Program Feature
GIS Lab for Business Applications
During the past few years,
Dr. Michael Galbreth, assistant professor of management science, has taught
Service Operations (MGSC 873) to second-year International MBA (IMBA) students during the fall
semester. While this course is required for students who concentrate in Supply Chain and Operations
Management, it has become a popular elective for many other students. Service organizations now
account for 60 percent of worldwide employment and 70 percent of total economic output, making it
more important than ever to understand the tools available to efficiently manage them.
Throughout the course, students learn a number of quantitative techniques, ranging from waiting line management to multiple site performance evaluation. After an introduction to the techniques, groups of four to five students work together to apply the skills they’ve learned in a variety of scenarios. One week, the groups might analyze the impact of kiosks on waiting lines at airports, and then they may leverage data envelopment analysis to evaluate the performance of bank branches based on multiple measures.
The most recent Service Operations class concluded with a project using geographic information systems (GIS) software to select locations for service firms in South Carolina. In 2007, Galbreth secured a large software donation from ESRI, the leader in GIS software. ESRI Business Analyst, a state-of-the-art application, was installed on ten laptop computers, creating a Mobile GIS Lab for students to use for their projects.
One of the student project groups worked with a dermatologist looking to open a new office in the Midlands (central South Carolina). A second group used the software to develop a plan that they submitted to a corporate executive at Dunkin’ Donuts in Boston.
A primary objective of the Service Operations course is to give students in-depth experience with the actual tools and methods that managers use at service firms. GIS represents the state of the art in location analysis for service companies, and ESRI is the industry leader (used by about 2/3 of the Fortune 500). The GIS project is a way for students to "get their hands dirty" with this sophisticated tool and to preview some of the impressive analysis that it can facilitate.
Galbreth has already seen a positive response from the business community. Two local commercial real estate firms attended the final presentations and expressed a real interest in IMBA students with this GIS skill set. And the Dunkin’ Donuts executive was so impressed with the students’ recommendations that he asked the group to send him a videotape of their class presentation.
Students enjoy working with the software and by the end of the project they have a solid understanding of what GIS can offer a business. Since GIS expertise has traditionally been the domain of geographers, these skills can be a real differentiator for our IMBA graduates, who will have the managerial perspective to apply GIS in a business setting.
Tara Loescher
French Track
IMBA Class of 2008