MGT 314

Operations Management
Section 3
Group 2
Report on: Akij Ceramics
Operation Analysis of Akij Ceramics
Prepared for
Hossain Mofassel
Name ID
Fatema Tuz Zohra 1521259030
Mohammad Muhaimenul Haq 1521951630
Tanzil Tahseen 1620052030
Nazia Nusrat Antora 1430559030
MD. Delower Hossan Dipo 1721126030
Tanvir Ahmed 1531363630
Sabrina Mohsin 1321286030
Contents
Acknowledgement.......................................................................................................................................2
Executive summary.....................................................................................................................................2
Business Profile...........................................................................................................................................3
Objective and scope of the work.................................................................................................................4
Methodology...............................................................................................................................................5
Limitations:..................................................................................................................................................6
Operational Analysis....................................................................................................................................6
Strategies& Competitive Analysis............................................................................................................6
Productivity analysis................................................................................................................................7
Forecasting..............................................................................................................................................8
Strategic capacity planning:.....................................................................................................................9
Process selection and facility layout......................................................................................................10
Quality Management.............................................................................................................................12
Inventory management of Akij ceramics:..............................................................................................14
Supply chain management:...................................................................................................................15
Environmental FRIENDLINESS Analysis:.................................................................................................18
Problem Definition:...............................................................................................................................18
Improvement Plans:..............................................................................................................................18
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................................22
Recommendation:.................................................................................................................................22
Appendix...................................................................................................................................................22

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Acknowledgement
First and foremost, we would like to thank our lecturer of the course MGT314, Md. Mofassel Hossain sir
for the valuable support and guidance. He inspired us greatly to work in this project. His willingness to
motivate us contributed tremendous to our report. We also thank him for showing us examples that are
related to the topic of our report. Besides, we would like to thank the authority of North South
University for providing us with a good environment and facilities to complete this report.
 At every moment we remember all of our classmates who really encouraged us in every stage of this
project with their support, encouragement and suggestions which really helped us a lot to make this
project to be successful. Without their guidance and friendly co-operation, this work would not be
possible. 
Also, we are grateful to all the fellows who provided us with their utmost effort. Without their help it
would not have been at all possible. They have provided us with all the information and also supported
us a lot.
Finally, an honorable mention goes to MD Shamsuddin (Asst. General Manager) for giving us his
valuable time for us with the information needed to finish this report. Without help of him, we could
face some troubles while finishing the report.

Executive summary

Akij Ceramics Ltd. is one of the local largest ceramic tiles manufacturers in Bangladesh where our project
report was completed successfully. The project report is about “Operational Analysis of the Company.”
This report includes the background of Akij Ceramics Ltd. and its activities including its operation for tiles
manufacturing. This is a comprehensively try to provide a glossary overview of the Operation
Management of Akij Ceramics Ltd. and the various operation issues, strategy and policies set in place for
the organization. Akij Ceramics adopted a unique flow of manufacturing technique which enables the
company to reach its strategic goals and aims. The company primarily focuses on local market where it
gained 1/4th of tiles and 3/4th of sanitary ware market share in Bangladesh. Akij Ceramics distributes its
products through company appointed dealers. The strength of Akij Ceramics lies in its professional
expertise, unrelenting pursuit of excellence and a deep and profound knowledge of the business
environment. The focus of the report is on the Strategies and Competitive Advantage, Demand
Forecasting, Strategic Capacity Planning, Process Selection and Facility Layout, Quality Assurance,
Inventory Management, Supply Chain Integrity, Environmental Friendliness Analysis. The details of the
operational segments also include Cycle time, Desired Output Rate, Numbers of Workstation required
etc. Each of the operational segment is also associated with recommendation and improvement
measures which we perceive to be able to assist in improving the Organizational Dynamics overall.

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associated with recommendation and improvement measures which we perceive to be able to assist in
improving the Organizational Dynamics overall.

Business Profile
Akij Group of industries is one of the largest, strongest and most successful industries in Bangladesh. It
was more than sixty years ago, the company entered or emerged into the market. The business was
started in the 1950’s with a single product of cigarette naming Akij Biri by the Entrepreneur, Founder
and lifetime Chairman Late Mr. Sheikh Akij Uddin. Akij Biri is one of the most popular products within
the country as well as in the few international markets. With the passage of time, Akij Group has
become the largest group of companies in Bangladesh.

