Opsession

June Issue

This is the first issue from Volume three of Opsession, the monthly newsletter of X-Ops. The newsletter was introduced in the year 2014 by X-Ops with the intention of covering all the activities and events that took place during the span of a month.

Cover Story

Introducing Operations

Management

Around the World with

Operations Management

____

Ximbian Internship

Diaries Operations Profile

____

Lean Equipment Maintenance

Its Sustenance

Introducing the

X-Ops Core Team

2016-17

Xavier Institute of

Management, Bhubaneswar

Volume#3

OPSESSION | Volume 3 | Issue 1 2

What is Operations Management to be exact? Operations management is the business function responsible for planning, coordinating, and controlling the resources needed to produce products and services for a company. Operations is an activity which is organization’s core function. Operations management is important to any organization, whether they are manufacturing companies producing physical products or organizations offering services. OM transforms inputs to outputs. Operations Management Transformation Role To add value

Increase product value at each stage

Value added is the net increase between output product value and input material value

Provide an efficient transformation of inputs into output

OM across the Organization

Most businesses are supported by the functions of operations, marketing, and finance. The major functional areas must interact to achieve the organization goals. Marketing is not fully able to meet customer needs if they do not understand what operations can produce. Finance cannot judge the need for capital investments if they do not understand operations concepts and needs. Information systems enables the information flow throughout the organization. Human resources must

understand job requirements and worker skills. Accounting needs to consider inventory management, capacity information, and labor standards. So we see how operations management is the heart of every function.

The study of OM helps in understanding the relationship between operations, productivity and competitiveness. The knowledge gained in this field helps to balance costs with revenue to achieve the highest net operating profit possible. Ideal Traits of Operations Managers An individual working in operations management must have an understanding of the various process within a company. Operations managers are involved in coordinating and developing new processes while re-evaluating current structures. Organization and productivity are two key drivers of being an operations manager, and the work often requires versatility from the operations manager.

This article help in understanding the basic concepts of operation management and the ideal traits of operation manager

Introducing Operations Management

Sampat Padhi and Anuja Verma

OPSESSION | Volume 3 | Issue 1 3

Spain Charges Volkswagen with Fraud over Emissions

A Spanish judge has charged Volkswagen (IW 1000/7) with fraud and damage to the environment over an emissions-cheating scandal which has plunged the automaker into crisis, a statement said on July 8. The Spanish investigation centers on suspected diesel engine manipulation, made possible by software which detected test conditions and temporarily cut emissions to pass tests on environmental norms, it said. Spanish prosecutors asked for permission to open an investigation in October after associations lodged complaints against Volkswagen.

Tata Steel, ThyssenKrupp Considering Joint Venture

India's Tata Steel said Friday it had entered discussions with industry players including Germany's ThyssenKrupp over a possible joint venture for its

European operations, as a potential alternative to selling off the UK business. The firm has been considering seven bids for its UK assets since putting them up for sale in March, citing global oversupply of steel, cheap imports into Europe, high costs and currency volatility. But it also said that continuing questions over pensions and the "uncertainties" caused by Britain's vote to leave the EU had caused it to look at "alternative and more sustainable portfolio solutions for the European business". Boeing Deal Uncertain; House Votes to Ban Aircraft Sales to Iran

The House of Representatives has passed a measure that would block U.S. aircraft sales to Iran, potentially undercutting a Boeing deal with Tehran worth up to $25 billion. Two amendments approved to an appropriations bill from

Representative Peter Roskam would ban sales from Boeing and from European rival Airbus, amid concerns

the aircraft could be used for military purposes, the congressman said in a statement Friday. One amendment would prohibit the Office of Foreign Assets Control from using funds to authorize a license necessary to allow aircraft to be sold to Iran. A second would bar loans from U.S. financial institutions to purchase militarily adaptable aircraft.

The ban would need to be approved by the Senate or any bill that reconciles differences in legislation by the two chambers. The news comes weeks after Boeing and Iran Air confirmed a tentative deal for the sale of passenger planes, described as a landmark for normalizing the difficult U.S.-Iran relationship. The deal, valued at up to $25 billion, would be the largest between a U.S. business and Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Around the World with Operations Management

Sampat Padhi and Anuja Verma

OPSESSION | Volume 3 | Issue 1 4

Dhruvika Trivedi - Amazon India

I interned at Amazon India as Customer Service Intern for 8 weeks. The project that I

undertook during that time was

‘Redesigning Customer Search Issue Codes to reduce contact transfers’. The first part of the project was to understand the ongoing operations across divisions in the Customer Service team and analyze weeks of contact data. Through this, I was expected to recommend changes to the customer Search Issue Codes which they select while contacting the Amazon Customer Service directly from the website. The aim was to make the issue codes easy to understand and exhaustive for all the issues that a customer could face. This would enable them to select the correct issue codes which would route the call to the correct team capable of handling such issues. This would lead to reduction in the number of transfers and hence, contact handling time.

