Course Completion Tracker
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Course Promo
Every organization makes products that might be tangible goods, such as cars and computers, or offer intangible services such as education and insurance. At the heart of the organization is the set of operations that makes these products. Operations management considers the way in which these central operations are designed, planned, organized and controlled. |
Slides, Sheets & Other Shenanigans...
Watch this space for session slide, excel worksheets and useful articles.
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Wraps & Scribbles
Session 1: Por Nairobi! The introductory session of the OM course started off with a round of introductions where I got to meet a bunch of very interesting people with varied profiles and interests. Looking forward to work with you through the course and try and make it a productive learning experience. Through some fab pop culture examples we understood the role played by an Operations Manager in matching supply with demand. The session featured Nairobi (of Money Heist Fame) and Gustavo Gaveria (Pablo Escobar's right hand man). Here are some interesting follow up links connecting the pop culture references to om concepts. Nairobi: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3-supply-chain-lessons-from-tv-serie-money-heist-la-de-chaves-m-sc-/ Pablo and Gaviria Rivero: https://www.wsj.com/ad/cocainenomic Session 2: Inputs, Outputs and what comes in-between!
During the second session of the course, we sought a better understanding of what operations management entails. We looked at the input output perspective along with productivity measurement and systems perspective of OM along with the various elements of what the Ops function entails. We also looked at how the Ops function interacts with other functions of an organisation. Click here for a relevant article on how The Beer Cafe measures its productivity. Can you spot the measure? Let me know if you do! Session 3 & 4: Children, Hunger and an inexhaustible vessel!
During the second week of the course, we looked at the case of The Akshayapatra foundation and understood how the details of their operations strategy. In a very interesting and engaging discussion, we unpacked the key strategic operational choices made by the organization. We saw how each of these choices are guided by the overarching Vision of TAPF of making sure no child is deprived of education for lack of food. While also saw how sometimes initiatives/activities that may not be directly related to the Vision may also be taken up by the organization as in the case of covid-19 relief measures by TAPF. We finally also discussed about the triple bottom line approach and how companies have moved away from blind pursuit of economic prosperity. The competitive dimensions of operations strategy were also discussed. Session 5 & 6: Hernias, focus and flexibility
The third week is when the plot thickened a bit more.
Shouldice Hospital is a case that has been discussed in many a B-school classrooms. Several wannabe and would be CXOs recommended expansion. But shouldice hospital remains still in time, dedicated to the alter of Strategic Capacity Management. We discussed the various concepts within capacity management which included focus and flexibility and the issues there-in. We discussed capacity expansion and how various factors could impact the frequency and magnitude of capacity expansion. Here are links two classic articles relating to focus and flexibility as thought processes. Do go through if you wish to have if you are in the mood for a thorough academic indulgence. |
Session 7: Decisions grow on trees
During this session, we looked at how risk neutral capacity decisions could be made using a simple mathematical tool called Decision trees. This will help make decisions under known uncertainty. Further, we also saw how capacity requirement planning is done in the context of manufacturing as well as services. Session 8: The 2 Vs that cannot go together
In our first session discussing manufacturing processes, we discussed the key tradeoff between volume and variety of a business and how that goes on to impact the operational choices including technology, layout etc of the business. We also discussed the role played by decoupling point in determining operations design of a company. Session 9 & 10: Balance and spend
In these sessions, we looked at how the volume, variety and nature of the product determine the selection of the facility layout. The various types of facility layouts and decision making to be done within each layout. We also discussed an example of how a company could transition from an assembly line to a workcenter to improve its productivity. Session 11 & 12: Queue aisa kiya?
In this session, we understood the fundamentals of process analysis. We saw how it all starts with charting a process flow using simple shapes. Further, depending upon whether the process is a manufacturing process or a service process, and depending upon the nature of uncertainty in the process. a wide range of managerial challenges emerge. In the context of services, we looked at the service system design matrix that is useful in understand the nature of uncertainties that a service process experiences. We also covered the fundamental ideas of queuing theory and worked on some simple problems. Session 14: Building further Queues
In this session, we examined four models of queuing theory that span a majority of application contexts. The models are closely related to each other and we explored the comparisons between them as well. The canvas used during the session has been uploaded instead of slides. Session 14 & 17: If you are too busy, you might be the bottleneck! And that's not necessarily a bad thing!
Processes are the fundamental units of any Operations system and understanding of how to evaluate process performance is essential for a good operations manager. During this session, using the classical kristen cookies case, we understood what a bottleneck exactly is! Through our discussion we progressively refinement the definition of the bottleneck and arrived at the conclusion mentioned in the title! Session 15 & 16: Inventory Marathon
Session 18 & 19: Taking stock and clearing queues!
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Session 20: And that's a RAP!
During the last session of the course, we looked at Executive Shirts Company and how decisions around batch sizes, buffer sizes, labor allocation, technology choice etc will go on to impact the capacity and thereby the profitability of an operation.
We rekindled our memories of the entire course journey and ended it all with a wrap....I mean a RAP! |
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