Name G M Firoz Khan

Roll No. 520931217

Program MBA
Production and Operations
Subject Management
[Set 2]
Code MB 0028

Learning Systems Domain –Indira Nagar,

Centre Bangalore [2779]

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1. Explain how material flow information helps in work centre decision.
Consider the example of a shopping centre to illustrate your answer.

The decision which involves during uses of material flow information is

mentioned below by considering the example of a shopping centre:

A work center (E.g. Shopping Center) is a production facility comprising of one

or more machines and one or more workmen considered as a single unit for
purposes of estimation of capacity. This shopping center may have a single
operation/ process or a number of them conducted on the input items. In the
pipeline of receiving the material to supplying to customers, each work center’s
contribution is vital as materials are scheduled, routed and loads to be sent to
it.

They are even considered as cash centers. Location trust means relative
position of different centers so as to minimize the movement of materials, meet
technological sequences, to reduce congestion, maximize throughput, improve
part tracking ability and avoid repetitive movements. In addition another
consideration is to provide for expansion of production.

Each work center receives information along with material that enters it in a
shopping center; the material also leaves the shopping center with information.
The route sheet contains information about the material, process, quantities,
and inspection procedures. Etc. the drawings or instructions tell the condition of
the material of entry and the required condition at exit.

In this sense every operation consists of material transformation occurring on

the basis of information. Activities conducted are on the basis of information
that flows with material. Different locations have to accommodate the
constraints of the basis of darning maximums benefit of the information that is
available. Basically, each location is determined on the basis of from and to:
where does it receive material goes. Some centers have to close as a matter of
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necessity, some need not to be and some need to be as far away as possible.
This aspect has been given a rating scale in terms of alphabets as under:
Absolutely necessary to be close
Essential to be close
Important that they are close
Ordinary closeness
Unimportant that they are close or not
Not desirable that the centers are close
It can be seen that this is only a guide for Indian location as the work centers
as there will many competing factors that have to be accommodated.

2. What are the reasons for failure of a project? Give suitable

examples.

Before knowing the reasons of failure we have to know about project.

Project is a set of activities which are networked in order and aimed towards
achieving goal of a project.
The reasons are project failure:
A. General:
• Incidence of Project failure
• Higher cost of capital
• Projects being initiated of random at all levels
• Project objective not in line with business objective
• Project management not observed
• Project manager with no prior experience in the related project
• Non- dedicated team
• Lack of complete support from clients
• Misuse of financial resources
• Business strategy superseded
• Overspends in excess of agreed budgets

A. Management Reasons
• Ability to adapt to new resource combinations
• Differences between management and client
• Insufficient risk management
• Insufficient end-user management
• Insufficient training of users
• Inappropriate procedures and routines
• Lack of management judgement
• Lack of software development metrics
• Loss of key personnel
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 • Poor vendor management
• Poor communication between stakeholders
• Poor contract management
• Poor financial management
• Project management capability
• Poor delegation and decision making
• Unfilled promises to users and other stakeholders

A. Technical reasons
• Inappropriate architecture
• Insufficient reuse of existing technical objects
• Inappropriate testing tools
• Inappropriate coding language
• Inappropriate technical methodologies
• Lack of formal technical standards
• Lack of technical innovation (obsolescence)
• Misstatement of technical risk
• Obsolescence of technology
• Poor interface specifications
• Poor quality code
• Poor systems testing
• Poor data migration
• Poor systems integration
• Poor configuration management
• Poor change management procedures
• Poor technical judgement
A. Factors contributing to project success not emphasized:
• Project objective in alignment with business objective
• Working within the framework of project management methodology
• Effective scoping planning, estimation, execution, controls and reviews,
project bottlenecks
• Communication and managing expectations effectively with clients, team
merits and stake holders
• Prior expectance of PM in a similar project

A. Overview of information and communication Technologies (ICT)

project:
• Involve information and communication technologies such as the world
wide web, e-mail, fibre-optics satellites

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 • Enable societies to produce, access, adapt and apply information in
greater amount, more rapidly and at reduce costs
• Offer enormous opportunities for enhancing business and economic
viability
• Common problems encountered during projects
• No prioritization of project activity from an organizational position
• One or more of the stages in the project mishandled
• Less qualified non-dedicated manpower
• Absence of smooth flow of communication between the involved parties

These basic reasons lead a project to failures. In the project failures business
management and project management is directly involved. From the
management point of view it is basic things to care above topics to success of a
project. Project is the core business of a company

1. Explain the various phases in project management life cycle?

This is the initial phase of any project. In this phase information is collected
from the customer pertaining to the project and the requirements are analyzed.
The entire project has to be planned and it should be done in a strategic
manner. The project manager conducts the analysis of the problem and
submits a detailed report to the top project justification, details on what the
problem is a method of solving the problem, list of the objectives to be
achieved, project budget and the success rate of completing the project. The
report must also contain information and the project feasibility, and the risks
involved in the project.
Project management life cycle is the integrated part of management. It is attach
with project responsibility or failure of a project.

