Lakshya - A Beacon Of Knowledge, February 2021

Lakshya is an initiative by Club Kaizen which is our monthly supplement designed for people who dare to think above the average and believe in connecting the dots. In an age where technology has taken over every sphere, information is abundant and data is omnipresent, we have conspired to bring to you a collection of thoughtfully created and carefully curated pieces of work by some bright aspiring minds of ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad on the current trends and hot topics in the field of Operations Management and their relevance in different Industries.

Everything is growing at the pace of nanosecond and hence it is quintessential to know about every minute change in the eco system. With Lakshya we aim to present our readers with compact yet explicit articles on vivid topics such as Internet, Banking, IT, IoT, etc. A fair share of this edition focuses majorly on the banking systems and payment gateways. With the constantly evolving technology it will be interesting to ponder over changes that could be seen in the near future.

We look forward to providing the students with some valuable insights and inculcate the passion for reading once again within our readers.

Lakshya is an amazing platform for readers as well as aspiring readers to showcase their talent and pen down their thoughts which in turn will be a gold mine for information for the students of not only IBS but from the outside world too.

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

1

OUR KNOWLEDGE PARTNER

Club Kaizen is privileged to have The International Supply Chain Education Alliance (ISCEA, USA) as the Knowledge Partner from Lakshya’s 24th edition.

To be a single source for Total Supply Chain Knowledge through Education, Certification, and Recognition is the mission of ISCEA. Many workshops/events are conducted by ISCEA to improve the knowledge of manufacturing and service industry professionals.

ISCEA provides a platform to explore leadership potential to the aspiring leaders in the supply chain industry while developing the skill sets and knowledge desired by corporations, through SCNext (ISCEA Young Supply Chain Professional Association).

Some of the internationally recognized certification programs developed by ISCEA include1. Certified Supply Chain Analyst (CSCA).

2. Certified Demand Driven Planner (CDDP).

3. Supply Chain Case Competition.

To know more about ISCEA, visit http://www.iscea.net/india.

We look forward to working with ISCEA in spreading knowledge and reaching greater heights together.

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

2

EDITOR’S LETTER “Today a reader, tomorrow a leader” Colleges are the best part of our life and magazine is its powerful tool and an integral part of the overall infrastructure and the vision of the college. Magazine becomes a platform for all the students and faculty to express their literary and artistic talents. It also ignites young minds.

I feel extremely honoured by my association with the 24th edition of "LAKSHYA" Club Kaizen’s monthly supplement designed for people who dare to think above the average and believe in connecting the dots. As the editor, it has been a combination of fun, work, meeting, discussions, surfing, browsing, typing and so much more!

I congratulate the entire editorial board for their excellent team work and unflagging efforts for successfully compiling the magazine. This wonderful edition would not be possible without the support of the team. Hard work and dedication of many people have gone in its making. I was very thrilled to receive informational articles from you all showcasing your writing skills and brilliant creativity.

I hope you enjoy reading as much as we enjoyed framing it and have a delightful experience as you flip through every page of this issue. Please let us know if there are any subjects you'd look forward to being addressed in upcoming editions. Please write to us and become a part of this discussion.

Email ID: kaizenclub.ibs@gmail.com Happy Reading!

GARIMA SONI JOINT SECRETARY INTERNAL AFFAIRS & ADMIN Kaizen – IBS Hyderabad Batch 2020-22

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

3

CONTENTS

S. NO.

TITLE

1

From the Mentor’s Desk

PAGE NO. 5

2

Supply Chain – A post-COVID19 Perspective

6

3

Importance of Business Operations Management

8

4

Personal swot analysis

11

5

Impact of COVID on Operations Management

14

6

Role of Artificial Intelligence in Marketing

17

7

Impact of COVID-19 on Construction Industry

19

8

Online Classes: A step forward or backward?

22

9

2020 with a PLUS 1

24

10

Gig economy: virtual is new real

27

11

Application of Internet of Things in Supply Chain Management of Amazon

30

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

4

From the Mentor’s Desk In the era of competition, it is imperative for students to be prepared for the ever-changing business environment.

Knowledge creation plays an important role to learn to tackle the dynamic nature of business.

I appreciate and congratulate the initiative of club KAIZEN for bridging the gap between corporate world and academia through LAKSHYA which is an excellent platform where industry practitioners, academicians and researchers can share their knowledge and experience, acting as a beacon guiding students to reach their goal.

My best wishes to club KAIZEN in their endeavour of knowledge creation through LAKSHYA.

Nishit Kumar Srivastava Mentor, Club Kaizen

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

5

Faculties Insight

Sivakumar P M Guest Professor - Soft Skills Department IBS Hyderabad

Supply Chain – A Post-COVID19 Perspective

"The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted us to use every tool at our disposal to address the challenges and opportunities before us." - Sanjay Gupta, Google India "In the new normal, strong on-ground last-mile assignments and supply-chain support emerged as the backbone of many businesses." - Annanya Sarthak, Align We all are grappling to come to terms on how to deal with different scenarios post-CoVid-19. Due to CoVid-19, people are not visiting restaurants, malls, markets, cinemas, and other social gatherings.

0 0 0 0

supply chains rather than going in with the Chinese anymore.

As Huileng Tan (@huileng_tan) writes, “Global supply chains are set for a major reshuffle as the coronavirus pandemic exposes the vulnerability of countries and companies that rely heavily on a limited number of trading partners.”

Covid–19 induced lockdowns which have put the spotlight on the dependencies of economies and supply chain disruptions.

The past decade has shown that the Supply Chains have become more globalized, specialized with less risk but prone to a major breakdown.

