Lakshya - A Beacon of Knowledge, January 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.

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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 co rporations, through SCNext (ISCEA Young Supply Chain Professional Association).

Some of the internationally recognized certification programs developed by ISCEA include 1. 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.

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EDITOR’S LETTER “"With Evolution, Changes happen in every part of the world every day, every time."”

Welcome to the thirtieth edition of “LAKSHYA”, 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 planned to bring to you a collection of thoughtfully created and carefully crafted pieces of work by some bright aspiring minds of ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad on the current trends and receiving close review in the field of Operations Management and their relevance in different industries.

From the ninth edition, we created a new segment, ‘The Corporate Angle’ where article will be featured from prominent business leaders which will enlighten minds of young managers and business enthusiasts. IBS Hyderabad and Club Kaizen express a sign of gratitude to all corporate leaders for taking out time and scripting their thoughts for our magazine.

We have introduced 'Faculties Insight’ from the eighteenth edition, where the articles will be featured from experienced faculties from all over the world that will shed light on the minds of young managers and business enthusiasts. Club Kaizen is grateful to all faculties for taking time out and writing their thoughts for our publication.

We hope that you like this issue and please let us know if there are any subjects, you'd look forward to be addressed in upcoming editions. Please write to us and become a part of this discussion.

Email ID: kaizenclub.ibs@gmail.com

LVS SAI CHARAN JOINT SECRETARY – KORE Kaizen – IBS Hyderabad Batch 2019-21

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CONTENTS

S. NO.

TITLE

PAGE NO.

1

From the Mentor’s Desk

5

2

Disruption of Online Education

6

3

Operations and Marketing

8

4

Shifting to a New Normal: An Insider Story

10

5

Impact of Big Data in India

12

6

Going Lean

16

7

Business Operational Sustainability

19

8

Women in Economics- Debunk, Disrupt & Diversify

22

9

IOT in Operations Management

24

10

World Class Manufacturing

27

11

Earned Value Analysis

29

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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

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Faculties Insight

Ms. Asha Binu Raj Assistant Professor-OB & HRM, IBS Hyderabad

Disruption of Online Education

COVID-19 has brought unprecedented changes in the almost all sectors, including education. The pandemic has resulted in closing down of educational institutions across the world. Across the globe, billions of children are now studying from home. Due to the impact of COVID-19, a dramatic change is experienced in education sector. As a result, the mode of education has disrupted significantly, with a new face of e-learning, which has given rise to remotely managed education program through digital platforms. Though the beginning of year 2020 has witnessed many challenges during the adoption of online learning, and a gradual shift from the traditional classroom learning to the online learning methodology, slowly teachers and students have extensively adapted themselves to the changed new normal situation within few months of the COVID-19 period. A sudden transition from the traditional learning and

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teaching to the online mode is still ambiguous under the given circumstances. It remains doubtful among many online educational platforms if it will continue to persist in the post-pandemic period, and if so, how this transition would impact the global education market. For many, it had been a struggle to establish a new system of education and learning management through online platforms, and for many it had been an opportunity to develop new tools and digital modes of education. Apart from the educational institutions, the educational applications and digital platforms identified this as an opportunity to provide services to other institutions in commercial way.

From an academic perspective, we need to equip ourselves with skills to smoothly transit through the present unwarranted situation, and students are also expected to adapt themselves to a greater degree of

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online learning, self-learning and capacity building, which are extremely demanding for the younger generation. From the educational institution’s perspective, replicating a physical classroom pedagogy in an online atmosphere is highly challenging in this context, hence online teaching and learning process need to focus on learning psychology among students, learners’/student’s behaviour and most importantly, the methodology adopted to assess the learning effectiveness. In order to respond to the disruption in education, higher education institutions are expected to develop strategies by exploring greater possibilities of effective teaching and learning mechanisms through customized digital learning platforms, providing proper training if required through digital support to teachers and students, providing consistent e-learning by assessing learner’s interest, reactions and subsequent progress, and establishing a rapport with the learners to ensure student engagement in online environment. The technology mediated learning and digital pedagogy has been highly challenging to deliver results by understanding the learning dynamics. Though, many institutions have succeeded in integrating technology with learning, however, the significance of human factor/personal interaction cannot be ignored or replaced by any digital pedagogy.

