1.
In spite of all care and diligence manufacturing processes it is well known that the product
being manufactured will never meet the exact specifications. Any product manufactured that
does not meet the exact specifications would ideally be deemed to be unacceptable. Given
this dilemma how to administer quality of the process? How to determine if the
manufacturing process is functioning properly?
2. Based on the suggestions you make in the question 1, if the process is found to be
unacceptable what are remedial steps to be taken? What is the rationale for choosing these
remedial steps?
3. Project management techniques have been used successfully for a wide variety of tasks –
including space missions, huge construction projects, implementation of ERP projects, etc.
Why not use them for managing the operations function of any business?
4. McDonald’s, Appollo Hospitals are both into service business. What kind of facilities layout
would you recommend in each case? Justify your answer.
5. How to decide the right value of smoothing constant in a forecasting technique?
6. How to decide whether to go for two-sigma or three-sigma limits in quality control?
7. How to determine the order point in inventory control. What are the management factors
that determine the appropriate order point?
8. How do you compare the operations management activities that would typically be carried
out in a vehicle manufacturing companies such as Ferrari and Tata Motors? Highlight the
similarities and differences.
9. A company produces vehicles. It has five plants that manufacture the vehicle and four regional
distribution centers. The company is unsure of public demand for its products, so it is
considering reducing its fixed operating costs by closing one or more plants, even though it
would incur an increase in transportation costs. The relevant costs for the problem are
provided in the following table. The transportation costs are per thousand vehicles shipped;
for example, the cost of shipping 1,000 vehicles from plant 1 to warehouse C is $32,000.
Transportation
Costs ($1,000s) to Warehouse
Annual
Annual
from Fixed
A B C D Production
plant Operation
Capacity
Costs
1 56 21 32 65 12,000 2,100,000
2 18 46 7 35 18,000 850,000
3 12 71 41 52 14,000 1,800,000
4 30 24 61 28 10,000 1,100,000
5 45 50 26 31 16,000 900,000
annual
6,000 14,000 8,000 10,000
demand
Formulate a model for this problem and solve it to assist the company in determining which
plants should remain open and which should be closed and the number of vehicles that should
be shipped from each plant to each warehouse to minimize total cost.
10. A production company does annual maintenance in a particular week starting from Monday
to Friday. Majority of employees want to go on vacation during this week. The projected
number of people required to work in the 2 shifts for the 5 days are given in the table below.
The operators work only for 4 days in the week and the company decides to have them work
for only 3 consecutive days out of the 4 days. How the available workers should be allotted so
that the maximum number of people can go on leave on all the days of the week.
AM PM
Monday 10 8
Tuesday 8 9
Wednesday 7 9
Thursday 8 5
Friday 12 10
