Detailed information should form the part of your answer (Word limit 200 to 250 words).
PRODUCTION AND OPERATION MANAGEMENT.
Section A:
Multiple choices:
1. If the number of restrictions on sources be ‘a’ and the number of restrictions on destinations be ‘b’ then with the use of ‘stepping stone procedure’, the number of ‘used cells’ will be
a. a+b+1
b. a+b+2
c. a-b-1
d. a+b-1
2. Value of smoothing coefficient ‘α’ lies
a. Between 1 and ∞
b. Between 0 and 1
c. Between -1 and 1
d. Between 1 and 2
3. Forecasting error is
a. The difference between forecasted demand and actual demand
b. The ratio of forecasted demand and actual demand
c. The difference between the standard forecast demand and the evaluated forecast demand
d. Ratio of standard forecast demand and the evaluated forecast demand
4. For forecasting the analyzers plot the demand data on a time scale, study the plot and then look for the consistent patterns. Now what does the high noise mean to these patterns
a. Many of the point lie away from the pattern
b. Most of the points lie close to the pattern
c. All the points lie on the pattern
d. None
5. Payback period is
a. The length of time after which the production starts
b. The length of time after which the selling starts
c. The length of time required to recover the investment
d. The length of time for which firm bears replacement of the good.
6. Salvage value is the income from
a. Selling an asset
b. Buying an asset
c. Bargaining in selling
d. Price raised stock
7. On total factor basis ‘Productivity’ is given by x/y, where ‘y’ is
a. Labor + Capital +Materials
b. Labor + Capital + Materials + Energy
c. Capital
d. Capital + Materials
8. Economic efficiency is given by
a. Input /output
b. Input /100
c. (Output-input)/input
d. Output /input
9. This implies an effective management that ensures an organization’s long-term commitment to the continuous improvement of quality.
a. Quality management
b. Strategic management
c. Total quality management
d. Operations management
10. This techniques for improving productivity involves analyzing the operations of the product or service, estimate the value of each operation, and modifying (or) improving that operation so that the cost is lowered.
a. Value engineering
b. Time-event network
c. Work simplifications
d. Quality circles
======
Caselet 1
COMPANY BACKGROUND
The Bronson Insurance Group was originally founded in 1900 in Auxvasse, Missouri, by James Bronson. The Bronson Group owns a variety of companies that underwrite personal and commercial insurance policies. Annual sales of the Bronson Group are $100 million. In recent years, the company has suffered operating losses. In 1990, the company was heavily invested in computer hardware and software. One of the problems the Bronson Group faced (as well as many insurance companies) was a conflict between established manual procedures and the relatively recent (within the past 20 years) introduction of computer equipment. This conflict was illustrated by the fact that much information was captured on computer but paper files were still kept for practical and legal reasons.
FILE CLERKS
The file department employed 20 file clerks who pulled files from stacks, refilled used files, and delivered files to various departments including commercial lines, personal lines, and claims. Once a file clerk received the file. Clerks delivered files to underwriters on an hourly basis throughout the day. The average file clerk was paid $8,300 per year. One special file clerk was used full time to search for requested files that another file clerk had not been able to find in the expected place. It was estimated that
40 percent of the requested files were these “no hit” files requiring a search. Often these “no hit” files were eventually found stacked in the requester’s office. The primary “customers” of the file clerks were underwriters and claims attorneys.
UNDERWRITING
Company management and operations analysts were consistently told that the greatest problem in the company was the inability of file clerks to supply files in a speedy fashion. The entire company from top to bottom viewed the productivity and effectiveness of the department as unacceptable. An underwriter used 20-50 files per day. Because of their distrust of the files department, underwriters tended to hoard often used files. A count by operations analysts found that each underwriter kept from 100-200 files in his or her office at any one time. An underwriter would request a file by computer and work on other business until the file was received. Benson employed 25 underwriters.
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
Upper management was deeply concerned about this problem. The MIS department had suggested using video disks as a possible solution. A video disk system was found that would be sufficient for companies needs at a cost of about $12 million. It was estimated that the system would take two years to install and make compatible with existing information systems. Another, less attractive was using microfilm. A microfilm system would require underwriters to go to a single keyboard to request paper copies of files. The cost of a microfilm system was $5 million.
1. What do you recommend? Should the company implement one of the new technologies? Why or why not?
2. An operations analyst suggested that company employees shared a “dump on the clerks” mentality. Explain.
======
Caselet 2
Harrison T. Wenk III is 43, married, and has two children, ages 10 and 14. He has a master’s degree in education and teachers junior high school music in a small town in Ohio. Harrison’s father passed away two months ago, leaving his only child an unusual business opportunity. According to his father’s will, Harrison has 12 months to become active in the family food-catering business, Kare- Full Katering, Inc., or it will be sold to two key employees for a reasonable and fair price. If Harrison becomes involved, the two employees have the option to purchase a significant, but less than majority, interest in the firm. Harrison’s only involvement with this business, which his grandfather established, was as an hourly employee during high school and college summers. He is
confident that he could learn and perhaps enjoy the marketing side of the business, and that he could retain the long-time head of accounting/finance. But he would never really enjoy day-to- day operations. In fact, he doesn’t understand what operations management really involves. In 1991 Kare-Full Katering, Inc. had $3.75 million in sales in central Ohio. Net profit after taxes was $ 105,000, the eleventh consecutive year of profitable operations and the seventeenth in the last 20 years. There are 210 employees in this labor-intense business. Institutional contracts account for over 70 percent of sales and include partial food services for three colleges, six commercial establishments) primarily manufacturing plants and banks), two long -term care facilities, and five
grade schools. Some customer location employs a permanent operations manager; others are served from the main kitchens of Kare-Full Katering. Harrison believes that if he becomes active in the business, one of the two key employees, the vice president of operations, will leave the firm.Harrison has decided to complete the final two months of this school year and then spend the summer around Kare-Full Katering – as well as institutions with their own food services – to assess whether he wants to become involved in the business. He is particularly interested in finding out as much as possible about operations. Harrison believes he owes it to his wife and children to fairly
evaluate this opportunity.