Companies under Akij Group

 Akij Jute Mills Limited

 Akij Food & Beverage Limited
 Akij Ceramics
 Akij Cement
 Akij Plastics
 Akij Shipping Line Limited
 Akij Particle Board Mills Limited
 Akij Printing & Packages Limited
 Akij Flour Mills Limited
 Akij Poly Fibre IND. Limited
 Akij Agro Processing Factory
 Bahadurpur Tea Estate Limited
 Akij Biax Films Limited
 Akij Central Workshop
 Akij Steel Mills Limited
 Akij City Center
 Robin MDF
 Akij Bakers Limited
 SK Akijuddin Limited
 Akij match Factory Limited

The journey of Akij Ceramics has started in march, 2012. So, it is the latest venture of Akij Group’s and it
has ceramic and porcelain facility sprawling over 49,500 square meter per day. It has become one of the
most powerful players in tiles industry of Bangladesh within a short span of time. The factory of Akij
ceramics is located at Mukkhopur, Trishal in Mymensingh. It is considered as one of the largest

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capacities in Bangladesh with multiple lines of production and also follows international standard. The
price of Akij Ceramics tiles are affordable and already attracted the attention of customers. Wall tiles,
ceramic floor tiles, homogeneous floor tiles, porcelain printed floor tiles, VANITA (premium bathroom
and kitchen tiles), KATHENA (floor tiles) are some of the products of Akij Ceramics. Digital printed tiles
were first introduced by Akij ceramics limited. They offer wide ranges of designs and tiles in different
sizes with a various type of colors and textures by using cutting edge technology and ensured quality,
body, long lasting glazed of the tiles. It is the second largest manufacturer in Bangladesh on the basis of
its World class manufacturing technology, effective cost structure, market leading capacity, high
production utilization, unique product design etc. They use international standard machines,
technologies and equipment to deliver the best and achieve customer satisfaction. The company is also
involved in exporting tiles in different countries of the World. Most of the raw materials of Akij Ceramics
are imported from Italy, Germany, Spain, China, Malaysia and Thailand. It offers competitive and
creative designs with long term durability of its wall and floor tiles. Akij Ceramics is the first company
who takes a great initiative about carbon trading in Bangladesh. Controlling pollution and to achieve
reductions in emission of pollutants, they are providing economic incentives. Akij ceramics is trying hard
to reduce its carbon footprint by using its latest technologies. According to SK Bashir Uddin, managing
director of Akij group, they think they are better and to achieve global standards and they are
introducing new technologies every day.

Mission

The mission of Akij Ceramics is “Promise of Perfection” and the company is committed in producing
World class ceramic tiles with Unique design and high end quality.

Vision

To secure number one position in ceramic industry of Bangladesh is the vision of Akij Ceramics limited.
At present, they are working hard to become the largest exporter and secure a prestigious position
within the country according to SK Bashir Uddin, the managing director of Akij Group.

Objective and scope of the work

The broad objectives of the study are to examine Operational Analysis of Akij Ceramics tiles
produced in Bangladesh. The objective of the study as follows
 To give an overall idea about the Akij Ceramics Ltd,
 To analyze operational structure,
 To explore the growth potential of manufacture,
 To analyze the cycle time of the operation,

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  To analyze the bottleneck in the process layout.

The study will include a brief Company Profile of the Akij Ceramic industry providing among others,
existing infrastructure and level of technology for Strategies and Competitive Analysis, Demand
forecasting , Strategic Capacity planning , Process structure and Facility layouts, Quality Management,
Inventory management etc.

The study also includes an analysis of Supply chain and CSR. This will help to evaluate local and
international competitiveness of the sector. This study will be conducted on Akij Ceramic Ltd. Keeping in
mind to improve operations and bottleneck
Finally, the study will frame a set of recommendations, for policy action.

Methodology

This report concise of both primary and secondary sources, they are described as follow:

Primary Source

There were questions which aroused during the interview. We talked about their entire operation which
includes Inventory Management and their storage capacity, Supply Chain Management was also
discussed such as that their storage is in house which shortens the timing for transportation and storage
and then we had questions on CSR which is the environment friendliness Analysis. Overall it was a
lengthy discussion on the entire Operational Analysis of the company which helped us to reach to the
peak point of this report. We had a face to face interview session with the AGM (production)
Md.Shamsuddin who helped us in our every queries.

