Operations

Management Take
Home Assignment
Dhruv Malhotra D14006

Operations Management Take Home Assignment

Q1. Learning Operations while flying.
The experience:
Outbound
1. The entry into the airport is as congested as ever in terminal 2.
2. The line at the check in counters is long even for self check-in. unfortunately,
we still have to stand in the check-in lines for baggage drop of. Since
everyone is booking tickets online these days, everyone checks-in online but
still the baggage drop off is an issue.
3. We have received the boarding passes. Now heading over to immigration.
Again a line to enter immigration as they are again checking the boarding
passes and passports.
4. Luckily we have E-gate cards so not much of a rush there.
5. The hand bag check is fine not much of a rush here as the inflow of people
towards here is pinched because the immigration services are taking a long
time.
6. Done with duty free shopping.
7. Boarding as always is an issue. Zones are being called out. Getting into the
plane and waiting for people to clear up the aisles.
8. Finally seated. Taking off now.
9. Goodbye Dubai. Hello Delhi.
Inbound
1. Landing in a few mins. Reached early but still have to circle the airport to wait
for the landing slot
2. Landed now entering the terminal building
3. Immigration is not much of an issue since E-gate cards are handy.
4. Waiting for the luggage is a problem. Still need to do the outbound duty free
shopping. Cant decide should we purchase the duty free now or after
collecting the bags. Will opt for afterwards since dont know how long the
bags will take.
5. Taken the bags and done with the shopping.
6. Proceeding to the taxi lot. Long line there. Not many taxis.
7. Finally into the taxi after 30 mins and on my way home.

Concepts applied:
The whole boarding card and immigration system is like a line process. But here the
machines (the staff) are stationary and the raw materials (the passengers) move.
The material handling is done in terms of the signs and the helping staff available to
guide the passengers. Some of the passengers are still clueless as to where to go
and how to reach there.
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Customer lead time is high at the check in counter and immigration counters since
there are not many counters open. Cycle time is very high to service each
passenger.
The method of boarding is an issue as it is not very optimized. Zone systems do not
work very well.
The baggage counter also takes time when returning to the terminal. The customer
lead time faced is very high since most passengers are already waiting at the
conveyor belt before the first baggage arrives and the customer is not kept
informed as to when will the first bag reach and what will be the time by when the
last bag arrives.
Improvements:
1. The cycle time at the airport can be drastically increased by opening up more
counters during the peak hours. Also the check in counters for self check in
should have automated baggage drops and there shouldnt be a need to
check-in first and then go stand in another line to drop of the bags. Such
counters should only be available to those with only hand baggage.
2. There should be colored lines directing the passengers to the different areas
of the airport such as the duty free or immigration. This will improve the
material handling (Passenger Handling) time and will not require much
ground staff to serve the people.
3. They should increase the number of immigration and port immigration
security check counters thus increasing the cycle time.
4. Boarding can also be done on the basis of seat allocation and not based on
zones. This will improve the handling of passengers and improve the overall
boarding time.
5. Same should be the case for the return journey and at the arrivals section of
the terminal.
6. There should be a time indication for the baggage and last baggage
information at the conveyor belts section while receiving the bags so that the
customers can be made well aware of what is the maximum possible time
required to complete this transaction.
7. There should also be the availability of enough taxis depending upon the
peak and off peak times at the arrivals terminal. This will decrease the
customer lead time of standing in the queue.
Comparison:
1. Dubai Terminal 3 which is completely different from this terminal applies the
recommendations mentioned above. The counters are opened and closed
based on the off peak and peak rush times.
2. There are enough directions and boards but not colored lines to direct the
passengers.
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Operations Management Take Home Assignment

3. The number or immigration and post immigration security counters are also
increased and decreased based on the off peak and peak rush times.
4. Boarding is the same as the terminal 2 which is zone wise.
5. Taxis and metro service the airport thus decreasing the waiting time for
arrived passengers.
6. The baggage belts give clear indication on the arrival of the last bags which
provides the passengers enough time to do any other activity that they
please.

