1.

Some of the leading companies that have implemented JIT practices include: Brakes India Limited, Lucas TVS, Maruti Udyog, M &M. This list of the companies is only suggestive. Select 2 companies and study the JIT related practices company has established by gathering data from the following sources:

The Company website Visits to the company and interviews with key operating personnel Secondary data from the company and reports Reports of awards and achievements secured by the company Information from Industry associations and trade journals

A. Prepare a report detailing the following aspects: i. ii. iii. The extent to which the company has implemented JIT The key features and challenges they faced while implementing JIT The benefits that they have acquired in the process

B. How have these efforts impacted the competitive positioning of the company C. What are the steps that company need to take in future to complete JIT implementation process D. Based on the data gathered make a comparative study of the 2 companies and prepare a critical report of 2 pages

2. Making continuous improvement is an essential requirement of all organizations no matter how successful they are. Choose 3 organization from the following list to conduct an improvement project:

a. Any retail branch of the bank b. Overall Hostel administration at LBSIM c. General administration at LBSIM d. Any small or medium sized manufacturing firm e. Overall Canteen administration at LBSIM For 3 organizations that you have selected, undertake an improvement project along the following lines:

i. ii.

First talk to the head to understand the major problems and concerns Based on your understanding of the problem and consultation with the members in the organization, identify a set of measures that needs to be improved in order to solve the problem and set some meaningful targets for the same over the next 6 months

iii.

Perform the in-depth analysis of the various business processes

Write a final report detailing these steps and your recommendations to the organization regarding the nature of efforts to be undertaken for improving the situation and solving some of the listed problems. Also, identify the challenges in the process and nature of precautions that the unit head should take while implementing your recommendations

3. Chain stores selling variety of products has become an important business entity. These Chain stores may be like Garment manufacturers (Like Raymonds), Supermarkets like Food world and Big Bazar), eating outlets and Joints like Caf Coffee day etc. Select 2 such categories of chain stores for the study. Visit the chosen chain stores, interview the operations manager and the owner of Franchise and elicit information on various factors that are important for selecting an appropriate site for locating their retail outlet. . Obtain the relative importance of the factors as perceived by the companies. Based on this exercise, prepare a final report that covers the following aspects of the location decision making framework: What are the important factors that drive the choice of location in each of the 2 examples that you have studied? How important are they to these examples? Are there significant differences between the importance of these factors in the 2 examples that you have studied? Explain why these differences occur If a new player wants to set up operations in the same area as the one that you have looked at, explain how you will advise the new player on its choice of an appropriate location for their operation

4. Identify a sector of industry of your choice and select 3 companies operating in that sector. Analyse their annual reports and identify portions of the annual report that have a direct impact on inventory related issue: a. Prepare a report highlighting your understanding of the performance of the companies with respect to inventory planning and control. Can you identify some possible explanations for your observation pertaining to the inventory data b. Among the 3, which one is better managing their inventory? how do these firms compare with industry average c. What are they key inferences from this exercise

5. Vast numbers of scheduling packages are available in the market today. Scan through the various sources: Journals which periodically bring out a survey of available software for available software for specific areas of production management. Search for surveys pertaining to scheduling software American Production & Inventory Control Society (APICS) Search with keywords such as APS, Advanced Production Scheduling and Scheduling Software You can also conduct telephonic interviews Based on this exercise prepare a technical note on a survey of the available software operations for scheduling. Use your creativity to make this report insightful and useful.

The report should be such that it should be ready for publication in some trade journal of repute.

(Hint: You can scan through OR / MS Today: a bimonthly magazine from the Operations Research society) + Other journals

6. Visit any branch of the bank and perform the tasks listed below. Based on your analysis and major findings , prepare a final report of recommendations to the bank manager:

a. Study the working of the bank, collect data on working times, type of customers, nature of transactions, waiting times, capacity of resources, waiting space etc. Understand from the manager the key operational performance measures of interest to the bank branch; elicit the problems that need to be addressed. b. Estimate the key parameters of the waiting line model to be constructed to assess the current working of the branch. The parameters include number of arrivals (or mean inter arrival times), mean service times and the number of servers. c. Build a waiting line model and compute the measures of performance. Is there adequate capacity in the system to serve the arriving customers? If not, what are the alternatives the bank branch has to improve the capacity (and thereby the performance)? d. If there is adequate capacity at present. Identify the methods to improve the performance by 10% over the next 6 months.

II. Perform the similar exercise by studying the student canteen in your college and prepare a report for the mess manager