Course: Operations Management     SAMKRIYA 2022

‘SAMKRIYA’ is a Practice Exhibit event to practically understand and appreciate various concepts of Operations Management through application/demonstrations in simulated/specific business contexts. Each student team will practically apply and demonstrate relevant theories/practices/concepts/principles of OM along with its broad and specific application in the form of Exhibit. Each team should choose a business context (manufacturing/service/mining/etc.,) such as shared mobility business 2w/4w, Food Delivery company, etc., and design the relevant product/service, etc., keeping the target customers in view; identify critical success factors (CSFs) and key focus areas; identify critical operational functions; identify linkages with other management functions; understand operational issues & challenges involved; identify relevant operational performance metrics; design suitable processes, facilities, layouts and capacities, identify facility locations, develop operations systems for cost/quality/speed/flexibility/sustainability, etc., whichever are relevant to the chosen context.

What the Exhibit should have?

1. Representative/Scale Model of the business & operations (using relevant material like Lego bricks, etc.,)
2. Demonstration of the applied theories, practices, concepts, principles, frameworks, etc. through working/representative models, 
3. Real-life Cases, examples
4. Info-graphics & Displays 

Each exhibit may broadly comprise at least any two of the below:

1. Demonstrating model
2. Acts/shows
3. Videos (originally developed by the team)
4. Simulated Activity
5. Acts/Shows
6. Role Plays
7. Story Telling
8. Metaphors

Evaluation Method & Criteria:

RUBRICS: Each student is evaluated separately by a group of faculty and industry experts on the following criteria:

1. Understanding of the theories, practices, concepts, principles, frameworks, etc.
2. Ability to demonstrate through better articulation and expression
3. Ability to apply and relate the theories, practices, concepts, principles, frameworks, etc. in a real-world situation
4. Attractiveness of the Exhibit and interest and learning value it offers.
5. Participation and contribution to the exhibit by the student

INVENTORY BASICS SIMULATION

Course: Operations Management

Each student in the OM course should Register for the online simulation. The player will be responsible for managing stock at a small, franchised hardware store. The simulation includes 3 scenarios for 3 items stocked in the store: wrenches, environmentally friendly paint, and rock salt.  Play 1 scenario at a time over 12 simulated weeks. Each product has a different demand pattern, and you must decide how many units to order to meet the anticipated weekly demand. Develop an intuitive strategy for balancing holding costs against ordering costs while avoiding stock out. They can play the simulation for each product and submit their assignment (as prescribed) before the deadline after analysing the results along with key learnings. Each one should prepare a write-up on their analysis and learnings from the simulation and submit the same.

VALUE CHAIN SIMULATION

Course: Advanced Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Students: MBA (PGP II)

Ideally, participants can gain knowledge and tactical skills to manage different scenarios of complexity and supply chain environments through practical experience. Such value chain experience requires learning by doing that puts participants at the heart of a lifelike simulation so they can practically understand the impact of every decision they make, not just in their own ‘silo’ but across the business. 

Students were introduced to a 6-week Business Simulation game, the Fresh Connection (TFC) to experience the design of an efficient supply network, and supply chain strategies & planning to turn around a loss-making business, respectively in 6 rounds. In this multi-level online Business Simulation game, participants get to run their own virtual company called The Fresh Connection, a manufacturer of fruit juices. Faced with declining performance, the management team must get the company back on track as quickly as possible. It is a high-pressure environment in which effective value chain management is the key. This simulation comprises Basic Levels, Thematic Extensions and Variants as briefed below:

Basic Levels: The Fresh Connection “basic” levels are deeply focused on Supply Chain Management, including topics like safety stocks, trade units, payment terms, supplier selection, production, purchasing and more.

Thematic Extensions: The simulation module also comprises thematic extensions: Sales & Operations planning, external collaboration, CO₂ footprint/sustainability, or KPIs.

Variants: Taking to the next level, the simulation offers specialized variants: Constrained Capacity, Strategy Segmentation, or Logistics Footprint.

Students (in small teams) can apply knowledge and tactical skills to gain value chain experience for designing effective sourcing/purchase, network/logistics capacities, and supply chain/inventory strategies [for efficient Sales and Operation Planning] at different levels of complexity and environments while managing cross-functional trade-offs and risks in a coordinated way across roles — to turnaround a loss-making fresh-juice company within 6 rounds. In teams of 4, participants will represent the functional roles of VP Purchasing, VP Operations, VP Supply Chain, and VP Sales. Every decision a participant makes has trade-offs, both within and across roles.  The complexity of the learning experience is customized with our various thematic extensions. Through team experience, participants measure their performance and receive constant feedback from the certified trainer leading the business game. Between rounds, participants reflect on their decisions and the outcome. They are introduced to new concepts and then go back to put what they have learned into practice in the next round.

d) WORKSHEET EXERCISES

Course: Advanced Logistics and Supply Chain Management

Interactive worksheet-based exercises were used to demonstrate and develop models for effective demand planning, multi-echelon inventory management, and supply chain coordination in different cases & contexts.

e) WHATSAPP CASE ANALYSIS & DISCUSSION

Course(s): Supply Chain Management, Operations Strategy

Students will be engaged beyond the classroom to stimulate thought and solve complex business problems by encouraging them to analyse and discuss various case studies in the course.

f) LIVE CASE ANALYSIS

Course: Operations Strategy

Live cases such as, “Air India Operations Under Tata Group: What is its Turnaround Path to Glory?”, “Why there are no Tesla cars in India yet?”, “L’Oréal – Embracing Operations Strategy 4.0”, etc., which reflect real-life situations are analysed and discussed.

g) SMALL TEAM EXERCISE(S)

Course: Operations Management

For Example – HDBFS CPC Process Management Challenge – Post-session, each student team has to perform 3 tasks viz., Analyse various operational issues and challenges of HDBFS Hyderabad CPC process and discuss their implications;

Design process reengineering and improvement measures applying concepts like Business Process Reengineering, Value Stream Mapping, Debottlenecking, etc., to strengthen post loan disbursement and welcome kit delivery processes so that missing loan applications and undelivered kit reduces to minimum, comply with regulations, and offer better experience to the customers.

Based on case deliberations, teams have to document their analysis and solutions either in PPT or Document format.  Teams have to record their video of case analysis and solving, and later upload both the video and PPT/document as group assignments before the due date.

Dr Mafruza Sultana

Dr Mafruza has introduced Macroeconomics Simulations as a teaching pedagogy in my Macroeconomics Environment for Business course. Students are exposed to real-world situations through the simulations. I think it provides a different flavour of learning in an engaging way which can help them to build decision-making power.