On the work front, remote working has become the mainstream norm. The CoVid-19 has shown us that the improvisations which are done just in time seem to be the new normal.

There is an immediate need to assess the risk inherent in the current supply chain structures.

Global Supply chains are undergoing a major reshuffle with more focus on nearshoring the

Companies facing Supply chain disruption are calculating the risk against the economic

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

6

efficiency. For an effective supply chain, we need to have a proper mix of critical elements.

Companies are evaluating their supply chains, disruption risk assessments, reach the root of their primary vendors, or even further down. This unprecedented uncertainty has led to various aspects of technology coming together to keep the supply chain going on.

Various manufacturers have started or improved their use of technology to reach their customers/consumers while some of them had to alter their strategies.

Businesses and brands have started internal reassessments of their supply chains to maintain their customer connect plans and to manage operations. Online ordering is already playing a huge and critical role in boosting up the economy.

As we know already, this is a great shift in customer behavior. Online ordering has reached its zenith in this pandemic as it would be a safer option during a time when social distancing has become the norm.

Major Big Brands are already online, and they can move their business without any hitch.

But small Brands, which were reliant on footfalls and physical sales need to change themselves for maintaining their customer database and sales.

They have moved their business to an online mode of sales so that their customers continue to buy.

They are now delivering from stores-to-end customers with a speed of faster than traditionally accepted e-commerce practices of less than 24 hours to a few hours.

The customer has now omnichannel options for buying which will lead to a significant increase in warehousing needs for the brands. This will entail them to adapt a hyper local delivery model for critical supplies of essential goods across the country.

The outbreak will continue to create difficult situations for businesses all over the world. But this will also provide the opportunity for the companies to strengthen their core competencies, assess supply chain requirements and form partnerships with other experts for all-around optimum benefits. Safety and processes to drive compliances will also be of paramount importance.

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

7

Corporate Angle

Ms. Vidushi Gupta Content Writer, Aadox

Importance Of Business Operations Management What does Business Management mean?

Operations

Business operations are the activities that the businesses engage themselves in, regularly to earn more profit and increase their enterprise at the same time. Many activities take place under the name of Business Operations Management; which is conducted by the employees.

The general activities involve manufacturing, accounting and, marketing. The heads of each of these departments are accountable to the CEO (Chief Executive Officer), or the President of the company. They all together are responsible for managing the customers, understanding their needs, managing flow of information, assets and; the cash flow along with the capital investments of the company.

Operations management is the core function performed by any company. It involves managing all the resources required by the company for the production of its goods or services. That is why no matter what the size of the company may be, it is

important to all of them uniformly. Be it a product-based or service-based company, or be it a company working for profit or a non-profitable business, it always holds.

Business Operations Management in different industries The requirements of all different types of companies can never be alike. Thus, a company must have its Business Operations Management functioning according to the requirements of the company and, its clients. A brief analysis of the functioning of several types of companies is discussed here.

Manufacturing Industry Under the manufacturing industry, the companies are focused on transmuting their raw materials into the physical ones, which are further sold, to their customers. The efficiency of such companies depends on raw products majorly. If they have the right and good quality raw material, they will be able to earn more profit, but if not, they must try

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

8

and find the sincere suppliers and then converge on their shipping logistics as well.

1. Service Industry

Why is Business Management important?

Operations

1. Quality Product

The service-based companies have two sides to their businesses, the front-end or the client-side and, the back-end or the server-side. The front-end is the side which has to take care of the customer’s needs to provide them with the satisfactory services and in return, have their feedback to improve their services in future. Whereas, the back-end or the server-side holds responsible for employing the right ones for each department. It will save them a lot of, capital and not exceed the accounts.

2.

2. Technology Industry The key to the successful and smooth running of a technology company is to keep a check on the hiring process of the company. It means that hiring or employing the right people is foremost for them.

Also, after hiring the candidates, they should put3. the training process in place. They can do this by involving the senior staff of the company to train the junior ones and; help them in refining their skills. Using external tools like applications, systems, or websites and, collaborating with them can also, contribute to increasing their efficiency.

4. Retail Industry The goals of the retail industries or companies are towards meeting the requirements of their clients or customers. They have to keep a check on their stocks of the products; that is in high demand at a price, which customers are ready to pay willingly.

They need to have an efficient inventory; so that they do not end up with a lot of dead stocks (the products that are in stock but not in high demand).

The first thing that matters to any person as a client or customer is the; product quality. For any company, the product quality matters, the most. A product to be of high quality should be reliable and durable at the same time. Business Operations Management ensures the quality of the goods for the customers after delivery. Having a quality product provides an edge over the competitors of the company.

Input-Output Ratio or Productivity The productivity of any company is the ratio of its input to the output. Business Operations Management makes sure that productivity stays in place. It also ensures that the employees give their proper, yield and thus, provide maximum results.

Customer Satisfaction The customer satisfaction is the key for any company. Both the employees and, the heads of the companies find their utmost relief and, satisfaction with their customers. Treating the customers in the right way is always beneficial for all industries, no matter what.

Reduction in Operating Cost With proper customer satisfaction, product quality and productivity, the cost required for any operation automatically gets reduced; which leads to an increase in the revenue of the company in return. A proper operations management system also provides the exact data regarding the number

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

9

of products required and, thus, the right amount of products are produced.

All this sums up that, Business Operations Management is the most vital function for any industry or company. Proper operations management in a firm increases customer

satisfaction with the increase in productivity.

When making the management plans, it depends on the type of company and its goals. Taking all of it into consideration, companies can set their goals for the Business Operations Management Systems.