Secondary source
We have used information from company profile through their website, and information through email
from the officials of Akij Ceramics Ltd. News article were also taken for further information

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Limitations:
We faced a few limitation while working for the project. We are a group of 7 members and due to our
different class timings, we had to visit the factory in weekday by missing a class. Akij ceramic produce
one type of cake each day. So, we weren’t able to see the other tiles manufacturing. Then again, Akij
ceramic’s web site is not available for all information. We had to really work hard for finding much basic
information which we were expecting to find easily on their website. Then, manufacturing companies
like Akij ceramic never want to share their costing. Akij ceramic tried to provide us many information
they could, but those were moderately enough for the project. They were very complint sharing but
some of their confidential information they don’t want to share with a group of undergraduate students.
So, few of the information they provide was a guess or estimation by the manager.

Operational Analysis

Strategies& Competitive Analysis

Akij is one of the pioneers groups of the ceramics manufacturing industry in Bangladesh. Akij Ceramics
has country’s largest capacity with multiple lines of production in availability of international standard
designs throughout the year. The main motto of Akij is Promise of perfection. As a strategic factor, Akij is
committed to deliver quality product at a competitive price. It is pointed in capacity section Akij is highly
efficient and produce high-quality product according to buyer’s demand. So Akij follow the quality and
competitive Price based strategies for the best production and delivery of quality product to their
buyers.

Akij ceramic is situated at Bhaluka. Their factory area is huge and they have a lot of space which they can
use in future if they want to expand their business. And again, as they are located outside of Dhaka so
they can even buy land if the need more space because it is easier to buy land outside Dhaka. They are
doing business for a long time now and as a result they have a good relation with the suppliers and
buyers. Their suppliers always provide them with raw materials which are of beat quality and at a
minimum price. The area provides an amazing transportation facility. Their marketing style is a strategy
for them. They appoint sole distributors and dealers for selling sanitary wares and the insulators are sold
directly to consumers by participating in open tender.

Latest ceramic technology and modern machineries and equipment are equipped by Akij factory. This
latest technology helps them to increase their production by which they can meet their target profit and
compete with others. Akij Ceramics is using cutting-edge-technology that machine is imported from
Germany and Denmark. Akij Ceramics uses international standard machines to deliver the best and

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competitive designs by maintaining lifelong durability of their product maintaining standard universal
measurements.

Akij developed their own workshop where they increase personnel’s skill and increase expert
employees. Expert employees boost up the production line and ensure the quality efficiently.

Akij also focuses on their product and service design. They focus on maintaining and improving their
product and services based on the demand of market attraction of their buyers.

Relationship with distributors and suppliers benefits both parties. Distributors buy directly from AKIJ ,
then sell those products through a network of retailers. Suppliers not only provide the goods they are
also an important source of information, advice and trade credit. Here AKij maintaining good
relationship with both parties with their goodwill.

Productivity analysis
From their capacity planning it has been pointed that AKIJ ceramic is highly efficient approximately
98.1% efficient with utilization rate on 88.3%. That means they are very efficient in production line.

AKIJ ceramic has 43000sqm tiles production per day basis. They work for 24 hour per day in 3 shift of
working hour is 8 hour. There are 150 labors each shift working every day. They have 9 machines and
machines are running 24 hours.

Output produced by machines.

Output produced per day 43000 sqm

There are 9 machines each working 24 hours per

day

Total machine hours (9*24)Hours 216 hours

Number of labor working per day (150*3) 450 labors

Total labor hours per day (450*8) 3600 labor hours.

Now the computation of partial measure and total measure will help to understand and analyze the
operational performance of Akij ceramics.

Operational performance of Akij Ceramics.

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 Partial measure productivity (Unit/Hrs.) Output per hour (Approx.)