For the success of virtual platforms among educators during this pandemic period, a greater cohesiveness is essential among educators, learners/students and parents too. As there had been a growth in the education technology even before COVID-19 period, there has been a significant increase in its usage during the pandemic period.

The question here is if the post pandemic future will witness a new hybrid education model with significant benefits, and will this disruption through integration of information technology in education further accelerate in an effective way? Educators need to focus on the effectiveness of online learning which depends on various age groups, academic content and the student engagement. Some universities and higher education institutions have been already focusing on personalized, flexible and effective learning through digital means. The pandemic has accelerated this process in different ways. Does that mean that students in near future might opt to choose their higher educational institutions based upon the universities’ existing digital capabilities and their online teaching performance during the COVID-19 pandemic period? One may have to wait for the post pandemic era also to observe the consequences of this digital disruption in our education system in the near future.

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Faculties Insight Mr. Venugopal Rao Professor, IBS Hyderabad

Marketing and Operations

The world of business is changing rapidly all around us. This has impact on every function in an organization. It is hard to ignore one for the other.

The relationship between Marketing and Operations needs greater discussion in the current scenario. The primary role of marketing is to create value for the customer. This is possible by looking at the role of marketing from a broader perspective – one that involves marketing processes, organizational performance, and society.

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them assessed by a variety of metrics. The questions before marketers are many and varied.

Answers to these questions will depend on effective use of technology, leveraging different information and technology platforms and constantly strive to mix and match the marketing mix elements by leveraging the power of big data and analytics.

Technological changes will shift our perspectives towards marketing and the consumer. These advancements will reduce the barriers between Intense competition has pushed companies into a industries, shift the balance of power to empowered vortex. The challenges they face today are quite consumers and create a ‘global grid’. different. Shorter product lifecycles, changing processes, shifting consumer preferences, The grid consists of a network of users and portals, technological disruptions are all contributing to the offering free communications, scalability, total marketer’s challenge. Successful organizations connectivity, and universal digitalization need to align their Marketing with processes such (Rethinking Marketing, Yoram Wind, JAMS, as Supply Chain Management, Customer 2009). Companies will draw together R&D, Relationship Management, Customer Service Marketing and Operations for developing new Delivery, Marketing Knowledge Management, and products. By bridging silos, corporations will Innovation Management. Performance and get create an enterprise capable of addressing new age

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marketing challenges.

As technological developments advance and disrupt the way businesses are done, the success of individual firms will depend on how well they learn and expand their technological foundations,

minimize expenditures, maximize productivity while leveraging the power of the brands in their portfolios. The future of marketing has never been more challenging. As we move into the next decade these changes will become even more pronounced and exciting.

About the author: Mr. Venugopal Rao He is a Professor and Head of the Department in Marketing Management at The ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education Hyderabad with teaching areas being Strategic Marketing Management, Sales and Distribution Management and Marketing Management.

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Corporate Angle

Mr. Ruddradev Roychoudhary Developer at TCS Research & Innovation, Kolkata

Shifting to A New Normal: An Insider Story

When May rolled around the corner, there was a sudden announcement of Lockdown that did not scare many people. Partly because it was only for ‘21’ days at that time. But the IT industries knew what was followed in other countries – A lockdown of at least 2 months till the daily cases goes over the peak and starts to decline. So, they started the biggest movement operation in the history of Software Industry.

It started with a small request that those who had laptops to share the work of their co-workers while the Associates with desktops can put in a request to get their machines shipped. But the impact was in more areas than imagined.

No more 9 hours Gone were the days when the Manager used to point out when you went for too many tea breaks.

