In January 2018, Davenport University is introducing a new bachelor’s degree supporting the needs of Michigan employers seeking to fill management roles in production environments. The Bachelor of Business Administration in Industrial Production Management melds the disciplines of quality, project management and operations management to provide students with the expertise necessary to manage in these industrial settings.

“This is a degree that will help students who have limited industry experience as well as those who have excelled in production roles but who lack a degree that would enable them to advance in their careers,” said Dr. Pamela Imperato, Dean for the Donald W. Maine College of Business. “We will prepare these students to oversee the daily operations of manufacturing and related industries. They will be able to coordinate, plan and direct the activities used to produce a wide range of goods, from cars to computers to consumer goods.”

The degree will prepare students for roles involving production scheduling, staffing, procurement, quality control, inventory control, and the coordination of production activities with other departments of the organization. Michigan is ranked third among states having the highest employment levels in this occupation, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and among the five states with the highest concentration of these jobs (Michigan, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Indiana and Iowa), Michigan ranks highest for annual mean wage.