Q2 : a) Describe a company which you think may have changed its position on
the PP Matrix and the resulting changes to its operations.
VERY LOW VOLUMES

PROCESS
STRUCTURE

VERY HIGH VOLUMES

LOW STANDARDIZATION

LOW VOLUMES

HIGH VOLUMES

HIGH STANDARDIZATION

One-of-a-kind Products

Many Products

Few Products

Commodity Products

JUMBLED FLOW
(Job Shop)

DISCONNECTED LINE FLOW

(Batch Flow)

CONNECTED LINE FLOW

(Machine or Worker paced)

CONTINUOUS FLOW

Pooranmal chain of restaurants has many branches in UAE and one of them is in the
where I resides Discovery Gardens. The restaurant serves only vegetarian food in
North Indian, Chaat, Chinese as well south Indian dishes along with vast variety of
sweets.
I recently observed that during festivals like Diwali or Holi restaurant stop taking
home delivery orders as well as do not serve food in the restaurant. Instead they
only take all kind of sweets orders and supply work.
Changes in the plant and procedures identified.
1. During festivals customer demand is very high especially for sweets. And
accordingly all manpower is machinery has been dedicated in manufacturing
or making sweets and nothing else.
2. New machines as well as inventory are largely in favor of sweets instead of
other food items which were regularly served in the restaurant.
3. New workforce has been added to increase productivity in terms of quantity
specially.
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4. New delivery teams have been appointed to make sure sweets are getting
delivered on time to destination. .
5. The floor management has been changed during the festive season. The
restaurant dedicated area has been converted in to display of sweets as well
as selling purpose.
6. Finance team has reworked the profitability calculation to Job Profitability and
activity break down costs to better work on the costing structure.
7. Order fulfillment time has improved for sure as they have stopped other
operations of restaurant and only focused on Sweets business.
8. The resources are now more flexible to work on different machines.
9. There is a large volume of inventories as there could be different jobs which
need different inventories.
10.They have moved from a streamline process flow to a one which requires a
highly structured information system
11.There is a high cost per unit of product but low investment on the raw
material cost of the project

Q2 b) Visit some operations and perform a Rapid Plant Assessment (refer article
handed over Read a Plant Fast)
Company Name: Landmark group ICONIC (Warehouse of ICONIC stores)
Company Type: Retail Departmental Store.
Company Location: Dubai, UAE
Rapid Plant Assessment of Warehouse for Iconic stores (Landmark Group):
Customer Satisfaction Level:
Internal High Each employee in the warehouse knows that where the next
item goes from receiving shipment in warehouse to allocating them to stores
in whole supply chain line.
External Low Enployees doesnt really know who the end customer is and
what kind of end customer base ICONIC have in the UAE retail market.
Safety, Environment, Cleanliness & Order:
Merchandise is easy to find for warehouse people as they are following one
process and coding system of the company.
Inventory is easy to count because of the coding system. There are different
codes for apparel, accessories, footwear as well as home category.
Products move around safely.
Air Quality and Noise level are all controlled. For each and every category
there is one booth to control the quality to make sure end product which goes
on floor is right and without any quality issue.
Visual labelling system is followed in whole warehouse which makes easy for
staff to identify the merchandise and process further.
Visual Management System:
Work Instructions are clearly posted as well as conveyed to employees.
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Operations Management Take Home Assignment

Team structures and Organizational hierarchy clearly mentioned and followed

by all the employees.

Use of Space, movement of materials etc:

The space is used quite efficiently. Merchandise is kept as per the launch and
season coding.
But the issue is with old season merchandise. It is difficult to find and locate
old season goods on the floor.
Level of Inventory and Work in Progress:
Inventory levels are kept optimum based on history and work in progress
information.
Forecasts are done based on seasonality index and lead time which is
provided by head office. Planners and merchandisers plan the allocation;
forecast the qty and warehouse employees just need to dispatch goods
accordingly.
Motivation and Management:
High level of motivation as employees is consistently incentivized on monthly
basis. As sell thru archives 100% or more that 90% each employee get
incentivize accordingly.
Also the management is involved regarding the daily production schedule as
well as the targets and achievements.

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