Now you could sip tea all day in front of your machine. The main aim was to get the work done.

Sometimes that meant extending your workday to meet a deadline. But that was easy since you didn’t

need to stay back at office to complete the task.

Surprisingly that improved the productivity as a whole. Where one could just work as much as required.

Ergonomic Nightmare At office, we took the ergonomics for granted. The reclining chairs, and the sitting posture. When work from home began, most of it began with laptops on our laps semi reclined on our beds. Soon the back began to hurt, and people started taking leaves for back pain. The unluckier ones had their spondylitis flaring up and had to seek medical attention. To counter this many organizations provided office chairs and tables for work. And some people brought their own. After all, for them it was a small price for working from the comfort of their home.

In-human connect For the introverts, the lockdown was heaven. No more partying, no more socializing just for the sake of it. But after a few months, the effects of long-

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term isolation started to show. Meetings became more heated because of misunderstandings over email. Surprisingly those small issues were solved easily over tea earlier. But when it comes to remote work, it is difficult to communicate emotions in the correct way. What we don’t notice is that 90 percent of our communication happens non-verbally. Only 10 percent is via voice. To enhance bonding, many organizations started weekly or monthly online get togethers so that people don’t feel left out and that helped bring in the human touch to our work.

working hours, and you’ll get the same deadlines again. Hence expectation management is an added responsibility for the managers now. It is even more difficult to assess the efforts taken because you can’t see the work. For this reason, the ownership has to be taken by both the assignee and the assignor. And if any one feels that it can’t be achieved within the timelines, it is important to communicate well in advance.

Enhanced Expectations

In Conclusion, work from home is a great opportunity to make the most of the time we have during our weekdays. But that privilege only comes if you can manage the physical health, mental health and expectation issues that arise from it. I hope that as you go into the corporate world, you also find the right balance between work and life.

There is a common saying in the corporate world – The faster your work, the easier they think the work is, and the more work you’ll get. This is even truer during remote work. Nobody sees that you burnt the midnight oil to meet the deadline on time, they will assume that it was finished within regular

Conclusion

Author Bio: Mr. Ruddradev Roychoudhary He is currently employed with TCS Research in the Domain of Vision, Graphics, and AI - using learning-based methods to make robot navigation systems faster and more reliable. He has worked to develop Computer Vision algorithms with OpenCV. Competitor for International Aerial Robotics Competition working on visual Odometry, target recognition and collision detection algorithms for autonomous indoor flight.

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The Corporate Angle

Dr. Pranjal Kumar Phukan Honorary Director - Strategy ICTMAE

Impact Of Big Data In India On the technology side, several developments have converged to radically expand what analytics can do. The volume of available data has continued to double every three years as information pours in from transactions, social media, sensors in the physical world, and billions of mobile phones. Data storage capacity has increased, while its cost has plummeted. Data scientists now have unprecedented computing power at their disposal, and they are devising ever more sophisticated algorithms that can instantly sift through troves of data to find patterns and reveal insights. The upshot of all this innovation is that decisions no longer have to be based on gut instinct, or subject to human error. Algorithms can make them instantly and consistently, drawing on a mountain of evidence. Systems enabled by machine learning can provide customer service, manage logistics, analyze medical records, or even write news stories. Analytics capabilities are now the basis of corporate competition. In many industries, a small group of technology leaders are consolidating major advantages. Daunted by the speed of technological change, many companies are hesitating.

Still others have invested in data systems but are struggling to realize the returns they expected.

Keywords: Analytics, Innovation, Algorithms, Systems, Information Introduction Data and analytics could transform multiple sectors in the years ahead. Banking and insurance could dramatically improve their risk assessments by building massive data integration capabilities.

Digital platforms that offer large-scale, real-time matching with dynamic pricing could make labour and energy markets more efficient. Granular data about individual characteristics and behavior can be used to customize products and services—and even more intriguingly, to re-imagine the way healthcare and education are delivered. Above all, data and analytics can improve the accuracy and transparency of decision making, a capability with far-ranging potential in everything from managing complex urban environments to making public policy decisions.