About the Author: Ms. Vidushi Gupta Vidushi Gupta is a Content Writer at Aadox with a working experience of 1 year in the industry.

She also works as a freelance content writer at times.

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

10

The Corporate Angle

Ms Aditi Patil IT Retail Service Desk Agent at Circle K, Dublin, Ireland

Personal Swot Analysis Things around me were moving at such a pace that I had to pause and introspect what I am doing, how can I fit in this competitive world.

So I looked into the mirror getting self-aware of who I am. Initially, I got nervous knowing my flaws but there is a comfort in knowing ourselves.

It made me realise where I am vulnerable or what are my strengths.

Researchers say that people who are self-aware are more fulfilled, they are more likely to succeed using their skills to the full extent. So I came across a technique called SWOT analysis to help me know myself better.

Why personal SWOT Analysis?

It is about Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

It is a systematic way of looking at your life where you can align your actions and your goals to who you are and to do what you are good at, as well as

mitigating your weaknesses that might be in your life.

Once you are aware of yourself your mind becomes more sorted.

A SWOT analysis can help to understand how to perform well with your strengths and pull off your weaknesses, discover any opportunities in career and get rid of any threats that will hold you back from proceeding ahead.

Using the SWOT paradigm, you will stand out from the rest of the crowd (peers or colleagues) around you and improve your skills to excel in career and to reach desired goals. To execute a SWOT analysis, we divide each quality into four quadrants and then using all the self-introspection we start writing out our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

11

strengths were being unique, creative and analytical.

Weakness This is the quadrant I really do not enjoy talking about, I mean who is bold enough to confront themselves about his or her weakness? It is not really about confronting yourself of your vulnerability but about knowing your timid zones and overcoming it. It is one of the most beneficial sections in SWOT analysis. There is a trick while listing your weakness: be brutally honest.

Strengths Strengths and weakness can be perceived as internal factors of you although you do need to take into consideration the context and the peers that you are working with, opportunities and threats are largely external factors.

List all the strengths you have and don’t be modest while listing it. Strengths can include your education achievements, skills, any certifications, any activity you are really good at, things that set you apart from your peers. Think of all the achievements in any projects or campaigns and personal skills. You should be really flashy while listing your strengths.

I was studying for my masters in data analytics, we had a subject called data storage. We all were asked to do a presentation on a given data set. I wasn't sure that I’m going to pull that off because the application which we used at college was challenging and I was not really comfortable using it. But I knew my strength, there was another application that delivers the same output and I was very fluent in using it. So at the time of presentation, I presented my overall work and the professor was quite happy with the results.• Presenting a project in a creative way made me stand apart from the rest of my peers. So, here my•

• I procrastinate on any assigned work if the deadline is late.

• I over analyse things instead of looking for a solution.

• I do not plan my tasks, I miss to prioritize each task and end up not completing them.

• I get really nervous while presenting any report in front of the class.

The idea of listing the weakness here is selfimprovement, for every weak point, we can think of another way to get over it. No one is perfect, you don’t have to be good at everything. So listing as many weaknesses show how self-aware you are.

Opportunities This section is entirely based on external influences. Opportunities are the external factors that you can take advantage of to pursue your goals and dreams be it at your work or be it in your life.

Look around you how the world is developing, is there any new demand for a trait you possess?

Are there any existing opportunities at your work or in your career?

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

12

• • •

Is there any vacancy for a new job or internship that you'd be perfect for?

Look at your strengths and ask yourself if they• open up any opportunities.

Look at your weaknesses and ask yourself if you could open up opportunities by eliminating those weaknesses.

Threats Finally, you need to look for external obstacles that are holding you back. Anything that is standing between you and your goals.

• • •

Are any of your mates trying to hold you back?

How can you constructively deal with it?

Someone at work who is more vocal is trying to overshadow you, what can you do about it?

The pace at which technology is moving forward, and because of lack of knowledge or

training, are you trailing behind? Is there any way out?

This pandemic has resulted in the downfall of many industries, many firms laid off the staff and the company I am working for has laid off almost 8 people.

Once you have the matrix filled with data, we will analyse the information and build a strategy.

Personal SWOT is an amazing way to prioritize and list your development. Whether you are trying to look for a new job, excel at an existing job a personal SWOT analysis can help one achieve desired goals. This method acted as a mirror for self-assessment which helped me to assess my career. This creative approach gave me great insight into my life.

About the Author: Ms Aditi Patil - MSc Data Analytics Works as IT Retail Service Desk Agent at Circle K. She is also an active member of Dublin Women Techmaker and has been certified in various courses related to Data Storage, Visualisation and Analysis.

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

13

Corporate Angle Ms. Pooja Prasad Program Management Junior Executive at Flex, Pune, India

Impact Of COVID On Operations Management Daily we see how operations work but it is amalgamation of people ,process & project wherein many terms are involved which integrates steps taken to reach the one goal one mission one vision resulting in productive outcomes thereby resolving daily problems faced in operations by adopting technology using intellect and bringing the ideas into reality in the form of Kaizen.

But due to COVID situation and its sudden arrival in our life has impacted many phases of life and work. We cannot overlook the black side of operations that has impacted due to COVID pandemics .It is really not easy to keep the same smooth flow or work still people have done it by struggling in their field in spite of COVID hitting various aspects of operations like manufacturing and design.

For an employee the problem faced are varied and has many angles to pay attention. Again in it depend on resource available and backup as we have Business Continuity Process that kept employee ready for pandemic situation.