My interviews for Amazon were largely based on operations management concepts. At that point of time, I guess, being an X-Ops member would have made a lot of difference. However, I was able to convince them about my strong operational knowledge and was selected for the internship. During the internship, in order to make us acquainted with the job of a customer service manager in case they offer us a PPI/PPO, they had given

us 10 customer service associates to manage. This part helped us to understand the role and helped them in assessing our candidature for the role. Concepts like scheduling, short term planning, inventory management, capacity planning, forecasting, and a lot more were crucial to my work. Overall it was an amazing experience to work with an e-commerce giant. The Amazon culture was the best part. They worked as if it is still a start-up company and they believed that every day at Amazon is just the beginning because they are still learning. Hence, ‘It’s still day 1!’ at Amazon.

Sarthak Mishra - Deccan charters Pvt. Ltd

I did my summer internship at Deccan charters Pvt. Ltd, Bangalore in Logistics and

Supply chain Management.

The project objective included knowing about the standard operating procedures of Deccan charters Pvt. Ltd in logistics management, recommending improvements in the way the spare parts are stored at Deccan charters Pvt. Ltd. and finding out the list of vendors/ suppliers who can

help Deccan Charters in developing its industry

Basically I was given the task of identifying a suitable vendor for supplying parts and also manage the inventory efficiently so that the overall supply chain works smoothly. Concepts like ABC analysis, Categorizing Inventory according to price as well as response time and usage, Criticality analysis helped me in organizing the inventory.

Talking about vendor management, concepts like Location Factor Rating Method, Centre of Gravity Method, Load Distance Technique, Locational Break-Even Analysis and Geographic Information System (GIS) were used.

Sambit Mohanty – Babajob.com

My internships on strategic

management gave true view of the ground reality work.

The project was based on identifying the customer pain-points. It involved customer profiling and streamlining the process of dealing with customer and in turn delivering the requirements for manpower as and when required. It also involved me out to design and web product platform taking customer feedback and developing it. MBA-I operations concept helped a lot in completing the project successfully. All together it was an enriching experience.

Internship Diaries by Ximbians in Operations Profile

OPSESSION | Volume 3 | Issue 1 5

Swati Subrata Bhatta - FEDCO

I did my summer internship in

“Project Management”

Profile in Power

Distribution Sector. I worked in EPC (Engineering,

Procurement and construction) Project where I needed to study the several tasks in the Project and suggest steps to optimize it. This was a Project under Government of India Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY). EPC contracts in Power sector provide a huge opportunity of business. As GARV App states that there are still 18452 UE (Un-electrified) Villages in till date.

Rather than just a Practical Approach for optimizing the processes in the system, I also used a more automated and reliable approach of Project Management. I used MS Project, one of the most reliable project management software. This is designed to assist a project manager in developing a plan, assigning resources to tasks, tracking progress, managing the budget, and analyzing workload.MS Project software is gaining its usage in FMCG, Defense, Construction, Pharmacy, IT like sectors. However, in Power distribution sector, it is yet to find its usage. It is because a lot of task are repetitive and involves a lot of manual intervention. I used Critical Path Method in MS Project to plan, schedule and monitor the EPC Projects. So, it was very important to proper classify the tasks, assign resources (material and labors) and do a

proper budgeting of the whole amount of activities before they start. Concepts like Forecasting, Gantt Charts, Work Breakdown Structure, Scheduling, milestones etc. that I studied in Operation Management courses helped to deepen my understanding a project requires at various stages (E.g. During the start, middle and end of Project). Accordingly, I created several sample models in MS Project that can be used to track the progress of Project at different scenarios. I tried to find the critical tasks (i.e. the tasks which has the potential to delay the overall timespan of project which would negatively impact the revenue of company. I also did a scenario analysis (i.e. Best, Worst, Normal cases) for the Project. Manoj Karnani - Robert Bosch Engineering & Business Solution

An efficient

distribution channel not

only reduces the overall cost but also helps in

enriching customer experience and generates new leads. My project was on “Strategic Analysis for Channel & Distribution of a B2B product”. I had to create a new distribution channel for a B2B product in five different countries. Quantifying a service cost is much more difficult than R&D cost of a product. To ease down the process I explored international journals in “Cost Engineering” which helped me to understand the intricacies involved in designing. After analysing 16 different possibilities, I proposed Direct Sales for country A, through Value Added Reseller (VAR) for country B and through service partner for country C. Though for few countries reseller margin was not affecting the decision but in country B changing the reseller margin was increasing the overall cost to such an extent that selling product in that country was not at all feasible. This new

internship opportunity helped me to explore new theoretical concept and understand already learnt theories.

Bibhudatta Parida - OSBC Ltd.

My summer internship was at Odisha State

Beverages Corporations

Ltd., Bhubaneswar in the domain of Supply Chain

Management. Few highlights from my work involved: study of ongoing computerization process and suggest areas of improvement; monitoring and studying the BIN card implementation and FIFO scheduling; and use of forecasting tools as a basis for approval of indents raised by suppliers online for an item. The concepts learned in Operations management – I &II came in handy during my internship particularly inventory management and forecasting methods. Along with that learnings from lean six –sigma certification program helped me in defining, measuring and analyzing the problems associated with the processes.