1. Prepare a worksheet of operations activities that Harrison should inquire about this summer.
2. If you were Harrison, what would you do? Why?.
Business Communication
Section A: Objective Type
Multiple choices:
1. ______is an essential function of Business Organizations:
a. Information
b. Communication
c. Power
d. None of the above
2. Physiological Barriers of listening are:
a. Hearing impairment
b. Physical conditions
c. Prejudices
d. All of the above
3. Which presentation tend to make you speak more quickly than usual:
a. Electronic
b. Oral
c. Both ‘a’ and ‘b’
d. None of the above
4. What is the main function of Business Communication:
a. Sincerity
b. Positive language
c. Persuasion
d. Ethical standard
5. The responsibilities of the office manager in a firm that produces electronics spares is:
a. Everything in the office runs efficiently
b. Furniture and other equipment in the office is adequate
c. Processing all the incoming official mail and responding to some
d. All of the above
6. Labov’s Storytelling Model based on:
a. Communication through speech
b. Language learning
c. Group Discussions
d. None of the above
7. Diagonal Communication is basically the:
a. Communication across boundaries
b. Communication between the CEO and the managers
c. Communication through body language
d. Communication within a department
8. How to make Oral Communication Effective?
a. By Clarity
b. By Brevity
c. By Right words
d. All of the above
9. Direct Eye contact of more than 10 seconds can create:
a. Discomfort & Anxiety
b. Emotional relationship between listeners and speakers
c. Excitement
d. None of the above
10. Encoding means:
a. Transmission
b. Perception
c. Ideation
d. None of the above
======
Case let 1
Mr. and Mrs. Sharma went to Woodlands Apparel to buy a shirt. Mr. Sharma did not read the price tag on the piece selected by him. At the counter, while making the payment he asked for the price. Rs. 950 was the answer. Meanwhile, Mrs. Sharma, who was still shopping came back and joined her husband. She was glad that he had selected a nice black shirt for himself. She pointed out that there was a 25% discount on that item.
The counter person nodded in agreement. Mr. Sharma was thrilled to hear that “It means the price of this shirt is just Rs. 712. That’s fantastic”, said Mr. Sharma.
He decided to buy one more shirt in blue color. In no time, he returned with the second shirt and asked them to be packed. When he received the cash memo for payment, he was astonished to find that he had to pay Rs. 1,900 and Rs. 1,424. Mr. Sharma could hardly reconcile himself to the fact that the counter person had quoted the discounted
price which was Rs. 950. The original price printed on the price tag was Rs. 1,266.
Questions
1. What should Mr. Sharma have done to avoid the misunderstanding?
2. Discuss the main features involved in this case.
======
Case let 2
I don’t want to speak to you. Connect me to your boss in the US,” hissed the American on the phone. The young girl at a Bangalore call centre tried to be as polite as she could. At another call centre, another day, another young girl had a Londoner unleashing himself on her, “Young lady, do you know that because of you Indians we are losing jobs?” The outsourcing backlash is getting ugly. Handling irate callers is the new brief for the young men and women taking calls at these outsourced job centers. Supervisors tell them to be ‘cool’. Avinash Vashistha, managing partner of NEOIT, a leading US-based consultancy firm says, “Companies involved in outsourcing both in the US and India are already getting a lot of hate mail against outsourcing and it is hardly surprising that some people should behave like this on the telephone.” Vashistha says Indian call centres should train their operators how to handle such calls.
Indeed, the furor raised by the Western media over job losses because of outsourcing has made ordinary citizens there sensitive to the fact that their calls are being taken not from their midst, but in countries such as India and the Philippines.
The angry outbursts the operators face border on the racist and sexist, says the manager of a call centre in Hyderabad. But operators and senior executives of call centres refuse to go on record for fear of kicking up a controversy that might result in their companies’ losing clients overseas. “It’s happening often enough and so let’s face it,” says a senior executive of a Gurgaon call centre, adding, “This doesn’t have any impact on business.”
Questions
1. Suppose you are working as an operator in a call centre in India and receiving calls from Americans and Londoners. How would you handle such calls?
2. Do you agree with the view such abusive happenings on the telephone do not have any impact on business?
Indian Foreign Trade
Section A: Objective Type
Part One:
1. Which of the following is NOT an initiative for attracting a higher Quantum of FDI?
a. Further Liberalization of Foreign Trade Policy
b. Rationalisation of Labour Policy
c. Development of Infrastructure
d. Increase in Joint ventures
2. ECB stands for ______
3. The textile and garment exports have been affected due to ______
4. _____ is a popular export inductive scheme.
5. To overcome many of the problems associated with the advance licensing system this scheme was introduced