  • Thibaut
  • Mark Blackmore
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