The University of Dayton Operations Management Capstone Course: Undergraduate Student Field Consulting Applies Theory to Practice

The operations management major at the University of Dayton offers a unique capstone experience that features live consulting projects with actual client problems. As a result, students gain valuable experience applying technical skills in a live environment, and clients gain real operations improvements. In the past eight years we have graduated 163 students who have conducted 56 projects for 22 clients. This paper describes how the course is structured, observations of faculty and clients on best practices and risks associated with such an offering, and as evidence of success, the quantitative and qualitative impact the student-led projects have had on clients.