Output/Machine ( 43000/216) 199.07

Output/labor (43000/3600) 11.94

Total measure Output per hours

Output/(Machine + Labor) (43000/ 216+3600)= 11.268

That reflects the company is performing well and emphasis where the company should improve. As
demonstrated in Partial measures productivity, it can be seen that, Machine productivity is the highest.
The reason can be proper machine maintenance. That ensures effective maintenance of equipment to
reduce energy wastage, making engineered improvements and upgrades productivity. As it is seen, their
labor productivity is also satisfactory reason for labor productivity can be motivations and expert
employees. By giving more incentive and training they can also increasing labor productivity.

Forecasting
For Akij Ceramics industry, forecasting is an important issue to sustain in ceramics industry. As they start
their ceramics industry in 2012 they must have to forecasting to sustain in the overall ceramics industry.
And Akij ceramics used to track information about the market supply and demand by forecasting.

For Akij Ceramics, they are mostly dependent on Judgmental forecasting method. As ceramics industry is
very competitive in the market, this forecasting method helps out a company to get a better look of the
market demand beforehand. Akij does their forecasting thing about six months before they actually
launch the product. During these forecasting periods, they measure the actual demand in market, the
cost of raw materials and the amount of supply need to maintain to keep a standard of the company.

Judgmental forecasting:

Judgmental forecasting is comprised of four different parts. They are-

1. Executive opinions

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2. Sales force opinions

3. Consumer surveys

4. Delphi method

 Executive opinions
Decision of executives is a big factor for Akij Ceramics Company. Their skilled executive panel
gives out their opinion to the manufacturing department about the forecasting of manufactured
product.

 Sales force opinions

Akij Ceramics collect information from the overall ceramics market situation, competitors’
positions, previous year’s sales and overall availability. As a result, Akij do collect information
from their sales department for forecasting.

 Consumer surveys
During selling the product, Akij try to grab the information from the customers through oral
survey or sometimes in a paper based survey about the customer’s preference, suggestion for
the company etc. which helps them vastly to take decisions.

 Delphi Method.
In Akij, managers sometimes do communication directly with the production department by
sharing their views and ideas which helps the company to generate information to do
forecasting part efficiently. And sometimes they send some questionnaires to the experts and
wait for their response. And after getting all response through consensus they do their
forecasting.

Strategic capacity planning:

Capacity is the upper limit on the load that an operating unit can handle. AKIJ ceramic production
facility which has a capacity of 1290000sqm every month and 43000sqm per day. In our case, the day
we visited they were producing the 43000sqm tiles and we gathered information from the plant. By
doing the research we came to know about the no. of supervisors and the number of workers we also
got to know in details about each of the capacity planning of each step in making finished tiles.

The no. of supervisor they have is 8 people they work in 3 shifts and 150 workers for each shift so for
total 3 shifts they have a total of 450 workers. For the capacity planning the first step is raw materials
the raw materials are kept in huge bins in their inventory and the no. of bins where raw materials are
kept is 31 in number these raw materials then go to the feeder box which is one and through the feeder

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box it goes to the Ball mill the number of ball mill is 4 and capacity is (30*4)sq. then it goes to blanger
the quantity of those are 3 and its capacity is (300*3) sq. then the goods are being dried in the dryer and
its capacity is 230 tons. Then it goes to the silo its quantity is 12 and capacity is (80*12)sq.m.Then it goes
to the press where they are cut into different shapes the quantity of press are 2 and capacity is 1400
sq.m.Then the tiles goes through lear dryer and its quantity is 1,after that it goes to the process of
biscuit kiln its quantity is 1 and its capacity is 12500 sq.m.Then for paint it goes to glaze line its quantity
is 4 and its total capacity is 14000 sq.m.After that it goes to glost kiln its quantity is 1 and its capacity is
12000 sq.m.Sorting is another part of the process where the tiles are inspected by the well trained
employees its quantity is 3 and the capacity is 12000 sq. they it goes to auto packing its quantity is 3
then for data code printing its quantity is also 3.

Through this process everyday they produce 43-45 thousand sq. meter of tiles. In their capacity they
keep raw materials of 3 months in their inventory and they buy new raw materials and supplies every 3
months. In their inventory of finished goods they can hold goods and sell them for 30-45 days without
production i.e. 1290000 sq. meter of titles they can store minimum in their inventory and in the
inventory if they don’t bring any new raw materials from the market they can run their production for
more 2.5 months without any problem with their back up raw materials stored in their inventory.