OPSESSION | Volume 3 | Issue 1 6

Asset utilization, or equipment capacity, also called Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is not a responsibility of one department but the entire company. Along with the guidelines like Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) and quality maintenance, a disciplined approach is critical. A culture needs to be created where everyone understands their role and carries it out in the maintenance continuum. Following are some of the important practices that can be applied across most of the production facilities.

1. Successful lean production techniques should be borrowed and process mapping of maintenance workflow should be done.

2. You first need to organize your facility, only then you can easily identify the areas for improvement. The use of 5S techniques can be an important tool in identifying problems in maintenance process.

3. Depending on the needs of your industry and facility, you should come up with strategies to reduce labor, reduce machine changeover times, and meet just-in-time production needs. Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED) strategies can be considered for the same.

4. Machine operators should be given the process ownership. The idea is to give the workers ownership of their machines

and processes, which in turn would maximize machine effectiveness, reduce manufacturing costs, and increase employees’ skills through continuous monitoring. Also, maintenance team should respond to requests within a pre-determined time window.

5. You should schedule your facility’s planned maintenance program far in advance to ensure that the production is in sync with the commitments.

6. You should use ERP system to plan for downtime. The ERP ties in with the procurement function, so the order lead times and consumption amounts should be properly described to ensure that the maintenance parts are ordered in advance and arrive at the plant in time for the servicing of the machine.

7. For older equipment, more frequent checks need to be scheduled as it will have a narrower maintenance window and the service parts need to be ordered more frequently.

8. Constant machine improvements should be engineered for maintainability and operability. Windows cut into guarding, installation of access doors on equipment, consolidation of lubrication points into a single manifold will help in consistently performed maintenance.

9. To pinpoint opportunities and issues, daily operator walk-arounds should be conducted, which are the essential element of a TPM-oriented operation.

10. Operator alerts should be immediately addressed. Immediate response to any abnormality raised as part of operator checks must be addressed immediately as this takes the energy of TPM faster than anything else.

11. Spare parts requirements should be continually reviewed and any part not required should be immediately removed.

12. Your operator’s maintenance history should be continually re-visited and documented, including how critical items have been addressed. For this, metrics should be developed and regularly reviewed that correlate the equipment up and down time with production quality, volume and delivery.

For the approaches mentioned, whether you use a computer-based maintenance system, or a card-file system, or a white-board maintenance area, the strategies, opportunities and approaches remain the same. After implementation, all the workforce- from the senior management to the last mechanic hired, must follow the basic tenet: minimize the unplanned downtime through proper preventive maintenance.

Sustenance of your lean equipment maintenance program

Sampat Padhi and Anuja Verma

OPSESSION | Volume 3 | Issue 1 7

A new sun is out on the horizon with a promising and bright year ahead for the denizens of XIMB with the onset of the new academic year. As students and several student bodies of XIMB get ready to jump into the bandwagon of fresh events and new endeavors, the hustle bustle around the campus keeps rising by the day. In this dawn of fresh opportunities and new beginnings, X-Ops the operations committee of XIMB is fully geared to take up all challenges and make the year ahead a galore of learning opportunities for the student community of XIMB. X-Ops team has planned many initiatives for the new academic session with immersion and certification courses, workshops, leadership talks, live projects and much more. With plans of making the flagship events like Ashwamedh, Aarohan, Nirnay, Milaap, Burnout and

Opsie-V bigger and better. X-Ops is also looking forward to launch new initiatives, like research project this time. All these efforts and planning are being done at the behest of the new and vibrant Core Team of 2016-17 that looks forward to emulate and perhaps surpass the success of the previous Core Team of 2015-16 after successfully taking over the reins from them. With much pride, X-Ops brings to you the new Core Team of 2016-17

Debidutta Samantray

(Coordinator)

Sampat Padhi (Deputy

Coordinator)

Ishan Luthra (Treasurer)

Divya Prakash

Preetish Swain

Swagat

Das

Apratim Chandra

Manindra Jha

Somil Malhotra

Jaydeep Sahoo

Sibasis Mohapatra

Prithviraj Parida

Anuja Verma

Raksha Arya

The team Opsession wishes the

Coordinator of X-Ops the very

best to be successful in leading

the new team and making all the

initiatives by X-Ops really

enriching for the students of

XIMB.

Introducing the X-Ops Core Team 2016-17

OPSESSION | Volume 3 | Issue 1 8

Opsession Monthly

XIM, Bhubaneswar

Editorial Board:

EDITOR: ANUJA VERMA

DESIGN: RAKSHA ARYA

COORDINATOR: DEBIDUTTA SAMANTRAY

TEAM: ANUJA VERMA DIVYA PARAKASH RAKSHA ARYA