The important tasks of this phase are as follows:

• Specification Requirements Analysis (SRA): It has to be conducted to
determine the essential requirements of a project in order to achieve the
target.
• Feasibility study: To analyze whether the project is technically,
economically and practically feasible to be undertaken.
• Trade off analysis: To understand and examine the various alternatives
which could be considered.
• Estimation: To estimate the project cost, effort requires for the project
and functionality of various process in the project.
• System design: Choose a general design that can fusil the requirements.
• Project evolution: Evaluate the project in terms of expected profit, cost
and risks involved marketing phase.
Phases in Project Management Life Cycle:

• Marketing Phase:
A project proposal is prepared by a group of people including the project
manager. This proposal has to contain the strategies adopted to market
the product to the customers.

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 • Design Phase:
– This phase involves the study of inputs and outputs of the various
project stages.
– Inputs received, consist of project feasibility study, preliminary project
evaluation details, project proposal and customer interviews.
– Outputs produced, consist of system design specifications, functional
specifications of the project, design specifications of the project and the
project plan.

• Execution Phase:
In this phase the project manager and the team members work on the
project objectives as per the plan. At every stage during the execution
reports are prepared.
 Control, Inspection, Testing & Delivery Phase:

During this phase, the project team works under the guidance of the
project manager. The project manager has to ensure that the team
working under his, implements the project designs accurately. The project
has to be monitored or tracked through its cost, manpower and schedule.
The project manager has to ensure ways of managing the customer,
perform quality control work.

 Closure and post completion analysis Phase Upon satisfactory completion

and delivery of the intended product or service the staff performance has
to be evaluated. Document the lessons from the project. Prepare the
reports on project feedback analysis followed by the project execution
report.

General practices involved in the above phases are:

The preparation stage involves the preparation and approval of project outline,
project plan and project budget.

The next stage involves selecting and briefing the project team about the
proposals followed by discussions on the roles and responsibility of the project
member and the organization.

The feasibility or research stage will establish whether the project is feasible or
not and establishes the risk factors likely to be faced during the course of
project execution and the related key factors to overcome the problems.

A detailed definition and plan for the project and its execution is prepared by
the team and coordinated by project Manager.

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The final stage involves satisfactory delivery of the product/service to the
customers. Upon completion of the project, review is to be conducted by the
project team along with the sponsors and customers to discuss about the
progress, performance and hurdles.

4. What are the Seven Principles of SCM?

1. Group customer by needs- Effective SCM groups, customer by distinct service

needs, regardless of industry and then tailors services to those particular
segments.

2. Customize the logistic network- In designing their logistics network;

companies need to focus on the service requirement and profit of the
customer segments identified.

3. Listen to signals of market demand and plan accordingly- Sales and

operations planners must monitor the entire supply chain to detect early
warning signals of changing customer demand and needs. This demand
driven approach leads to more consistent forecast and optimal resource
allocation.

4. Differentiate the product closer to the customer- companies today no longer

can afford to stock pile inventory to compensate for possible forecasting
errors. Instead, they need to postpone product differentiation in the
manufacturing process closer to actual consumer demand. This strategy
allows the supply chain to respond quickly and cost effectively to change in
customer needs.

5. Strategically manage the sources of supply- by working closely with their key
suppliers to reduce the overall costs of owning materials and services; SCM
maximizes profit margins both for themselves and their suppliers.

6. Develop a supply chain wide technology strategy- as one of the cornerstones

of successful SCM information technology must be able to support multiple
levels of decision making. It also should afford a clear view and ability to
measure the flow of products, services and information.

7. Adopt channel spanning chain performance measures- Excellent supply chain

performance measurement system do more than just monitor internal
functions. They apply performance criteria to every link in the supply chain-
criteria that embrace both service and financial metrics, including each
account’s profitability.

