During their two years at MIT, LGO students completing a curriculum that combines the requirements for two separate degrees degrees: a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Sloan School of Management and a Master of Science (SM) from the School of Engineering.
LGO's academic foundation begins with an intensive summer session of classes designed and run just for LGO students. Each entering class takes a series of courses that cover both management and engineering disciplines in the broader fields of manufacturing and operations. Topics include operations management, systems optimization, lean culture in industry and lean tools, leadership development, and probability and statistics.
Much of the coursework involves team projects that allow LGOs to combine and learn from their collective strengths and perspectives. This collaborative experience jump-starts LGOs with a summer's worth of shared knowledge before they join their MBA and engineering counterparts in the fall to begin the bulk of their coursework.
After the summer session, LGO students have three more semesters on campus to complete degree requirements. Much of the first fall is spent in the MBA core classes with additional courses that allow LGOs to work toward engineering requirements or management electives, immersing the group in MIT's general graduate student population. LGO students participate in a weekly seminar run by their classmates with speakers from industry to engage the class in discussions of operations problems taking place at their companies.
The remaining time on campus, which differs depending on the timing of a student's internship, involves continued work on the management and engineering degree requirements, with opportunities to take part in action learning classes like Tiger or Lion Teams (many with a internationally based project), and preparation for the LGO internship and thesis. A constant theme across the program experience is building leadership skills and acumen for ethical management decisions.
During the six-month partner company internship and subsequent months doing thesis work, students apply their classroom learnings to real industry challenges in manufacturing and operations. The master's thesis, the most important academic experience of the program, requires them to synthesize both engineering and management perspectives they've acquired, along with targeted research on the challenges they tackled during the internship.
LGO lessons prepares graduates to bring much needed innovation to the manufacturing industry.
LGO at MIT Laboratory for Manufacturing Productivity
The significance of LGO at MIT according to MIT leadership.
MIT Deans speak about LGO