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The big data revolution is not just a story of Silicon Valley. It represents a major shift in the way business is done globally. Developing nations with fewer deeply entrenched legacy systems to overhaul can take advantage of this moment. Data and analytics could provide an injection of transparency and efficiency that spurs commerce, builds more inclusive economies, and makes government services more effective. The age of analytics is already beginning to unleash creative destruction—and that may open the door for young, tech-savvy companies from anywhere in the world to propel themselves into the ranks of the new global giants.Data is the world’s newest natural resource that is changing the dynamics of global economies. Today, we are generating about 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every day. By 2020, there could be four times more digital data than all the grains of sand on earth. This data is being harnessed through Big Data Analytics to catapult corporations and the world economy by providing valuable insights and enabling focused decision-making.

The public and the private sector are already making efforts in the right direction to harness the potential of Big Data in the social hemisphere.

Aadhaar is the largest biometric project of its kind in the world capturing demographic and biometric data of a billion Indian citizens. The database could quickly grow to as much as 20 petabytes and used to identify and address important societal issues community wise.

help policymakers tackle the issues effectively. As more open-source data platforms come into picture, communities can help to create and analyze these data sets, and further contribute through innovative ideas and products.

Understanding of Big data To better understand and appreciate "Big Data", we should go back to what Diebold (2012) talks about Big Data being three things: the term ("firmly entrenched"), the phenomenon ("continuing unabated") and an "emerging" discipline. Thus, Big Data is many things to different people and it is imperative to understand it deeper before it can be put to use. Towards this end, we look at how Big Data is changing the paradigms of social science research (and thus the lenses through which we perceive the world) and follow this with how Big Data tools and techniques are being used to make smart policy and business decisions. This is followed by a deeper look at Big Data in the Indian perspective and the road ahead.

Big data in Public sector

The public sector is a ripe area for applying the tools and techniques of Big Data to increase the efficiencies in the sector. This can happen in two ways: by using Big Data to improve programmatic outcomes, and to improve decision making. The underlying premise behind using big data to enhance decision making is providing feedback loops that allow citizens to engage with government and thus reveal preferences that are not This has already been used for financial inclusion revealed through the traditional polling process. using mobile, Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM), and enabling direct benefit transfer for LPG. India Impact of big data on supply chain needs to take several measures to further accelerate the role of Big Data in social innovation.

Supply chain management is a vital component of Organizations such as the World Bank are moving minimizing a company’s risk of fraud, bribery, and aggressively to open such databases to public. corruption, and new tools can help organizations Further, ‘big’ data sets in private sector could be looking to limit their exposure to these risks as adapted to help furnish social impact. Second, modern technology works its way into even the ‘Citizen Science’ projects in the social arena can oldest of businesses.

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Big data is still a point of intrigue for many businesses looking to take advantage of digital analysis to create more efficient and fool proof operations in their supply chains, but data analytics tools should be far from enigmatic for supply chain managers. Bloomberg suggests that data analytics tools and big data are two elements that can help businesses identify problem areas within a supply chain before those areas actually do damage.

It is well known that errors in a supply chain can do massive damage to a company in a host of ways.

Indeed, supply chain management is seen as one of the foundational blocks of corporate social responsibility. Transparency is a must for efficient managers, and big data provides insight into clearer amounts of information a company can use to make its supply chain more efficient, and to minimize risk.

Big data comes from a wide range of sources: • Today’s technologies and social platforms allow businesses to get direct customer feedback in the form of ratings, reviews and blog comments.

• Data from mobile, social platforms and ecommerce are being integrated with data from enterprise systems.

• Manufacturing is changing from event-based planning to real-time sensing with the introduction of the Internet of Things and machine-to-machine communication.

