H11103

PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

2011-13

PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

Mid-Term Submission
Rahul Balyan (H11103)

H11103

PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

2011-13

Q. 1 The Operations of a restaurant were studied and following are the observations of the same: a) The process of customer servicing is as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. Greet the Customer Check Table Availability Show Party to the table Provide the menu card Serve water and Place the meal plates Take the order Place the order in the kitchen Identify if the dish is already prepared or to be prepared (backstage) If already prepared, go for heating (backstage) Else, prepare fresh (backstage) Inform Waiter (backstage) Pick up order from kitchen Serve the dishes Identify the situation for repeat order If yes, then repeat step 7 to step 12 Else, clear dishes For dessert repeat step 5 to step 12

H11103 Process flow diagram:

PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

2011-13

Check table availability

Identify the appropriate table

Seating on the table

Place the order in the kitchen

Taking the order

Placing the plates and water glass

Placing the menu card

Identify if the dish is already prepared

Take the order for dessert

No

Yes No

Prepare Fresh

Reheat the dish Check for repeat order

Serve

Refill water

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PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

2011-13

b) Difference with Production Operations: 1. Production of goods results in a tangible output. Delivery of service, on the other hand, generally implies an act. 2. Service involves a much higher degree of customer contact than production. 3. Service operations are subject to greater variability of inputs than typical production operations. 4. Measurement of productivity is more straightforward in manufacturing due to the high degree of uniformity of most manufactured items. In service operations, variations in demand intensity and in requirements from job to job make productivity measurement considerably more difficult. 5. Quality assurance is more challenging in services when production and consumption occur at the same time. 6. Output is more variable in Service activities as compared to production. 7. Services cannot be stored as physical inventory. Similarities with Production Operations: 1. Both are driven by customers and provide value and satisfaction to customers who purchase and use them. 2. Both can be standardized for the mass market or customized to individual needs. 3. Goal identification- to serve quality goods/service. 4. Principles of OM can be applied to services that do not involve significant interaction with customers just as in production. 5. Applicability of the Time Study 6. Importance of the Manufacturing lead time 7. Quality is of utmost importance in both production and services 8. Synergy between the various internal departments c) Service Process Matrix:

Low Service Factory Labor Intensity Mass Service High Professional Service Service Shop

Low

Customer Interaction

High

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PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

2011-13

The restaurant can be placed in the upper right quadrant which contains firms with a low degree of labor intensity but a high degree of interaction and customization. d) The operations can be improved by undertaking the following measures: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. By Optimization of the cooking processes By Reducing the manufacturing lead time Identifying the bottleneck, if any Exploiting the bottleneck Making the non-bottle neck operation to subordinate the bottle neck operation

Q. 2 The operations of a railway station can be observed to understand the subject of production management. Following are the concepts and their applications at a railway station: 1. A passenger is concerned about the Manufacturing Lead time but the Railway officials will be concerned about reducing the Average Cycle Time i.e. time between two products a. The Average Cycle Time refers to the technical efficiency of the system. The systems should be regularly updated and personnel trained so as to ensure maximum efficiency. b. Inventory Management like already printed platform tickets (PT) that are stamped with time and date on issue reduces the average cycle time of the issuance of PT which leads to faster moving queues. 2. The Railways are focused on the goal to provide quality service to its customer at an affordable price and ensure fast processing of the tickets i.e. a value added activity a. Quality service to the customer means on schedule running of the trains, provision of accurate information regarding the arrivals and departures at easily accessible places on the station and the quick disposal of tickets to the passengers 3. Looking at the issuance of tickets, slow processing counters lead to a stagnant queue which can be termed as a bottleneck a. In order to improve the service to the customers, the bottleneck can be exploited by adding to the capacity of ticket dispensing. This can be done either by increasing the number of counters or by automating the ticket dispensing process or by properly scheduling the working hours of the ticket counter b. This will reduce the Manufacturing Lead Time i.e. the time span the customer takes to enter the queue and to come out with the ticket 4. Service process matrix the operations on a railway platform lie on the third quadrant Mass service, of the matrix as the customer interaction is limited to a minimum (mostly while ticketing or security checks) while it is labor intensive as people are involved in ticketing, security, housekeeping, signaling etc. 5. Non-value added activity The time spent while standing in the queue is the time spent on a non-value added activity. The emphasis should be on reducing this time.

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PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

2011-13

6. TQM at Railway Station Customer/Passenger satisfaction can be enhanced by applying the concept of TQM which encompasses the principle of Planning, Do, Check and Adopt to improve the processes. At a railway platform, the information display should be efficient and well equipped to display the arrival/departure information regarding a train and also notify in case of delays. What should be the order of trains displayed etc requires planning. The display boards have to be checked for accuracy and any modifications have to be adopted. 7. Scientific Management According to Taylor, there is one best way of doing a job and it is the managers responsibility to find it. In a railway station, it is very important that the processes are well defined and streamlined to ensure lowest possible turnaround time.

Q3) The processes being followed is: The envelopes being used for the process are the ones having address windows which eliminates the need for writing/typing the address on the envelope again and also eliminates the possibility of letters ending up in the wrong envelope.

The other processes are as follows: P1. Stickers bearing the address of XLRI are pasted on the envelopes (3 seconds) P2. Envelopes are stuffed with the letters by 2 people. (6 Seconds each) P2. The envelopes are sealed by two different sealers. (8 Seconds each) P3. The stamp is placed on the envelope. We assume the postal charges for delivery at any place in India is same so the time required for putting the stamp will be five seconds. (5 Seconds) P4. The letters will be marked as sent for confirmation and dropped in the drop box. (5 Seconds)

H11103

PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

2011-13

Stuffing letter in the envelope

Envelope

Pasting address sticker on envelope Stuffing letter in the envelope

Sealing Checking and Dropping Stamping

Sealing

Assumptions: 1) 2) 3) 4) The addresses of the students are already printed out roll number wise The envelope is of same size as the letter National and international letters are already segregated We are making the laborers work for 9.5 hours instead of 8 hrs. Because of the incapacity of employing too many laborers and time constraint. 5) We are also assuming that the number of international applicants will be 1% of the total number of applicants.

The CT comes out to be 5 seconds. We will have 15 lines with 7 people in each line. The number of envelopes packed by each line in 1 minute will be 12. Hence 15 lines in 1 hour will pack 15*12*60 = 10080 envelopes. The number of envelopes packed in one day will be 9.5*10080= 102,600.

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PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

2011-13

We have also assumed that 1% (4000) of the total number of envelopes will have international addresses. The cycle time for the international letters will be more as the cost of stamp will depend on the destination country. The cycle time for international letters will be 8 seconds. The time required to pack 4000 letters by 15 lines will be 36 minutes approx. On the first three days we will have 9.5 hours as working hours. On the final day we will be able to wrap up all the domestic letters in 8 hours 45 minutes and in the last 36 minutes the packing for the letters with international destination will be done.

Advantages: Using envelopes having address windows will eliminate the need for writing/typing the address on the envelope again and thereby save time. It also eliminates the possibility of letters ending up in the wrong envelope. Subordination at the bottleneck decreases the cycle time, e.g. Sealing Labor is saved because we are using letters and envelope of the same size We are using quality assurance methods such as checking and marking before final delivery so as to minimize the chances of there being a mistake.