So, we can say Akij ceramics have tried to plan their capacity planning efficiently but still they fail to
reach its most optimum level so there are need for improvement and these improvements are discussed
later in our report.

Process selection and facility layout

AKij Ceramics Ltd. has a unique streamline of production process. As they proceed with a slogan
“Promise of perfection”, it is visualized in their entire operation. Akij uses international standard
machines, to be specific, from Germany, Spain, and Italy etc. which gives them the edge to run their
operation seamlessly. As mentioned earlier, their production process is unique is because of their
facility layout, they have a combination of layout which consists of production and process layout
creating the whole operation unique. The layout is designed in a way where the product layout and
process layout are interlinked flawlessly where the task performed exclusively according to each
workstation’s capacity. All the means are described below sequentially:

1. Raw Materials/Body preparation department– Akij ceramics Ltd has a vision to reach on top of
the industry hence their products maintain a high standard. They bring in raw materials from
China, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Malaysia. A measured portion is picked from different raw
materials according to recipe and put it into the feeding machine , afterwards it is transferred

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 through a conveyer belt into a big mixer, which is then added by a little amount of natural water
turning the mixture into a liquid form. For several hours, approximately 6 to 7 hours it is
crushed, it is kept in a mixer, and then preserved it into the drier. Different recipes are taken for
different set of tiles on the basis of demand.
2. Drier department – After the recipe is prepared in the body preparation department, it is
moved in the drier, later on the liquid is turned into a solid powder form with the support of
spray drier machine. Afterwards it is transferred in pressing robot.
3. Cylo/ Press machine department – It is basically a forming machine where the powder is
powder into the dice according a tiles size and shape and mould in it. This department releases 4
tiles in a minute with a little moist to keep the tiles rigid.
4. Anbo / Glaze line department – In this area, normal water is sprinkled to make the tiles cool
and then a primary coating is done, which makes the tiles glossy. After the initial coating is done
final coating is given in the printing machine. Then it is moved to keen department.
5. Furnish/ Keen department – After all the tasks done such as the dicing, molding, coating and
printing the tiles are put into the furnish department where the tiles are fired and the moistures
are vanished making it into a complete form of tiles. It takes 50 to 55 minutes to complete the
products after the body preparation is completed. Once, the task is complete selection process
starts where highly efficient labor ejects the disqualified tiles and this task is done with their
bare eyes. Afterwards, for greater effectiveness tiles are sent for quality control, lab test (e.g.
Alkaline test , Acid Test) then it is send to packaging department, lastly quality control pass is
given.

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 Figure - Production flow chart

Quality Management
The journey of Akij Ceramics Limited has started in 2012 and it has become one of the strongest players
in ceramic industry of Bangladesh within a short period of time. It is committed in producing World class
ceramic tiles which is the true reflection of their brand tagline “Promise of Perfection”. So, maintaining
quality is one of their major activities to meet customer needs. Akij Ceramics is not ISO certified but they
are following the guidelines to achieve it. And locally all the products of Akij Ceramics are certified by
Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI). As Akij ceramics limited is the second largest
manufacturer in Bangladesh and they are working hard to meet customer expectations. Quality
assurance is one of the techniques that Akin applies to ensure the best quality of the whole

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manufacturing process. Most of the raw materials of Akij Ceramics are imported from Italy, Germany,
Spain, China, Malaysia and Thailand and a strong quality control team test the quality and release raw
materials. Sometimes they have to pay high price to buy best quality of raw materials. All the
machineries and equipment are imported from Germany and Italy. The machine which checks the
quality of a product is also bought from Italy. They also have expertise, trained workers or skilled
employees. They have the ability to find out any defect within a second. The workers who are involved
in manufacturing process are always under strict monitoring which helps them to reduce defects and
wastes.