• Evolved sensor technology provides real-time equipment and product conditions data resulting in automated maintenance and process adjustments.

almost bridging the gap to the rest of the organizations. Only when the technology has crossed the chasm, the rest of the organizations, the early and late majority and finally the laggards, will implement a Big Data strategy.

Big Data Technologies and Challenges The open-source project Hadoop (by Apache Software Foundation) is a primary Big Data analytics platform which is built to operate on large distributed (high performance) compute clusters.

MapReduce, the most popular function, is essentially a two-stage fault tolerant analytical routine which distributes the data and task at hand, first, to various compute nodes, and integrates the results obtained later. This is done using the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) (adopted from Google (distributed) File System or GFS).

IBM's InfoSphere, BigInsights and InfoSphere Streams are commercial platforms for analysis of big data at rest and in streams respectively.

Kambatla, Kollias, Kumar, & Grama (2014) point out that due to the scattered nature of Big Data it is difficult to store, process and analyses it at one place. Hence, it needs to be segregated and processed over different servers.

But with such distributed databases there arises the complexity of privacy, fault-tolerance, security and access controls. Chen & Zhang (2014) highlight that the lack of awareness pertaining to Big Data poses serious threats to the nation's cyber security and is also a barrier to country's socio-economic development.

Big Data poses a serious challenge in regard to data complexity, large scale data integration, sheer volume and lack of availability of supporting high performance computing cluster (HPCC) hardware and software platforms to tackle the aforesaid challenges.

Big Data, as is with most of disruptive technologies happening at the moment, has at first an impact on organizations. The innovators and the early adopters among the organizations are already embracing Big Data. According to the Technology Adoption Cycle this group represents approximately 16% and with 12% having implemented a strategy we are Big Data: The Road ahead in India

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Substantial Big Data is being generated (and stored) by Government departments in India already. Department of Science and Technology, GoI has announced plans to take Big Data research forward in the Indian context, including financial support for teams taking up such projects (http://dst.gov.in/scientificprogramme/bigdatainiti ative.html). However, continuous effort shall be needed for a long period of time before some success stories of big data studies and their results are visible.

Prime Minister's farmer soil health card is an initiative which could provide extremely valuable data in future contributing to the nation's food security. Similar schemes are also needed for our other national natural resources, such as: (i) monitoring (underground and surface) water availability, usage, and its preservation in India, (ii) rainfall harvesting activities and potential, (iii) land and its (current and possible) usage across the country, (iv) forest areas monitoring, (v) wildlife data, (vi) air quality data from, (vii) wind farming

potential.

Effort is needed to tap the potential in big data starting with: to identify, support (such as through fully funded academic scholarships), develop, and employ special talent to tap the potential of big data.

Conclusion Big Data platforms and technology have crossed the chasm of mere interest. Across the world, scientific, academic, research, businesses, as well as, government communities are aggressively charting plans and paths to benefit from developments in the big data field. The issues pertaining to policy and existing frameworks developed over the last few years in some advanced countries have been identified and critiqued to identify unresolved issues. We anticipate much action in the business and government domains in the years to come, and one such potential arena would lie in big data which spans national boundaries.

About the Author: Dr. Pranjal Kumar Phukan Over 25 years of experience in Supply Chain & Operations Management across top firms and global brands and has a strong background in network design, distribution, logistics, planning and supply chain transformation activities. Consistently demonstrated leadership abilities in achieving operational improvement by working closely along with the management and plugging the loopholes in the system by setting up systems and processes in place. An effective communicator with excellent problem solving and stakeholder management skills.

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Corporate Angle Mr. Sumeet Rajan Program Management Executive at Flex, PRINCE2 Agile

Going Lean Nowadays, competition in the global market is tough. Companies need to constantly enhance and evolve. Implementing Lean Manufacturing and Tools are a proven methodology to improve business and beat the competition.

Lean Manufacturing is a business improvement philosophy that focuses on the true needs of the customer by preventing waste from being built into the system. Waste also know as Muda is regarded as non-value adding operations such as transport, inventory, motion, waiting, over-processing, overproduction, and defects that are irrelevant for a customer. Studies has suggested that added value takes place around 5% of the time within operations and the remaining 95% is waste.