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5. Explain what is meant by bullwhip effect and how it could be
prevented?
An organisation will always have ups and downs. It is necessary that the
managers of the organisation keep track on the market conditions and
analyze the changes. They must take decisions on the resources and make
necessary changes within the organisation to meet the market demands.
Failing to do so may result in wild swing in orders. This may adversely affect
functioning of the organisation resulting in lack of coordination and trust
among supply chain members. The changes may affect the information and
may lead to demand amplification in the supply chain. The bullwhip effect is
the uncertainty caused from distorted information flowing up and down the
supply chain. This has its effect on almost all the industries, poses a risk to
firms that experience large variations in demand, and also those firms which
are dependent on suppliers, distributors and retailers.

A bullwhip effect may also arise because of:

a. Increase in the lead time of the project due to increase in variability of

demand.
b. Increase in the stocks to accommodate the increasing demand arising out
of complicated demand models and forecasting techniques.
c. Reduced service levels in the organisation.
d. Inefficient allocation of resources.
e. Increased transportation costs.

Measures to prevent bullwhip effect:

Bullwhip effect may be avoided by one or more of the following measures:

a. Avoid multiple demand forecasting.

b. Breaking the single orders into number of batches of orders.
c. Stabilising the prices, avoid the risk involved in overstocking by
maintaining a proper stock.
d. Reduce the variability and uncertainty in Point Of Sale[POS] and sharing
information.
e. Reduce the lead time in the stages of the project.
f. Always keep analysing the past figures and track current and future levels
of requirements.
g. Enhance the operational efficiency and outsourcing logistics to a capable
and efficient agency.

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5. What do you understand by line balancing? What is the importance of
order picking in material handling? Give suitable examples.
Line Balancing:

Productivity increases when product moves the various operations toward

completion without any holdovers. Balancing a variety of operation is the major
concern which is addressed by design and allocation of machines at
workstations.

Material handling has become one of the important functions of operations

management owing to the necessity of making them efficient and economical.
The necessity is the outcome of worldwide outsourcing and meeting demands of
a global market. Assemblies take place at various locations and distribution is
across the world. Many companies do not have main stores at their
manufacturing facilities. Suppliers deliver the required quantities to the places
where they are required for further processing or assembly. To reduce the
inventory only required quantities have to be made and delivered at appropriate
times.

This necessitates that the flow lines are smooth. Balancing flow lines, different
equipments to achieve the same is the objective of line balancing.

Production lines have a number of work enters in particular sequence so that

the material that gets processed has to move further without encountering any
bottlenecks. The quantities processed the rate of production at each centre, the
number of operations and the total production required are factors taken into
account.

The purpose of balancing is to see that no shortages occur between work

centres and minimum inventory gets created.
The principles of Linear Programming, JIT and Lean Manufacturing are used to
achieve these.

The importance of order picking in material handling

Order picking is a process by which items or products for which supply is to be

made have to be retrieved from specific storage locations. It is found to take
60% of labour activities in a warehouse. Since it is critical to the business to
meet customer’s demands accurately, lot of attention is being given to this
aspect of operations. In the manufacturing arena, we desire to move towards
small lot sizes, point of use delivery and cycle time reductions. Efficient order
picking is necessary for being competitive. In the supply chain, storage,
retrieval, and delivery do not add value to the product, but are necessary.

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Types of equipments that help in bring efficiency to the process:
a. Horizontal Travel – These are in the aisle, picker to part systems. The picker,
a worker walks or rides a vehicle and pickers the item or product and puts
into the vehicle, or conveyor. The storage system could be pallet racks,
shelves or gravity racks.
b. Person Abroad- In this system the picker is on a platform of a vehicle he can
move up and also horizontally along the aisle.

c. Part to Picker – these are mechanised systems here a storage / retrieval

device carries the trays or bins to the person picking. More than one picker
can also access the system.

d. Special equipment – for high throughput and space efficiently special

equipments are made which are in the form of movable shelves, rotary racks
mobile shuttles that travel in lanes.

e. Workplace equipment – items can be kept in work benches and be picked up.
The carts are used to keep items for being picked up.

Before implementing any of these systems, a detailed study of alternatives, a

plan for expansion or reduction will have to be considered. Some of these
factors are:
A. Material Properties
– Size, weight and nest ability
– Carton counts, pallet counts
– Fragility
– Value
– Environment[ temperature, humidity]
A. System Requirements
– Volume per product
– Number of orders to be shipped
– Response time
– Supporting processes [labelling, pricing]
– Growth factors
A. Economic factors
– Investment required
– Product life
– Rate of return
A. Design considerations
– Total number of products that are to be stored
– Number of products received per shift
– Total number of retrieved per shift
– Labour force
– Variability of the product
– Management Information System
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