LGO's core academic experience stretches across the entire two-year program and fuses key topics in management and engineering.
The study of ideas relevant to solving industry problems begins with the intensive and integrative summer program, with courses that are designed to sharpen student's skills in personal and team leadership while introducing them to key topics in operations and foundational mathematics for manufacturing. These courses are listed below.
Click on a course title to see more information from the course's syllabus.
Modeling and analysis of uncertainty and variation. Covers probability models and distributions, regression, and basic statistical procedures pertinent to manufacturing and operations. Introduces experimental and robust design, statistical process control, forecasting, and data-mining. Students use a data analysis package such as JMP, Minitab, or MATLAB.
Introduces modeling, optimization and simulation as they apply to support practical decisions relevant to supply chain, distribution and manufacturing systems. Exposes students to a wide range of applications for these methods, and to integrate this material with an introduction to operations management and probability and statistics. "Refreshes" students' analytic thinking and background in anticipation of the rest of the LGO curriculum.
Explores the images, thoughts, and experiences that make up the life of a leader... in other words, "The Universe Within." The goals are ambitious:
Designed around the principles of reflecting on prior leadership experiences and then applying lessons learned to further develop leadership capabilities. Part I provides a grounding in leadership theories and frameworks; each class is action-oriented and highly interactive. We will explore alternative approaches to leadership, compare and contrast various leadership styles, and look at a range of leadership tasks/processes.
An in-depth introduction to fundamental concepts and techniques related to the design, planning, control, and improvement of manufacturing and service operations. Covers a broad range of applications and industries such as high tech, financial services, insurance, automotive, health care, and retail. Special emphasis on the effects of uncertainty in operational decision-making and to the interplay between high-level financial objectives and low-level operational guidelines. Topics include process description, flow diagrams, capacity analysis, capacity ROI, cycle time analysis, inventory management, delayed postponement, production control, risk pooling, quality management, process design and revenue management.
Uses case studies, simulations, and guest lectures to demonstrate and practice the capabilities that operationally excellent companies use to generate significant advantages in quality, cost, service, productivity, and other key metrics. Examples are drawn from a broad range: automobile design and manufacturing, healthcare, microchip fabrication, Internet services, jet engine design, and others.
This course enables students to:
After the first summer, LGO academic coursework takes place in the MIT Sloan School of Management and the School of Engineering.
The MBA degree requires completion of the standard MBA core requirements except for one course, whose material is covered during the first LGO summer. MBA core classes, which are taken in teams of LGOs and other MBA students, include courses in economic analysis, communication, organizational processes and financial accounting. Click on a course title to see more information from the course's syllabus.
Introduces students to principles of microeconomic analysis used in managerial decision-making. Topics include demand, cost and surplus analysis, the behavior of competitive and non-competitive markets, sources and uses of market power, and game theory and competitive strategy, with applications to various business and public policy decisions. Antitrust policy and other government regulations are also discussed.
Students develop and polish communication strategies and methods through discussion, examples, and practice. Emphasizes writing and speaking skills required for effective leaders. Includes several oral and written assignments, which are integrated with other subjects and career development activities when possible.
Enhances students' ability to take effective action in complex organizational settings by providing the analytic tools needed to analyze, manage, and lead the organizations of the future. Emphasizes the importance of the organizational context in influencing which individual styles and skills are effective. Employs a wide variety of learning tools, from experiential learning to the more conventional discussion of written cases. Centers on three complementary perspectives on organizations: the strategic design, political, and cultural "lenses" on organizations. Major team project analyzes an actual organizational change, with oral and written reports.
An intensive introduction to preparing and interpreting financial information. Adopts a decision-maker perspective of accounting by emphasizing the relationship between accounting data and the underlying economic events generating them. Classes are a mixture of lecture and case discussion. Assignments include textbook problems, analysis of financial statements, and cases.
The principle courses for the engineering degree vary by department, but all departments require one course in product design. Most engineering programs can be tailored to match student interests. Some departments require students to meet specific track requirements while others are more open-ended.
The LGO curriculum also includes several required electives. Major components of the LGO Leadership Curriculum include courses that aim to challenge and improve students' individual and team leadership skills and understanding of leadership in global operations and manufacturing industries.
Much of the LGO curriculum focuses on operations challenges in industry. In a popular elective designed for LGOs, called Tiger Teams, student teams address operations problems at local companies over a semester. Lion Teams, modeled after Tiger Teams, matches LGOs to their China LGO counterparts to collaborate on innovative solutions for issues at companies with operations in China. All first-year students are required to participate in the yearly domestic plant trek. They also must take a course on operations strategy.
Provides a unifying framework for analyzing strategic issues in manufacturing and service operations. Analyzes relationships between manufacturing and service companies and their suppliers, customers, and competitors. Also covers decisions in technology, facilities, vertical integration, human resources, and other strategic areas. Explores means of competition such as cost, quality, and innovativeness. Provides an approach to make operations decisions in the era of outsourcing and globalization.
While LGOs are away from campus during their six-month internships, they earn credits for research and projects they work on at LGO partner companies. These credits are earned through the following course:
A special projects subject designed for LGO students in conjunction with on-site projects at LGO partner companies. Student teams work on faculty-supervised thesis research projects that deal with a specific aspect of operations. Students are required to summarize their work in the context of understanding organization, leadership, teamwork, and task management in conjunction with 15.317.
During the internship, LGOs begin work on the thesis, a capstone integrative work that draws on both management and engineering perspectives to analyze and address operations challenges encountered during the internship. Faculty advisors from MIT Sloan and the students' engineering departments, students identify opportunities and methodologies for implementing changes at the internship sites, and these methodologies form the basis for the thesis submitted at the conclusion of the LGO program.
LGO instructor of core subject is honored for contribution to quality innovation
The High Velocity Edge
LGO Tiger Team solves supply chain challenges at energy management applications provider EnerNOC
LGO's EnerNOC Tiger Team Success
