OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT : ASSIGNMENTS

Chandralok is a canteen facility catering to all the students studying at the various institutions of the MIT Group. Students of the OM course are required to spend some time observing the operations of Chandralok , first hand , to enable them do the following 3 assignments, during the second term.

Assignment No. 1 :
Study the Facility Layout of the canteen , from an operations management angle and answer the following. 1) Your comments on the existing layout. 2) Can the operations be improved with a change in the layout? How? 3) What are the constraints you find in implementing your suggestions for a layout change? Are they real? Are they surmountable?

Assignment No. 2 :
Study the segments catered to by Chandralok Canteen. Study the arrival pattern and the arrival rates of customers. Make a document of at least a days record, and answer the following. 1) How long does it take, on an average, to serve a customer? What factors does it depend on? 2) What will the average waiting time at the different slots / eating times? 3) What is the expected length of the queue? Any suggestions for reducing this?

Assignment No.3:
You are trying to introduce a special item, say Samosa, in the canteen s menu. You know that it can be stored for sale only for about 8 hours from the time of making. Thus whatever not sold by evening is wasted. Observe the actual happenings over a few days (this activity can be shared between the students) and answer the following: 1) Which method will you use for estimating the demand for Samosas and for knowing the variance in the demand over days? Justify your choice. Record your findings. 2) Assuming that it costs you Rs. 6 /- each to make the Samosas and you are able to sell it for Rs. 10 /- each, how many will you make in a daily batch to maximize your profits? 3) Can you manage the demand for Samosas? How ?