For quality control purpose such as glossiness, shades, colors and to maintain standard reference they
do different types of laboratory tests such as acid test, alkaline test etc. Akij Ceramics is usually dividing
products into three categories such as grade A, grade B and grade C. Grade A has the finest quality of
products. On the other hand, Grade B has minor defects which is hard to distinguish for a person to
differentiate between grade A and grade B. And grade C includes rejected products. But they only stored
the products of grade A and grade B and destroyed all the rejected products of grade C because they
believe on “Quality Matters”. However, they can adopt the six-sigma business process to improve their
product’s quality with shorter time but also help them to minimize the cost. Before distribution of the
products of grade A and B, another quality control test takes place, after that QC (Quality Control) pass
the products are finally released for distribution. Akij Ceramics is basically focusing on continuous
improvement, for example they introduce new technologies and upgrade existing technologies time to
time to meet customer needs. They also hold monthly quality meeting with all departments to ensure
best quality.

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Inventory management of Akij ceramics:
Inventory is one of the most important part of management because most of the current assets are
stored here. All the supplies and stocks are stored here so it is very important to manage the inventory
properly. It is the middle point between production and raw materials so effective inventory is
important to keep balance between the raw materials got in, in the inventory system and how much of
it went out for production just in time so that there is no wastage of time or resources’ ceramics is the
second largest ceramics industry in Bangladesh and they have one of the finest inventory management
system in Bangladesh. The inventory of them is situated at the middle of the factory in a piece of land of
70-80 bighas. The factory has a 24hrs working process so that resources like gases and electricity is not
wasted so the inventory is needed the whole time.

The factors they consider in inventory management are:

 Demand: The demand of their tiles in much higher during winter season than in summer season
during this this time of the year tiles are bought for personal and business use more. Another
time when the demand of tiles in sky high is during May to June just before the budget at that
time a huge no. of construction work of government is done. To manage inventory considering
the demand efficiently is important for inventory management. When there is peak demand the
amount of output, they give is 45000 sq./m per day and the expense of inventory will be highest
around Taka 33,33,333 per day.

 Cost: Cost is important for inventory management because the goal of management is to cut
cost and wastage of time and money, so by cost we are not only considering money but also
time. Akij ceramics buy its raw materials from mainly China, Malaysia and Thailand in bulk to cut
cost. They buy raw materials for a period of 3 months production and store it in their inventory.
After 20 days of production from the batch they order new batch of raw materials for the next 3
months as the whole process of importing of raw materials from abroad takes time which is
almost 2 months and 10 days. The amount of cost for these 3 months of raw materials and
inventory management is 10 crores i.e. 3.33 Crore per month.

 Service: The success of the business depends on they serve their customer. In this case Akij
Ceramics gives on the best service because of their efficient inventory management. They keep
the product in their inventory according the demand for example they keep the floor tiles near
so that it can be accessed easily and quickly as the market wants more of it and the market may
ask for it anytime. Due to sufficient inventory they can produce any order and can reach to its
final consumer in just within 24hrs and it happened because they buy raw materials for 3
months and uses it efficiently.

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  Turnaround: Turnaround has several definitions when considering inventory. Where finished
goods are concerned, turnaround refers to how long stock sits before sale. An inventory
manager wants this time to be as short as possible, though this may be a function of sales and
marketing. On the inbound side, turnaround refers to how long current stock supplies
production.Akij ceramics buy all the raw materials and supplies worth 10 crore taka (avg) every
3 months and with this raw materials they produce for 24hrs and in a day the total output is 43-
45 thousand sq./m this finished goods are sent to the inventory and then the finished products
are loaded in the trucks of their dealers and sent to destination, from raw materials in inventory
to finished product to consumers it takes a total of 24hrs.

So we can conclude that the inventory management helps Akij ceramics a lot to sustain in the market
and be the second largest ceramics industry in Bangladesh.

Supply chain management:

Supply chain management practice impacts on organization are so effective. That helps to improve the
organizations in the competitive market with some advantages by the quality measurement, quantity,
Authentication, innovation in the market with the relatively price and cost. Because any organizational
performance by SCM practices increases their productivity and helps them to build up the market share
and profit.

The steps which are used In Akij ceramics are discussed below:

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After reviewing all the details from the supply chain manager this is the procedure they follow. Firstly,
they exact raw materials from local mining or import few raw materials which are needed. Then both of
them are managed and go to the procurement processing which involves cost, reliability and quality
checks. Latter they are turned out to be finished good and ready to go for sale. After all the
manufacturing process they are passed on the distributors hand with proper shipment timings and
transportation. Just after that the goods are handed to the distributor which is more over stored in
warehouse. The distributor then decides the agent or the end consumer whom they pass the finished
goods in terms of money. The gate keeping is also involved here if any kinds of goods are returned. They
conventionally check whether it should have reverse logistic or not. If logically the goods are accepted
for its defect or wrongness then the distributor sends it back to the Manufacturer to mend it in a correct
manner and send it back to them to build customer satisfaction. Those goods are not being accepted
which are logically not defected which increases the avoidance level of returned goods.

