OPERATION

MANAGEMEN SUBMITTED BY: SAKSHI

SACHDEVA
T ROLL NO.- BM-019143
SEC-C, PGDM 1 YEAR
ASSIGNMENT-
II
Submitted to: Dr. Sunayana Jain
Case 1: Strategic capacity Management in Indian Railways

Q1. Critically examine the IR Turnaround story. What are the criticisms related to its capacity
expansion plans?

Solution-

IR (Indian Railways) Turnaround story told us that there are lot of ways to decrease the time
of turnaround like:-

 Faster Train Movement on track

 High speed of loading/unloading.
 Increase in the working hours of Loading/unloading
 Mechanism of track modernization
 Reduced number of level crossing.
 Dedicated freight corridors to decrease the turnaround time and increase on the move
time available for racks.

Dedicated Freight Corridor is one of such initiatives to modernize and upgrade the railway
infrastructure under long term strategic plan. Prime objective is to enable Indian railways to
create additional capacity, guarantee efficient, reliable, safe and cheaper options for mobility
to its customers and to support the Indian Government initiative to make Indian railway as
most environment friendly ecological mode for transportation.

Q2. Explain different approach for capacity expansion of Indian railways?

Answer: Different approach used to increase the capacity of Indian railways:

1. Indian Railways has taken a major step in increasing their freight-carrying capacity. They
have decided to permit additional loading of wagons above the prescribed axle load limit of
20.3 tonnes per wagon, a norm that was fixed more than four decades ago.

2. The Indian Railways now uses electric and diesel locomotives that have no hammer blow.
Moreover, the old 45-kg rails have been replaced by superior 60-kg rails that are placed on
concrete (instead of wooden) sleepers.

3. Rail sections are now welded for long lengths at joints, thereby reducing the severity of
impact in comparison to fish-plated joints. The welded tracks of improved strength under
reduced impact loading today are, therefore, more than a match for the tracks used in the past
that used to withstand an axle load of 23 tonnes with 30 per cent additional impact loading.
Case2- Grainer: Reengineering the china/US supply chain

Q1.Relative to US distribution network, calculate the cost associated with the running of
existing system. Assume 40% volume arrives at Seattle and 60% at Los Angles

Solution-

Operations and Supply Chain Management

Grainger Distribution Case

Total Costs of Running the existing system

Summary

Shipping rates = $0.0018

Total Demand = $5

Quality Assurance Check = $3

Port Cost = $5

Truck Freight Cost (CBM/Mile) = $0.0220

Warehouse Miles from Kansas Miles from LA Miles from Seattle

Kansas City 0 1620 1870

Cleveland 800 2350 2410

New Jersey 1200 2780 2890

Jacksonville 1150 2420 2990

Chicago 520 2020 2060

Greenville 940 2320 2950

Memphis 510 1790 2330

Dallas 500 1430 2130

Los Angeles 1620 0 1140

Total 7240

Total Volume of Product to Los Angeles and Seattle Cities

Product volume to Seattle = 40% x 190,000

= 76,000
Product Volume to Los Angeles = 60% x 190,000

=114,000

Port processing fee at Seattle and LA

Processing Fee at Los Angeles =114,000 x 5

=$570,000

Processing Fee at Seattle =76,000 x 5 =$380,000

Total Processing fee =$570,000 + $380,000

=$950,000

Shipping Costs to Kansas City

Shipping Costs from Seattle =1,870 x 76,000 x 0.0081

=$1,151,172

Shipping Costs from Los Angeles =1,620 x 114,000 x 0.0081

=$1,495,908

Total =$1,151,172 + $1,495,908

=$2,647,080

Quality Check at Kansas

Costs of Quality Check =3 x 190,000

=$570,000

Distribution to nine Warehouses

Total Freight Cost = 7,240 x 0.022 x 190,000

= 30,263,200

Therefore,

Total Cost Incurred by the System = $950,000 + $2,647,080 + 

    $570,000 + $30,263,200

=$34,430, 280
Q4- Is this strategically something that Grainer should do? What has the company not
considered that may be important?

The company should consider opening the new distribution centre instead of Los Angeles
where there is more demand in the US and also costs are lower. The company could have
considered other 8 locations as well before taking this decision and also the economic value
for transportation and ordering.

Case 3- Service Design for Mobile Banking

Q1. Explore the latest provisions of RBI for mobile banking. Based on these, what should be
Anjali’s approach – thorough analysis and professional service design or quick solution?
Why?

Solution-

Anjali wants to build an m-banking USP to attract high value customers from competitors
and also build new customer base in rural areas by providing services that customers perceive
to be easy.
This process will require a longer time period as also mentioned in the case that it will take at
least 6 months to launch the services.
Thus, thorough analysis and professional service design approach will be used by Anjali

Q2. Explain, how can QFD help in service design?

Solution-

The QFD technique is based on the analysis of the client’s requirements, which normally are
expressed in qualitative terms, such as: easy to use, safe comfortable or luxurious.

The QFD technique allows for a competitor assessment with Benchmarking. The
competitor’s services are compared to the company’s services.
 Benchmarking is carried out for “What” and “How”
 The two companies’ services are compared along the lines of client requirements
(“What”)
 In the technical competitor comparison (“How’s), the design requirement fulfilment
will be compared.

Q3. Give illustrative examples to explain how SERVQUAL framework would help in
designing m – banking services?
Solution-
 SERVQUAL model measures service quality on five dimensions: Reliability,
Assurance, Tangibles, Empathy and Responsiveness.
 This model helps in identifying the gap between customer expectations and actual
service delivered; and hence fulfilling the gap.
 The SERVQUAL model thus will be helpful in identifying the gap in competitor’s
services and thus will consider these in designing their own m-banking services.

Q6. What are the possible applications of m –banking for:

Solution-
The possible applications of m-banking services are:
 Joining rural people with government schemes like Bhoomi etc.
 Insurance schemes that are run by the government
 One of the example could be transfer of money to the poor people account directly by
the government in case of any crisis that happens in the country
 Micro financing schemes
 Mobile banking for students is important as student can get or transfer money anytime
to any place in the country.
 Many NGO’s also use mobile banking services to accept donations, etc.