As an employee along with work it is necessary to take time-off from frustration but it was necessary to first settle ourselves with this situation that results in daily follow up and managing the in and out in operation in order to maintain the flow and then take rest, so it is difficult but at last if passion is that strong then any miracle can happen. Herein the problem is what if the first, second and third resource supporting same project goes on holiday on same day then it comes to cluster lead and there manager start brainstorming since he has to keep the process in-tact being adhered to one’s responsibility and thereby aligning one’s team as per situation.

In operations, while working from home at a sudden in phase of Business Continuity Process all of sudden everything was announced to be ready with all tools, technology, systems with resources with respect to their localized place wherein they don’t know if they have proper internet connection which can indirectly affect the process and employee attendance work flow.

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

14

Sitting more time at one place without exposure to travel hampers the thinking potential of an employee so accordingly people who works in operation at site works day-in and day-out on Manufacturing Assembly Line at Industry site who are literally struggling in maintaining the safe distance by keeping the trust of product and delivering it till customer without any hesitation for us so that we can also perform our actions in operations resulting in employment sustenance due to which we can contribute our best in field of Manufacturing and Design under Operation Management.

So when people work together, they can give their best by approaching upper level having in-person communication with upper hierarchy while on the other hand during Work from Home, it is difficult to predict in manipulation of data during work and how it is processed under screen without supervisor observation expect the meeting session. We struggle to prove ourselves whenever there is escalation raised by customer.

So below are some points that can be consolidated for consequences of COVID pandemics over Operation Management: • • • • • • •

Productivity Concern Product Quality Improvement Customer Satisfaction Worry Deployment of a new Enterprise-wide application Always buried under mountain of Reporting phase Unresolved conflicts between departments Difficulty in recruiting the right talent

These all things has to be handled by manager and maintain the flow of process and mange it with strong team support and dedication while doing our duty.

Manager is a multi-tasker person who take every decision by wearing many hats from each angle and horizon thereby expanding the vision and mission horizon .He is a vital member of the management who will report to the upper level the all day to day happening within the team. He is who drives the team efficiency thereby reducing costs, improving customer experience, taking ownership of the key metrics that drive a company’s performance and ensure that the organization is running at full speed.

Manager play a major role in doing the valuable and necessary everyday functions that enable other departments to be motivated and succeed thereby making a real difference in an organization.

Operations manager are increasingly feeling the pressure to push employees to work faster and better. The key questions that arise are: • How can we get the team “up to speed” thereby performing their duties quickly and successfully?

• How do we ensure continued success after initial training ends?

• How do we best engage employees so that they remember the knowledge and skills learned during training sessions and are able to apply it once they are back at their desks?

• How to make the progress and appreciation received from customer consistent.

• How to fulfill the different needs of employees from knowledge and process perspective?

• How to maintain the harmony and unity within the team in all situation?

• How to maintain the leave plan when front face is on leave so that work is not hampered?

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

15

Herein the recovery of revenue and finance would probably take 1 year to settle down still the employees are being so great than to the management who understood the relevance of humanity. The COVID-19 pandemic will have long-lasting implications on the future of manufacturing operations. Manufacturers would

need to create plans that can sustain long-term responsibility, agility, responsiveness, and resilience for their manufacturing operations. This means better monitoring of the end-to-end manufacturing operations, to analyse how well placed they are to respond to future disruptions with greater confidence and speed.

About the Author: Ms. Pooja Kamlesh Prasad She is currently working with Flex as program management junior executive and has 2 years of experience in project management.

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

16

Emerging Managers

Ms. Sohini Mukherjee MBA, Batch 2020-2022 DMS, IIT(ISM) Dhanbad, India

Role Of Artificial Intelligence In Marketing In today’s world, technology is growing by leaps and bounds and its presence can be felt everywhere. One such technological marvel is the emergence of artificial intelligence. AI is being used to power many technologies that we use on a daily basis, like Google Assistant, Google Maps, Siri, Cortana etc. Now, what is Artificial Intelligence? AI is coined using the words, “artificial” and “intelligence” which are used to describe the intuition demonstrated by inanimate objects like machines. AI can be used to carry out tasks which would normally require human intelligence. Marketers have realized that this technology holds a tremendous potential and are readily incorporating it into their plans in various ways.

Artificial intelligence has a number of significant benefits. Some of them are: Fast and Dynamic Data Analysis One of the biggest benefits of AI is its incorporation into data analytics. According to Henry Schuck, CEO of DiscoverOrg, “Any part of

the marketing world where a marketer has to read data and make decisions based on that data will be affected by AI in one way or another in the near future.”

AI has the potential to gather, store and analyze large amount of data in a fast and efficient manner.

Predictive analytics powered by AI helps marketers understand their target customers on a deeper level. This newfound knowledge can be used in sales forecasting, formulation of pricing strategies, trend analysis and much more.

Improving Customer Experience When it comes to product inquiries, or grievance redressal, it becomes very tedious for companies to solve the customers’ problem manually. AI helps to make the process smoother and improves customer experience significantly. Nowadays, almost all the companies have chatbots in their websites. These AI enabled applications provide customers with an intuitive 1:1 communication experience that solves their problems and addresses their issues on a real time basis, thus, saving time and money.

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

17

Increasing Marketing Return of Investment According to a research done by Salesforce, 76% of consumers expect companies to understand their individual expectations and needs and 67% of them state that they have a higher standard for good experience. Artificial intelligence helps companies do just that. AI algorithms are selflearning. They receive vast amounts of data in the form of images, texts, voice and recognize hidden patterns in them. This enables marketers to predict patterns in consumer behaviour and curate their content accordingly. As a result, consumers receive personalized and relevant content which

boosts the campaign performance, improves customer experience and ultimately provides a good ROI. Thus, we see that the incorporation of AI in marketing is the need of the hour. Adapting to this technology provides companies with a huge competitive advantage. Further, the use of AI can significantly help them achieve organizational objectives and goals. Therefore, marketers should not shy away from this multi-dimensional technology and embrace it before there is an industry-wide paradigm shift which might leave them with very less time to catch up.

