Area Information and Operations Management

Subject

In a modern digital economy, many companies create products and services that require and create vast amounts of information, anywhere and at any time. Physical goods produced or sold by those companies are often digitally controlled and connected with Information Systems such as smartphones, PCs, vehicles, robots, or entire computer-controlled manufacturing systems. For this reason, the decisions about what a company produces and how it operates are always connected to decisions about Information Systems and processes. This is why Information & Operations Management is an already hot field of growing importance.

The extensive amount of digital information created by those Information Systems has to be analysed and utilised in a systematic way using "Big Data Business Analytics/Visualization" methods. Those methods, often rooted in the fields of Statistics and Operations Research, again require computers to create knowledge and to support automatic or hybrid, i.e. human-machine, decision making in real time in a way that was unconceivable only a few years ago. An example is the Operations Management problem to create and adapt schedules for call centre agents to continuously provide fast customer service at low staffing cost.

Structure Major

CategoryCredit points (ECTS)
Compulsory modules10
Elective modules (without seminars)30
Elective modules (seminars)10
Total:50

Structure Minor

CategoryCredit points (ECTS)
Compulsory modules10
Elective modules10
Total:20

Detailed structure

The modules have to be taken in semesters 1-3. Since all the elective module offers are prospective, changes are possible.

Compulsory modules Major / Compulsory modules Minor

Module / CourseLanguageSemesterExamination formCP (ECTS)
Institute
Operations ResearchEnglishWinterWritten Examination 60 min5Production Management
Information SystemsEnglishWinterWritten Examination 60 min5Information Systems Research

Elective modules (without seminars) Major / Elective modules Minor

Module / Course Language Semester CP (ECTS) Institute
Data Analytics German / English Winter and summer 5 Labour Economics
Digital Innovation English Summer 5 Interdisciplinary Industrial Science
Technology and Innovation Management English Summer 5 Interdisciplinary Industrial Science
Gestaltung industrieller Produktionsprozesse German Winter 5 Production Management
Implementierung von OM-Modellen und Verfahren in Python German Winter 5 Production Management
Kooperatives Produktengineering (KPE)1 German Winter 10 Production Management
Logistik German Summer 5 Production Management
Manufacturing Systems Modeling and Analysis English Winter 5 Production Management
Modellierung im Operations Management German Winter 5 Production Management
Operations Research II - Advanced methods of linear and integer programming English Summer 10 Production Management
Optimization Modeling with GAMS English Winter2 5 Production Management
Business Analytics and Visualization German Winter 5 Information Systems Research
Energy and Mobility Sector German Winter and summer 5 Information Systems Research
Enterprise Architecture Management und Unternehmensdigitalisierung English Winter 5 Information Systems Research
Geschäftsprozessmanagement German Winter 5 Information Systems Research
Hannover Finance Symposium (MSc) German Winter 5 Information Systems Research
Implementierung Fortgeschrittener Methoden des Operations Research German Winter and summer 10 Information Systems Research
Informationsverarbeitung in Dienstleistungsbetrieben German Summer 5 Information Systems Research
IT-Projektmanagement German irregular 5 Information Systems Research
Master Forschungsprojekt German Winter and summer 5 Information Systems Research
Mobile Business German Winter and summer 5 Information Systems Research
Rechnerpraktikum SAP mit den Modulen CO, FI und HR German Winter and summer 10 Information Systems Research

1 Masterstudierende im Studiengang Wirtschaftsingenieur erhalten Leistungspunkte für das KPE-Seminar, welche in das technische Vertiefungsfach einzubringen sind.

2 Not in winter 23/24

 

Elective modules (seminars) Major / Elective modules Minor

Examination form: Seminar Paper

Module / Course Language Semester CP (ECTS) Institute

Seminar Operations Management & Research

German / English Winter and summer 5

Production Management

Master-Seminar: Wirtschaftsinformatik, Energie und Mobilität German / English Winter and summer 5 Information Systems Research

Research and practical relevance

The Master research topics in Information & Operations Management stem from practical applications, often in cooperation with private companies. They are driven by current developments such as Mobile Computing, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, Renewable Energies, Electro-Mobility, or demographic changes in societies or urbanisation. Those developments together with the progress of Information Technology create new questions, problems, business models, and hence research questions. Those questions require a thorough and fact-based quantitative analysis to support good decision making. To this end, new methods of analysis and decision support need to be (further) developed and implemented. They are presented to the public in research publications and at conferences.

Intended audience (Recommended skills)

Information & Operations Management is the field for you if you enjoy working with computers, if you like Mathematics and Statistics, and if you feel comfortable to use and develop computer programs and applications. Information Management also requires qualitative analysis. Operations Management, in turn, is deeply rooted in Mathematics and Statistics. Here you will have to develop and implement mathematical models and to learn programming and customizing, in particular for your theses work. In any case you enjoy to work precisely and independently to solve open-ended questions using formal methods.

Career prospects

A modern digital economy offers numerous exiting job opportunities for those who can analyse and solve Information & Operations Management problems using up-to-date “Big Data Business Analytics/Visualization” methods. This will also require and reward excellent written and oral communication skills as well as the social skills of productive team work. Graduates with a thorough qualification in this field will find promising starting positions in consulting firms, in software companies, in manufacturing as well as service industries, and in the public sector. Furthermore, the area Information & Operations Management offers best opportunities to start scientific working and a scientific career with a Ph.D.