MBA

Operations Management – I

Duration: 2 hours

a. Answer all questions

b. Marks are mentioned against each question number
c. Make reasonable assumptions where necessary and state them
d. No queries will be entertained
e. Open book examination

1. Describe how goods and services are defined by OM (Marks 5

2. Once a manufactured product is defined, what documents are used for production ?
Explain with examples. (Marks 5)
3. What are the three measures of forecast accuracy? Explain their relative merits and
demerits (Marks 5)
4. What are seasonality, cyclicality and trends. Explain with examples. (Marks 5)
5. Discuss the advisability of using modular assemblies in manufacturing. (What are the
advantages and disadvantages?) To what extent can these arguments be applied to
services? (Marks 5)

6. XYZ's department at a local department store has tracked the sales of a product over
the last three weeks. Forecast demand using exponential smoothing with an alpha of
0.3, and an initial forecast of 28.0 for period 1. Calculate the MAD. What do you
recommend? The demand for three periods is given herewith (1): 24 (2): 23 (3): 26
(Marks 10)

7. There are three work centers (A, B, and C) behind the financial aid counter at a
nearby university. They can each fit into any of three office spaces (1, 2, and 3) off
the corridor behind the desk. There is no student contact in these areas, only workers.
The distance 1-2 is 20 feet, 2-3 is 30 feet, and 1-3 is 50 feet. The matrix of work (trips
per day) at the three centers are shown in the following table. Remember that each trip
must be a round-trip (from 1 to 2 and back, for example). (Marks 10)

A B C
A -- 20 0
B 45 -- 25
C 60 0 --

a. How many possible assignments are there? List them.

b. Calculate the total distance traveled in each of these assignments.
c. Which assignment minimizes distance traveled?

8. A highway contractor needs to locate a single supply point to provide road building
materials to four projects. The four projects, which are all approximately the same
 magnitude, are located at the following coordinates. Coordinate units are in miles.
(Marks 10)
X (East) Y (North)
Project A 50 10
Project B 15 60
Project C 40 60
Project D 30 20

a. What is the center of gravity?

b. If a single truck were sent from center-of-gravity to each project and back
(four round trips), how many miles would be traveled?

9. Identify the critical paths for the following network. Calculate the float at each
activity and report your findings (Marks 10)