References: https://workspace.digital/ai-and-its-role-inmarketing/#:~:text=AI%20helps%20marketers%20easily%20understand,strategy%20will%20become%20more% 20effective.&text=The%20use%20of%20artificial%20intelligence,easy%20access%20to%20make%20purchases. https://www.digitalauthority.me/resources/artificial-intelligence-marketing/ https://blog.hurree.co/blog/what-is-artificial-intelligence-marketing https://www.salesforce.com/research/customer-expectations/

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

18

Emerging Managers

Mr. Shubham Yadav MBA, Batch 2020-2022 RICS School of Built Environment, Amity University, Mumbai

Impact Of COVID-19 On Construction Industry The construction industry in today’s era is known to be the second-largest employer in the country after agricultural sector, construction industry has been significantly impacted due to the ongoing covid-19 pandemic situation. This outbreak has not only affected many people working in the sector but also the investors as well as customers.

Real estate and construction sector is very badly affected as it consists of the 7% of the GDP of the country and it employees 15% of the labour force of India with the Nations Lockdown it is severely impacted. Since it is a labour-intensive industry 269 industries along with it got affected because its resources materials of different kind from Iron, steel and nails to smallest of small items different kind goes into the building Industry. Major stakeholders in construction industry such as supply chain vendors, contractors, subcontractors, developers and Owners they have experienced varying degrees of overall impacts as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This outbreak of Corona has deeply impacted the complete chain and spectrum of the real estate industry, including

residential, commercial, retail, and construction segments. The restrictions imposed by the Government of India as well as State Governments and the Union Territories to control the spread and the impact of the covid-19 virus has affected work on projects, it has heavily impacted supply chains, plant, equipment, materials and manpower. Before this pandemic situation, the construction industry was recovering from a few minor issues like Demonetisation, policy changes (RERA), changes in taxation (GST).

Since the construction industry is facing a problem due to migration of labour and limited supply of raw material it has halted the activities in construction industry. Investor and consumers who have invested their savings they are expecting timely delivery of their projects.

Difficulties faced by Construction Industry Manpower plays a vital role in the supply chain of construction industry and due to lack of manpower it impacted the speed of construction projects. Due to Migration of labour in Pandemic,

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

19

majority of labor migrated to their hometown and most of the construction sites have struggled due to shortage of labor and had suffered where the projects had been delayed upto 6 months to 9 months. One of the major difficulty faced by the construction industry is shortage and unavailability of Raw material. This shortage unavailability of raw material has led an increase in the cost of raw material particularly cement which is considered an essential necessity in Construction Industry. Price of cement has hiked by almost 25%. Since this process is linked to each other, if there is an increase in price of cement the builder has to adapt with such price change to let his work of construction keep going. With the increase in the cost of construction, Capital cost increases and other expense such as marketing cost also increases. Project seems to less viable with decrease in the sales velocity.

Force Majeure ‘Force Majeure’ is basically a clause that is a contractual provision where unforeseeable circumstances arise that prevent someone from fulfilling the contract. In this case Covid-19 is such circumstance where it is impossible to fulfil the contract.

In current lockdown situation it is very difficult for the contractors and consulting companies to meet contractual performance for consultancy contracts under execution of project.

Relief by RERA

the given timeline of project with respect to filing

by RERA. Challenges that contractors need to tackle in 2021 • Lack of skilled labor Due to migration of labor to the respective places has created lack of skilled labor on the project.

One of largest Construction Engineering group of India Larsen & Toubro said, by the End of July they had seen labor force fallen from 2,25,000 to 1,60,000 during lockdown in the country.

• Disruption in Supply Chain Due to restriction imposed in the country it affected the supply chain of raw material required.

There has been decline in shipping of material and taking material across state and national borders.

Lack of material and equipment were some reason that are causing serious damage to construction sector with its unavailability.

• Dwindling Project Pipeline As per reports published by Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MoSPI) in December 2019. Out of 583 delayed projects 183(31%) delay range 1-12months, 129(22%) delay range13-24months, 146(25%) delay range 25-60 months and 125 (22%) delay range above 61 months. Nearly, 111 trillion work project in National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) that is in roads, gas, rural housing etc.

The Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA) of their state have recognized the issue and took the matter in their hand and also accepted to modify

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

20

Status of Project as Specified in NIP 30%

At conceptual stage Unclassified

• Decrease in Revenues

Source: National Infrastructure Pipeline

There has been decline in construction sector that had direct impact on revenue generated by state government. With the decline of 7.3 Lakh Crore from 8.6 Lakh Crore in Financial Year 2019-2020.

According to data shared by Crisil, share of private spending has fallen 26% in financial year 2009-2010 to 17% in 2019-2020.

• Inflation across industry

Recommendations

One of the biggest challenge which contractors has to face is the sudden rise in price. There will be fluctuation in the price of raw material, supplies, deliveries which will does have significant increase in the price across the country. Since with the ease of lock down there will be a demand for essential construction materials which will thus result in increase in the price with this situation of sudden deflection, it has disturbed the demand and supply cycle of the construction industry.

In the current scenario of Covid-19, the running contracts that are about to expire during the lockdown they should be given an extension of time. Period of bank guarantees must be waived off or can be given extension as provided in the contracts during this lockdown period.