Few more parts are down in this sector:

 Order Pass- Orders are placed on the basis of requirements while samples are sent in
accordance of that. They take order according to their forecasting limits.
 Management approval- The decisive terms and conditions are manifested to the Management
department for the go-ahead. Upon the acceptance of the proposal, latter ramifications are
made. Any additional reservations that arise are presented during this phase.
 Commercial administration- This stage involves the record-keeping of contracts and documents
of the suppliers.
 Letter of Credit: Successive LCs openings occur during this phase. The participation of banks is
pivotal in this context.
 Pre-Shipment Investigation: Following LC opening, tiles are put on line for shipping. However,
before this, an inspection is carried out by the Quality Control department which in turn readies
a post-inspection report.
 Inspection report: If inspection report’s result shows failed then company can demand
compensation to the supplier as per contract. If inspection report shows positive result then
company conduct their operations by following flowchart process (b) given below:

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The products shipments are completed once approved. This is followed by some formal obligations as
goods are warehoused. Meanwhile, then the distributor puts it to pass to the agents or dealers in the
country which is basically sold to the end users.

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Environmental FRIENDLINESS Analysis:
According to their statement they have applied a very different approach from any other competitors.
As we all know, that the factories in the city are somehow harming the society by exhaling the harmful
gases by polluting the air. Surprisingly the best part of AKIJ CERAMICS is that they recover the loses heat
and reuses them. For this practice they brought a processing machine from Spain, CHEMI HEAT
RECOVERY MACHINE, which basically helps to reuse and stops the harmful gas to interrupt the society in
any manner. AKIJ CERAMICS is the only company in Bangladesh who uses this technology to ensure the
security of the environment and society.

Problem Definition:
The problems that they face during the whole operational procedure is the time which creates a big
hassle in the production level. The most time-consuming bottle neck issues are, it takes about 6/7 hours
in the body preparation process and around 55 to 60minutes in the firing session. These two operational
sectors are the most time-consuming parts in the whole procedure.

Improvement Plans:

Plan A:

They should input another department for the body preparation process so that it kills up less time in
the operation. Having separate department and machineries will surely boast up the productivity and
lower down the time-consuming activities. We would like to add another machine for the body
preparation process as there is only one machine to mend the body from the raw materials. The
machine takes around 5/6 hrs for the preparation process which is having a minimum range of heat.
After discussion we came to know that first 2 hours of the body preparation process can be heated at a
low range of heat but the rest can be heated at a higher range but the machine that they are using is
basically of a constant range.

Now this is one of the bottlenecks of the operation and another machine can be settled for a faster
output. The machine which has less heat capacity will prepare the body for 2hours and then the new
machine with much heating capacity will mix the raw materials for body preparation for around 1hours
as it is good to be mixed overly heated for 1 hour rather than heating for 6hours. The compulsory 2hours
of mixing is needed to create moisture in the body but later it is absolutely fine to be heating under high
volume. So, formulating this idea would help to improve the bottleneck issues.

Ceramic ball mill

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Plan B:

They should introduce a fire line chain this technology is a bit expensive but it will maintain accordingly
the heat level of the materials. There will be proper maintenance of the time as the firing session ends
while the chain ends. Normally the firing machine takes around 55minutes to 1 hour so now it will take
around 25munutes and the rest of the time can be utilized properly.

Chain Firing machine

Impacts of Plans on the other parts of the operation:

Process layout:

Since adding up a new machine will change the entire process layout, it must decrease body preparation
time and enhance productivity outrageously. For instance, if the new machine cuts off body preparation
time, such as, it are reduced to half of its actual time then pressing department can release 8 tiles in a
minute, which is the double output rate of tiles then the current output. These will initially faster the
outflow of the tiles and other departments such as the cooling, glazing, printing and firing will face
greater flow of tiles. Greater flow means greater functioning time, hence, greater workforce needed.

