Dear all,

With this opening announcement, I want to welcome you at the Spring 2021 offering of ISyE
6201 -- Manufacturing Systems, provide some information about the course, and release the
videos and the supporting material that constitute the first module of the course.

First, some opening remarks:

Course syllabus: As you might already know, a syllabus for this course is posted at:
https://www2.isye.gatech.edu/~spyros/courses/IE6201/Spring-21/Syllabus.pdf
This syllabus provides all the basic information regarding the course objectives and its content,
the course prerequisites, the textbook, and the various course policies. It also provides a
detailed plan on how the course will be developed over time, during the entire semester.
Please, go through this syllabus carefully, and let me know if you have any further questions on
it.

Course website: Another website that is very important for the course development is the
following:
https://www2.isye.gatech.edu/~spyros/courses/IE6201/Spring-21/course_materials.html
I shall be referring to this site as “the course website”. This website contains
• supporting material for the course, primarily in the form of Powerpoint presentations,
but there are also some additional discussions of certain topics that are provided in pdf
files, and an excel spreadsheet that will be used later in the course;
• a set of homeworks from past years’ offerings together with their solutions that you can
use in your study of the various parts of the course; and
• past exams from the previous offerings of the course, together with their solutions, that
you can also use as additional “practice” material.
I shall guide you on how to access this material (especially, the posted slides and the
homeworks) as we go through the various parts of the course.

Course Videos: Let me also tell you a few words about the videos that we shall be using for the
“lecture”-part of the course. These videos were taken during the offering of the course in the
Spring semester of 2019, primarily in order to support the needs of the students who took the
course in the “distance learning” mode during that semester.

The videos were taken by operators of the Georgia Tech Professional Educational team in an
appropriately equipped classroom, and they are of very good quality. Also, they provide a full
coverage of the course material. Therefore, I believe that they provide a much more stable base
for this course than any amateurish videos that I might develop myself through Kultura or any
similar facilities. Furthermore, they are closer to the delivery style (and pace) of a real lecture.
In fact, I would say that we are fortunate to have this material so readily available.

Course “Logistics”: As you will see, the opening lecture in the posted videos starts with some
discussion of what is called as “Course Logistics” in the corresponding slide. In order to avoid
any confusion, I want to render clear that that discussion is not in line with the particular
policies to be followed this semester. The policies for the current offering are those detailed in
the posted syllabus (accessed by the URL link that is provided above).

Course Prerequisites: One issue that is still important in the discussion on the course logistics
that is provided in the video, is that of the course prerequisites. As emphasized in that
discussion, the key prerequisite of the course is ISyE 6650 or some course that provides
comparable background to ISyE 6650. Basically, the course lectures presume that you have
some basic exposure on stochastic modeling and elementary Markovian queueing theory. This
background is important for following comfortably the later modules of the course that concern
the queueing-theoretic modeling and analysis of production systems. Please, contact me if you
need further discussion on this issue.

Course textbook: Also, I should point out that even though the posted lectures do not follow
closely the course textbook by Hopp & Spearman that is listed in the syllabus, this text still
provides the base for most of the course material and it is used extensively in the
accompanying homework assignments; therefore, I consider the textbook as essential reading
for the course, and you will need a copy of this book.

The LT games: in the discussion on the course logistics you will hear about two games that we
have played in the past using the relevant platform by Littlefield Technology. Since these games
are played by teams of 3-4 persons per team, and this time everything will take place remotely,
I decided to forego this element. As I discuss in the videos, according to the received feedback,
these games have been a positive experience for the students. But I was not sure about our
ability to conduct the games in a robust and effective manner this time, due to the prevailing
circumstances. More specifically, my main concern is that the limited student contact and
interaction that is enforced by the current conditions, might hinder the smooth team formation
and collaboration during the games.

Course TA: We have also been assigned a course TA. His name is Mr. Daniel Kim. In the past,
the course TA has supported the course by (i) holding office hours, (ii) grading the collected
homework, and (iii) assisting with the running of the LT games and the grading of the team
reports on these games. Since this time homework is posted together with the solutions (c.f.
the corresponding discussion in the syllabus) and we are not playing the LT games, Daniel will
help us with holding some office hours every week. I shall provide more information on this
issue in another announcement.

My office hours: Given the remote nature of this course, and for the further reasons that I am
discussing in the opening lecture of the posted videos, I have opted for a very “open door”
policy; i.e., instead of having specific office hours every week, I am available to discuss
anything that you might want to discuss with me (from questions on the course material, to
any other issue that might come up during the course development) at any time point. Just
send me an email indicating that you need such a discussion, and depending on the nature of
the issue, either we shall resolve it through email, or we shall set up a BlueJeans meeting for
a more direct interaction.

Now, regarding the release of the first module of the course:

I have already published in CANVAS four videos that provide the lectures for this first module.

This module contains:

1. The introductory part of the course, i.e., Item #1 in the course outline that is provided in
the syllabus.

The material of this introduction is of a more conceptual nature, and intends to provide
(i) context for the more technical developments of the course, and also (ii) some
structure for all the further developments. In this sense, this material is very important,
and its proper understanding and appreciation is very essential for the further
processing of the remaining parts of the course.

Also, this part of the course highlights the need for a careful introduction and definition
of the various concepts and terms that are employed in the study of the considered
operations, and a careful characterization of any relations and dependencies among
these elements at a more conceptual level, before delving into a more technical,
quantitative analysis of their behavior.

In the posted videos, this introductory material is the content of the first three posted
lectures and it also takes a few minutes from the fourth one. Also, the slides on this
introductory part of the course that are discussed in the videos, are posted at the course
website that was mentioned above
(https://www2.isye.gatech.edu/~spyros/courses/IE6201/Spring-
21/course_materials.html)

2. The second part of this first module addresses the Deterministic Inventory Control
theory that is covered in the course. This is item #2 in the course outline that is provided
in the syllabus. The material for this part is of a more technical / analytical nature than
the material of the first part, and therefore, its development is taking place on the
board.

3. The posted homework at the course website that pertains to this first module of the
course, is Homework #1. This homework has also a reading assignment in it, that will
help you navigate through the various course materials (besides the posted videos).
 4. You can also find additional questions and problems for practice on this part of the
course in the posted past exams, primarily in the first midterms of the previous years
and also in some final exams.

5. Finally, I plan to release the take-home exam on this first module on Thursday,
February 11.

Closing this first announcement, let me welcome you again to this course, and I am looking
forward to a very constructive and enjoyable semester!

Spyros (Reveliotis)