Government policy like NITI Aayog will play major role in overall survival of construction sector so that India can achieve huge growth further in future.

40%

20% 10%

Under Development

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

21

Emerging Managers

Mr. Hardik Arora MBA, Batch 2020-2022, IBS Hyderabad, India.

Online Classes: A Step Forward Or Backward?

The era of Global pandemic has taught the world to use the technology at a next level. Many countries saw a lockdown in their economy and economies suffered huge losses. Mainly 2 Industries saw a boom in demand: Medical & IT. The demand of protective gears increased at a very impressive rate as World Health Organization (WHO) recommended to use face masks and sanitizers to protect from the spread of Covid-19.

WHO also advised to maintain social distancing leading having physical distances but it brought people closer virtually. Most of the businesses were operated from work from home model. Not only had private sector adopted this but the public sector too.

The online world had has benefitted a lot but businesses but there are losses also. In India, most of the school and college students haven't gone to their institutes after lockdown. The schools are conducting online classes. This brings us to our first problem: lack of resources, student of government schools are so poor that they can’t afford a smartphone or a laptop to study. Most of their parents are daily wage workers. Education

department of India started to telecast the lectures on TV’s but most of the daily wagers couldn’t afford food for 3 time how would they afford a TV for their children. Not only had the students faced a problem but teachers too. Most of the teachers didn’t had and technical knowledge of how to teach in online classes, which created a lot of problems for teaching process.

Coming on the private sector, they had resources but they were not sufficient. Many working class middle families didn’t had a Wi-Fi connection as they mostly spent their lives in offices or schools.

The students who were earlier criticized for using phone and laptop while studying had to study on it now. It took a long time to adapt to online changes for students and teachers and simultaneously loss of studies was going on.

Coming on the next problem, Health issues. Due to this lockdown, the students didn’t get any place for physical workouts. In addition to that looking for a laptop/phone screen for more than 10 hours caused many medical issues like loss of proper vision, cervical, headache and mainly the obesity.

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

22

These problems are not something normal and requires immediate action. And the question here is if the school can’t take care of students then who shall do that? I know studies are important but at what cost: The health? This is something which is not acceptable.

Problem number three. It has been noticed that students are actually not able to focus and face technical glitches like poor connectivity or freezing issues or anything else. I don’t blame the educational system for that or the government, but they both knew that this would become a barrier in their learning and this should have been considered.

Despite of knowing these problems, the educational Institutions wanted to provide learning to students. They tried very hard but unfortunately the results are not as expected. The blame is not that the institutions or government didn’t try to provide opportunity to learn, the blame either they didn’t predicated the problems well in advance or if they did, they continued it anyway. Knowing about allthese serious problems. A simple step from

Coming on the next problem: Lack of personal touch. The personal touch in student’s learning has a very important role. As we know not every person has same level of understanding and require a personal touch. In a physical classroom, a teacher is able to figure it out who all are getting and who are not by the expressions and the body language.

The online classes full of technical glitches creates it more difficult for teachers to figure it out who are actually able to understand and who not. The lack of personal touch is also creates a problem in mentoring the child and his overall development

government could have helped to avoid these issues and create a better situation, which is announcing a drop year for academic session 2020 - 2021. The schools would have not gone for online education and students would have not affected their health in such a way and would also get a better opportunity to learn in physical classes. This would have given the students to develop a new hobby or w o r k on themselves for a better future, learning new skills.

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

23

Emerging Managers

Ms. Ankit Naagar MBA, Batch 2020-2022, IBS Hyderabad, India.

2020 With A PLUS 1 A fresh start, we all have come into this New Year which is 2021 with a positive wave. Whether it is about vaccine development of covid-19 or revival of economies in the world but wait there is another perspective to bring value to this New Year. One can think of, it has 2020 with a plus 1. An addition of 1 in 2020. Addition signifies an increase in the value of something.

So, 2021 is an addition of 1 in the previous year.

The addition of something increases the valuation of the final product. An addition of 1 Rs into 99,999 Rs will convert it into 1 lakh Rs. In a normal circumstance, a person may want to pay 99,999 Rs instead of 1 lakh Rs of the bill. But it is the opposite in cases of returns every person wants a sum of 1 lakh Rs even addition of 1Rs increase the overall value of the material.

The Right decision The previous year had been very painful to all of us talking in terms of businesses, economies,

health, and many more. Despite this fact in this tough situation what a person can do is adding knowledge to themselves. Students enrolling in universities or colleges might have found it very difficult to learn online. This online education must be felt like a resistance band to many of us.

But what is great you know the resistance made you strong every day, every next day you have to push hard to that resistance, and one day you that resistance is no more a difficulty to you. What else you had done in this lockdown despite taking your education forward. One person might think of doing business but that would haven’t succeeded in these tough situations where many companies are laying off their employee to save on cost. In India 10.08 million employees had been laid off due to covid-19. It has been estimated that businesses will grow once again after this pandemic and you as a student should be ready to be hired as an employee to these companies.

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

24

(Sector-wise job losses in India)

PLUS 1 to yourselves With the increase in the value of the previous year, i.e., 2020 with a plus1 isn’t it becomes important to do this addition to our life also. Because think of yourself as a business, you must supply goods of the same value to meet the demand to make your customer satisfied or feel delighted. In this context increase in the value of a year is the demand which we have to supply with the addition of plus 1 to our life, knowledge, skills, efficiency, talent, or basically to ourselves. In case you are unable to meet the expected demanded value then your customer (which are your goals) may not get satisfied or fulfilled. Since 1 month had already passed to this new year as an MBA student had applied the following plus 1 to myself.

