Cover Story X-Ops conducts Aarohan’16�
The Dabbawalas of Mumbai ____
Current trends in Operations Management ____
Opsession
Around the World with Operations Management
November Issue This is the fourth issue from Volume three of Opsession, the monthly newsletter of X-Ops. The newsletter was introduced two years ago, by X-Ops with the intention of covering all the activities and events that took place during the span of a month.
Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar Volume#3
OPSESSION | Volume 3 | Issue 4
2
Aarohan by X-Ops X-Ops, the operations committee of Xavier Institute of Management has always assayed for better learning opportunities for students and encouraging them to tax their brains. Operations Management is a multi-faceted discipline that plays a critical role in the competitive success of virtually every business. Its primary objective is to plan, secure and optimize the necessary supply or resources a company offers, and deliver those goods or services in the most efficient way possible to meet customers’ requirements. To compete in this global marketplace, the need for continuous improvement across the entire process is constant. Exposure to and understanding the ever-evolving operational strategies to address these business challenges, is critical to survive in the global marketplace. X-Ops recently conducted its flagship case study based event ‘Aarohan 2016’ challenging the budding business minds at XIMB. Aarohan is a multi-round event that tests the analytical and problem solving skills of the participant and at the same time gives them a taste of the real-world problems in operations management. Aarohan aims at inciting the astuteness of the participants. Aarohan is an intra-college case based event for the 1st
years alone that stimulates their interest in operations management. It exposes the students to methods of analytical case based approach for problem solving. The event consists of three rounds, the first of which is an online quiz, the second round is a case study round and third round is a treasure hunt round. Aarohan prelims was conducted on October 3,2016. The event required a two-member team. The first round being an online quiz was based on questions related to operations and basic development in the field of operations as well as supply chain management. The event attracted a large number of participants, more than 150 students. There was intense competition. It boiled down to final top eight teams, who proceeded to the second round. The teams were The Think Tanks, Team GG, Gordian Knots, The Other Guys,
Necromancers, Herald, Pathfinderz, Thinktanks. The next round was a case-study round where the eight teams were given a case on operations management to solve and come up with necessary solutions and recommendations. It was exciting and brain-wrecking. The case study was based on contemporary issues and challenges pertaining to operations and supply chain management. The eight teams were judged on their analytical and problem solving skills. The teams awarded were the ones with unique and feasible solution. Finally, four teams got through to the last round of Aarohan. The last round was a treasure hunt competition. It was conducted on 11th, November. The four teams getting through were Gordian Knots, Herald, Team GG and The Other Guys. After an exciting treasure hunt contest consisting of mindblowing puzzles and tricks, the winners were announced. It was a very close fight between the Herald and Team GG and Herald won Aaarohan-2016. With yet another successful event like Aarohan 2016, X-Ops has added another feather to its cap in its endeavour to promote interest in Operations Management among the students at XIMB through exciting events.
OPSESSION | Volume 3 | Issue 4
3
Around the World with Operations Management Ola launches Ola Play The cab aggregator has started Ola Play – a connected portal for car sharing which is claimed to change the overall user experience. A first of its kind initiative in which the user will be having more car control, better personalised content and it will be a fully connected interactive experience for the user. It will be initially available only on Ola Prime in Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi. It will then be rolled out to other cities by 2017. Ola has partnered with Qualcomm to develop this hardware. Ola Play also allows various partners like Apple Music, Sony LIV, Audio Compass and Fynd to build the interface. Ola is hoping that the 60 million minutes spent by different users in a day in Ola cabs will be transformed by the Ola Play.
Demonetization Logistics
and
Indian
The passing of GST was expected to boost the logistics in India. All fleet owners and drivers were planning to expand their operations to reap the benefits. Demonetization came as a bolt from the blue for the industry. The withdrawal of 14.86 lakh crore has created a setback for the industry. Four lakh trucks are already stranded in the first week of demonetization. Business volume has come down to 40 percent and fleet utilisation has also reduced by 60 percent. Trucks take7-8 days to complete a trip and most of the expenses are paid by hard cash. So, the lack of cash has disrupted the industry. About 25-40 percent of expenses are toll charges and speed clearance charges. So, the amount of hard cash required for a trip is very high.
Similarly, the reduction in demand of essentials also came as a hard blow to the industry. It will take some to overcome the difficulties from this situation. Apple to set up distribution centre in India Good news for Apple users. Apple is setting up its distribution centre in India resulting in similarity of prices in Offline and Online sales. DB Schenker, the global logistics partner of Apple will set up the centre in India at Bhiwandi near Mumbai. Currently the Apple products are shipped in through Chennai, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chandigarh, New Delhi and Hyderabad – where value-added tax rates vary – and transferred to distributors from the airport itself. This will reduce the disparity between prices as online sellers used to buy products from low VAT markets. Apple will be able to stock its product and sell it uniformly in different markets in India.