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Akij Ceramics Ltd. has highly efficient labor workforce for selection process, in this area workforce need
to be increased for quality check. Since Akij Ceramics ltd. has a greater storage capacity therefore they

Can have this extra production and store it safely. Sales and marketing team needs to forecast a high
demand in the market so that their profit outweighs the cost that incurred while installing new
machines

Quality assurance:

Both the plans will have no negative impact on the quality of the products. Sometimes less times costs
you more but in this case the machineries used for decreasing time is better for all sides. The
implementation of plans will also ensure the quality of the products after the body preparation and also
before packaging in the inspection section. After proper inspecting process for the quality assurance the
products will be turned into finished goods. Few of the products will be send for trial test to check
weather customers are facing any kind of issues regarding new process planning.

Capacity Planning:

The capacity of Akij was mentioned earlier, so according to that capacity planning it won’t be a hassle
for the factory to deal with another machine as we are inputting one extra machine and replacing the
fire machine with a new chain firing process machine. The workers need to be increased due to an
increase in the number of machines. Two more workers should be appointed to deal the Ceramic ball
mill and two more for the inspection of the new technological process in the operation.

Productivity:

This technique will be beneficial for the company as it will reduce the time and will increase productivity
of the company as now the body preparation machine is not taking 6 hours to prepare, it is just done by
3 hours. The firing machine is also taking less time so now the productivity level will increase by 3.5
hours. Overall this will kill a non productive 3.5hours.

All the above procedure will be forecasted according to the producing amount after implementation of
the process. However, this would ne efficiently active to imply this method and cut of the bottlenecks
from the operation of Akij Ceramics.

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Conclusion:
Moreover after all the research taken under the ceramic industry of AKIJ, we came to a point
that it has the potentiality to maintain its well enough position in this competitive market. Their
knowledge and execution of work procedures are better and more convincing in order to
enhance customer satisfaction. They can surely pull off the image created in the market in the
long run as they already did in such a short time.

The overall recommendation for Akij ceramics according to us as we pointed out would be to
put more emphasis on reducing bottlenecks from various production lines and also to include
human inspection procedure for different stages. The rationale is to emphasize on the
qualitative aspect of the products down the production line. The objective is to increase the
Production capacity (Reducing cost of production) while adding to the quality standard of the
products.

Recommendation:
 Health care- The labors dealing with all the operational activities should be provided with proper
health care treatments, so that the harmful gas they deal with doesn’t affect them in the long
run and no risk of lives should be involved in this path.
 Lack of Management- The factories of Akij ceramics trend to have less proper management
inside the working environment. They should have conventional management team to execute
the factory site workings.
 ISO- They should take enough steps to be ISO certified to enhance their business development
in the international platform.
 Greeneries- They should also plan to implement green environment or a green house to make
the environment more soothing for the society and the workers as practicing this in factories is
one of the major implications.

 Six sigma- a set of management techniques intended to improve business processes by greatly
reducing the probability that an error or defect will occur. They should use Six Sigma to analyze
its manufacturing processes.
 Maintenance Issues- Proper clean environment should be maintained inside the factory area for
the betterment.

Appendix

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Questionnaire

For a better information gathering we have list down a set of questions for Akij Ceramics Ltd. it was then
answered by the A.G.M Shamsuddin Ahmed to help in our queries. Questions are given below:

1. What are the basic functions of business organizations of your company?

2. What were the problems in configuration while setting up in this factory?
3. Brief on types of technology installed in Akij Ceramics Ltd.
4. What are the factors that affect Competitiveness for Akij Ceramics compared to other Ceramics
industries?
5. What are the factors that affect Productivity?
6. What are the common features of forecasts?
7. Mention the steps of forecasting process.
8. In which season you get more order?
9. How much amount of raw materials the store room can contain?
10. How can you improve your capacity planning?
11. Why is it yet not ISO certified?
12. How do you manage the supply chain?
13. What are the considerations of capacity planning?
14. Describe each layout type.
15. How are volume, variety, and flexibility related to Process Selection?
16. What are the determinants of Quality? Explain briefly.
17. What are the Obstacles & Criticism of TQM faced by Akij Ceramics?

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