1. Plus 1 to skills – while pursuing an MBA program I have understood the importance of skills in real-life working environment skills can supplement your knowledge in work culture. So, I’m learning advanced excel, SPPS, and other

software to meet the expected demand for the corporate world.

2. Plus 1 to social life – Being social does not mean going out meeting new people and coming back with the same level of knowledge as before.

For me, it is meeting people and exchanging my vision and ideas with others. Also, understanding their point of view. Even if I’m unable to learn something new but we should try to learn what not to do also.

3. Plus 1 to responsibilities – Responsibilities are owning up to your decision. Whenever we made a bad decision or bad choice, we start playing “Blame games”. Otherwise, if we have achieved something or done something good then we take it as our hard work. We must take our lies or failure with the same pride. Because blaming your failure to others comes with a price of taking something with return always may not be immediate but sooner or later it will.

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

25

4. Plus to technology – we all have understood the importance of the technologies in this pandemic where our day starts with tech by logging on to classes online and ends with tech. To be ahead in the future I have been learning how artificial intelligence works. Every department of the organization will see some part of artificial intelligence in their system in the next few years.

As AI is the topic of discussion these days.

Conclusion Take a step back think about yourself where you are at now and where you want to be work on your strengths to be ahead in the future. People say work on your weakness but it is important to work on your strengths master the things you are good at. Your strengths should suppress your weakness.

So, what is your plus 1 then?

References: https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/economy/10-8-million-and-counting-take-a-look-at-how-manyjobs-covid-19-has-wiped-out-5704851.html

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

26

Emerging Managers

Ms. Shivam Mehta MBA, Batch 2020-2022, IBS Hyderabad, India.

Gig Economy: Virtual Is New Real

As the great Albert Einstein rightly said that “In the middle of difficulty lies the opportunity”, the term GIG economy become popularized during the financial crisis of 2008-2009 when swaths of the population faced the problem of unemployment or underemployment. Dating back to history, the word 'gig' was arguably first used for people in the music industry, although it later became synonymous with people who work for companies individually for a shorter period to make a living.

In simple terms, the gig economy is often defined as an “on-demand, peer or platform economy”.

This type of economy is very broad and encompasses a gamut of the population from workers who are full-time independent individuals to the small part-time businesses, freelancers who provide services to make an additional living.

There are two major segments of gigs i.e., Knowledge-driven gigs (such as consultants, data

scientists) and service-based gigs (such as tradespeople, delivery drivers). Some of the major key drivers of the gig economy are emerging new internet technologies and ideas such as big data and AI. This sharing economy model, another name of the gig economy, was earlier adopted by very few companies such as Uber and Airbnb, due to which they are able to get the competitive edge and even able to surpass some of the world’s largest businesses in their field respectively and become exemplary for all other businesses. The leaders of the firm have acknowledged that today’s generation i.e., millennials and Gen Z have a different meaning of success that is to find an equilibrium between possibility and predictability, and balance between viability and vitality.

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

27

CURRENT SCENARIO The pandemic has seen technology play the role of a great leveler as location and time zones become less relevant. This has boosted opportunities for gig workers, and providers of platforms enabling a gig workforce marketplace.

There is also a shift in the mindset of people regarding work as most of the millennial and boomers started to see this as an opportunity for freedom, flexible pay, and personal fulfillment.

There are various options available for gig workers as various industries such as IT, Accounting & Finance, Administrative, Education and Training, and Project Management attract and hire gig workers.

Even the gig economy has certain challenges that one has to face such as the lack of benefits like health insurance, PF, or others, there might be a problem of inconsistent income due to lack of work or burnout due to excess workload at odd hours.

By overcoming these challenges, countries will continue to make progress towards the gig economy. Companies cannot continue to neglect the freelance workforce if individuals and companies want to consider constructive tactics to beat global competition. In truth, to be a developed economy very shortly, the gig economy has to succeed in gaining traction internationally for any country.

(Fig: Adoption of Gig workforce by various industries in India) FUTURE OUTLOOK Even though the 21st Century has been full of revelation such as disruptive innovation led by Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, technological advancements such as smartphones, smartwatches, and many more. But the year 2020 is the real eye-opener where everyone's life came to standstill because of COVID 19, world

economies face a downturn and even reached the extremes of recession. For example, India’s GDP figure contracted by 23.9% in Q1 of 2020 and the unemployment rate at present is at a record high 27.1% as per the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CIME).

To counter this India will have to come with new trends and solutions to give a boost to its economy

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

28

and employment and the gig economy provides a pathway for the same. As per NASSCOM President, Debjani Ghosh “If we don’t use this opportunity to drive radical changes, it is our loss”.

In the new decade, the Gig economy will break all the barriers and assert itself in the world and will capture the demand and supply and fills the gaps of the economic development with employment.

According to the ASSOCHAM report, the size of the gig economy is estimated to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 17% and it will hit a volume of $455 billion by 2023.

While on one hand autonomy will inspire, it will result in ‘Corporate gigs’ being the ‘new normal’, with many potential win-win stories.

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

29

Emerging Managers Mr. K Pavan Kumar Reddy MBA, Batch 2020-2022, IBS Hyderabad, India.

Application Of Internet Of Things In Supply Chain Management Of Amazon Internet of Things (IOT): Internet of Things (IOT) is the current trend toward digitization and automation. IOT with sensors play a crucial part of what the next revolution is called Industry 4.0. IOT has its application in almost every sector like agriculture, manufacturing, construction, security etc.The pandemic has changed the focus of the world on the supply chain of various industries highlighting the loop holes and future way ahead. Supply chain is one of the fields where IOT shows its full potential in management, forecasting and its various applications help improve efficiency of distribution and improve transparency in the supply chain.