OPSESSION | Volume 3 | Issue 4
4
The Dabbawalas of Mumbai Who doesn’t like home-made food for lunch during a hectic day at office? In a hectic city like Mumbai where all the public transports are jampacked with officegoers, it is impossible to carry your lunch with you. This is where the Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Association comes into the picture. A 126-year-old organisation, the MTBSA employs 5000 “dabbawallas” as they are popularly known to the common man. They collect tiffin boxes from homes of their customers and deliver it to their offices and then return the tiffin to their homes. A daunting task in a city well known for its crowded public transportation.
arm MTBSA was registered in 1968. They have grown over the years from to a 5000-strong team which handles more than 4,00,000 transactions every day. Organisational Structure The MTSBA has a three-tier structure with – the governing council; mukadams and dabbawallas. The governing council consist of President, Vice President, General Secretary, treasurer and nine directors.
To obtain membership certain capital investment has to be made two bicycles (approximately ₹4,000), a wooden crate for the tiffin (₹ 500), at least one white, cotton kurta-pyjama (₹600), and ₹ 20 for the trademark Gandhi topi (hat). Working of Dabbawallas
They never misplace a tiffin, are always on time and never fails. The efficiency of Dabbawallas have always been a source of awe among supply chain experts.
A dabbawalla begins his day at 9 am by collecting the tiffin from households in his sector. All households will have prepared the tiffin by that time. All dabbawallas congregate at the local railway station, where the dabbas will be sorted according to their destination and will be handed over to the dabbawalla who is responsible for the destination railway station.
Origin In 1890, Mahadeo Havaji Bachche started a lunch delivery system with 100 men. In 1956, Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust was registered for taking care of dabbawallas. Its commercial
Dabbawallas are divided into groups of 15-25 supervised by 4 mukadams. Groups coordinate among themselves for delivery of tiffin, but are financially independent. Meetings are regularly conducted where all issues related to the delivery are discussed. Every member should donate ₹15/- every month to the association. This amount is used for loans and community works.
Fig 1: Organisational Structure of MTSBA
The dabbas will be loaded into train and will be unloaded at
OPSESSION | Volume 3 | Issue 4
5
the destination, where it is again sorted based on the delivery area. The dabbawallas would be assigned a particular area. Every dabba will be handled by 4 dabbawallas by the time it reaches its destination. All dabbas will be delivered before 12:30 pm. hey follow a hub and spoke system for delivery of dabbas. During the return process, the dabbawallas return to the offices where they had delivered the dabbas and collect them. They will be taken to the local railway station where they will be sorted according to source and
will be handed over to next dabbawalla. Finally, the dabbas will be returned to respective owners. The dabbawallas know their customers well and charge a monthly fees of ₹150- ₹300 per month. A dabbawalla is paid around ₹5000-₹6000 per month.
suburb in Mumbai, 9EX12 is the code for destination in which EX means Express Towers and 12 stands for the floor number. E is the code for residential station while S is the code for the destination station.
The dabbas have certain marking on them which allows the semiliterate dabbawallas to sort and deliver the dabbas seamlessly. The codes use colour, numerals and symbols. In the markings in figure 3, the code VLP stands for Vile Parle stands for a
Fig 3: Markings on a typical Tiffin
Conclusion The growing pressure on the public transportation in Mumbai is affecting the efficiency of dabbawallas, as their process is heavily dependent on the public transport. The westernisation of growing middle class is also a potential threat for dabbawallas. Dabbawallas have been an icon of Mumbai. They have been around for more than hundred years serving the society. In the fastchanging world, can the dabbawalla retain his position?
Fig 2: The Operational Process
OPSESSION | Volume 3 | Issue 4
6
Current trends in Operations Management Starting from scientific management to division of labor, operations management has always address the requirements of the firms by inventing lots of new trends. Correspondingly, the discussion demonstrates that how operations management are plan these days and what are the current trends and issues in operations management, which influences operations management. Computer-aided Design and Manufacturing (CAD/CAM): CAD / CAM (computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing) are a term that refers to computer software which is used to both design and manufacture products. While CAD is using the of computer technology for the process of design and design documentation, CAD/CAM applications are used both for designing a product and programming manufacturing processes, specifically, machining in shop floor. This models and assemblies created by the CAD software are used by the CAM portion of the program to generate tool paths which drive the machines that turn the designs into physical parts. CAM/CAD software is most often
used for machining of prototypes and finished parts.
1 Integration— Seamless integration with Inventor and Solid Works software offers a transparent workflow and intuitive user experience. 2 Performance—Native multi-core, 64-bit CAM engine makes work easier for the most demanding tool path calculating and postprocessing jobs.
Autodesk CAM solutions HSM (Hardware Security Module) Works and Inventor HSM are next-generation integrated CAM solutions. Whether you are producing prototypes or finished parts, these products put you in control of the digital prototyping to manufacturing workflow. Autodesk CAM solutions deliver:
3 Quality—Extremely efficient tool paths reduce cycle time, and machine and tool wear, and produce the highest-quality finished parts. The Autodesk CAM solution delivers unbeatable performance and quality that puts in control of the CNC programming operations.
OPSESSION | Volume 3 | Issue 4
Opsession Monthly XIM, Bhubaneswar
7