Supply Chain Management (SCM): SCM is defined as the management of flow of goods and services which includes the total process from procurement of raw materials into final

products and fulfilment of order from point of origin to point of consumption.

The last three decades gave birth to a new term Global value chain(GVC) which means production and distribution at different geographies or supply,processing,assembling and distribution taking places in different countries to lower the economic cost of production. The present situation calls for the evaluation of the GVC. Every company has its own way of doing things and has its own supply chain. But by having an effective and efficient supply chain, a company can ensure that their services and products are available at right place at right time and price. One of those companies with effective supply chain is Amazon. Amazon is one of the biggest companies in the world and has one of the best supply chain implemented which became the key to their success in connecting with customers at high level of responsiveness. The reason for its success lies

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

30

in its effective usage of IOT throughout its supply chain.

Amazon: Amazon is the world’s largest online marketplace.

It is spread throughout the world providing various services like e-commerce, live streaming platform, AI assistant provider and cloud computing.

Amazon is delivering millions of orders per day serving millions of customers. To manage the workload, Amazon has incorporated technology in its supply chain. It has been efficient in using technology through IOT and robots to the fullest in warehousing, artificial intelligence, tracking and inventory management.

How IOT impacts Supply chain: The major areas IOT is used in the supply chain are tracking and monitoring which allows to keep track of cargo and inventory.

1. Real time location monitoring IOT with the help of GPS allows the company to keep track of the products in delivery and helps to monitor them to make sure they are transported in the correct direction. At present this is possible only if IOT devices are connected online but Amazon is coming with new technique Amazon Shadows, a technique with the help of shadow can keep track of the connected device even when it is offline and connects it to cloud when the device comes online and updates the location of the device, this lets us keep track of the device without any interruptions.

2. Monitoring Storage conditions: We cannot always keep monitoring the temperature, humidity, pressure levels when certain need to be transported or stored in the warehouses. IOT provides much help to solve this

when connected with different sensors and when instructions are programmed to monitor the environmental factors and automate them if the values changes without any need of human intervention.

3. Forecasting arrival of the product: The real time tracking has helped the companies to forecast the delivery of the product and mitigate the involved risks.

4. Warehousing management: In the past employees had to keeping on running to search for the products and its location in the warehouse. But now Amazon with the help of Robots and IOT has increased its efficiency of warehouses by keeping track of the products through RFID tag and store/retrieve them from the specified areas in the warehouse 5. Strategic planning: IOT helps to create strategies in planning routes for transportation taking into consideration of various factors like traffic rates, average delay time, less risky routes, less accidental routes and plan routes that cause minimum delays and are highly secure.

6. Asset management: With the scanning of RFID tag using robots and IOT attached with database management system, Amazon can easily keep track of millions of products that are incoming or going out of the warehouse and the company can get an instant access to the total required data with regards to product inflow, outflow and product location.

7. Increase Transparency: Revenue losses that occur due to theft, product missing are more than the losses suffered due to

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

31

accidents because of the complex delivery system where the products gets transported to different stations before reaching the final station .IOT with real tracking can increase this transparency and helps in reducing the losses.

Amazon also integrates IOT in forecasting the demand and supply of products and services depending on the regions, seasons based on the previous data collected from movement of goods incoming and outgoing during that specific period of time.

Negatives in dependence on IOT: Loss of security may be an important factor as all the data collected is connected to the internet which is vulnerable to hackers. The complexity in maintaining the IOT, as IOT works on a software,

a bug in the software can harm the whole system as the validation of products may vary.

Conclusion: With Cisco and DHL expecting a value of $1.9 trillion increase in value due to IOT evolution in industrial sector. We can say that IOT has vast uses that are still untapped and going to continue to revolutionize the world in every sector available as companies are searching for ways to increase the efficiency with minimum cost spent.

IOT application in SCM of Amazon has played a vital role in paving the path for its large and successful supply chain. The next phase of Amazon’s plan to increase its efficiency and delivery time is implementation of delivery through drones i.e Amazon Air.

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

32

ABOUT US The word “Kaizen”, where “Kai” = change, “Zen” = good, which signifies change for better. In its birth place Japan, the word Kaizen is imbibed as a process that many small continuous changes in systems and policies bring effective results than few major changes. This methodology is applicable to every department across different sectors.

Kaizen – The Official Operations Club of IBS Hyderabad has always been aspiring “Constant Change ad Evolvement”. We, as an organization work to inspire and aspire the student community for the betterment of the future.

KORE – Kaizen’s Operations and Research Entity, one of our primary wings provides the students a platform to improve and hone their technical competencies to meet the changing demands of the organizations. KORE’s sphere of influence includes Case Based Research, Consultancy, Live Projects and Workshop. LAKSHYA, an initiative of KORE focuses on improving the readers knowledge about Operations Management by providing insights in the form of articles on various operation techniques followed by different companies and also updating the emerging trends in the communities.

K PAVAN KUMAR REDDY EDITOR IN CHIEF - KORE Kaizen – IBS Hyderabad Batch 2020-22

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

33

LAKSHYA is an academic print and is not for any commercial sale. Reliability and Responsibility, for sources of data for the article vests with the respective authors.

Please feel free to drop in your suggestions at kaizenclub.ibs@gmail.com KORE: Kaizen’s Operations & Research Entity.

Kaizen – The Official Operations Club of IBS Hyderabad All Rights Reserved

Designed by

KAIZEN’S OPERATIONS & RESEARCH ENTITY

34