Going Lean or Lean manufacturing, or simply “lean,” is a systematic method designed to minimize waste in a manufacturing system while productivity remains constant. The power of lean manufacturing lies within its ability to find

What does “Going Lean” means?

Lean Tools

processes and actions to reduce or eliminate. In turn, this creates a balanced process that reduces cycle time and waste, increases quality, and enhances customer satisfaction. Originating in Japan in the Toyota Production System (TPS), Lean manufacturing strives to minimize waste within a manufacturing operation, with the idea being to clearly portray what adds value by removing what doesn’t.

Lean tools are designed to reduce Muda (Waste) in organizations and improve quality control. Though there are several different types of Lean tools, a few of them are mentioned below.

Five steps to Implementing Lean

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Step 1: Identify Value

Non-value added– Create no value and are avoidable.

Define value from the perspective of the final customer. Express value in terms of a specific product, which meets the customer’s needs at a specific price and at a specific time. Thus, one needs the critical starting point. Define value from the customer’s perspective and express value in terms of a specific product.

Step 3: Create Flow Make the remaining steps in the value stream flow.

Eliminate functional barriers and develop a product-focused organization that dramatically improves lead-time. Also, create the continuum of product movement, services, and information from beginning to end. Eliminate batch testing. Nothing is done by the upstream process until the downstream customer signals the need. Hence, it is necessary to eliminate unnecessary inventory build-up.

Step 2: Map the Value Stream Step 4: Establish Pull Identify the value stream, the set of all specific actions required to bring a specific product through the three critical management tasks of any business: the problem-solving task, the information management task, and the physical transformation task. Create a map of the Current State and the Future State of the value stream. Identify and categorize waste in the Current State and eliminate it! Map all the steps that bring a product or service to the customer.

Include: Value-added– Activities that are of value to the customer. Value enabling– Not valued by the customer but required for the process.

Let the customer pull products as needed, eliminating the need for a sales forecast.

Step 5: Seek Perfection There is no end to the process of reducing effort, time, space, cost, and mistakes. Also, return to the first step and begin the next lean transformation, offering a product which is ever more nearly what the customer wants. Perfection is the complete elimination of waste so that all activities create value for the customer.

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Thus, this is a continual (never-ending) process.

other market variables, resulting in fewer delays and better lead times.

Benefits: Lean manufacturing improves efficiency, reduces waste, and increases productivity. The • Sustainability: Less waste and better adaptability makes for a business that’s better benefits, therefore, are manifold: equipped to thrive well into the future.

• Employee satisfaction: Workers know when their daily routine is bloated or packed with unnecessary work, and it negatively affects morale. Lean manufacturing boosts not only productivity, but employee satisfaction.

•

Increased product quality: Improved efficiency frees up employees and resources for innovation and quality control that would have previously been wasted.

•

Improved lead times: As manufacturing • processes are streamlined, businesses can better respond to fluctuations in demand and

Increased profits: And, of course, more productivity with less waste and better quality ultimately makes for a more profitable company.

About the Author: Mr. Sumeet Rajan He is currently working with Flex as program management executive and has 7.5 years of experience in project management.

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x Emerging Managers Ms. Mansi Shrivastava Environmental Engineer DTU'20 Incoming MS student at Wageningen University Research '22

Business Operational Sustainability Sustainability generally is understood as a term that refers to the consumption of the resources available at a rate that should not get exploited for future generations. Similarly, if we talk about Business Operational Sustainability, we are referring to the fact whether a business can handle the existing practices without putting the resources that can be utilized by the future generation at risk. Operational Sustainability can also be mainly for economic or social resources.

Discussing

three

types

1. Ecological Sustainability

of

3.

Economic Sustainability

If a country or a city requires a more long-term economic balance, they would need to consider economic sustainability. Therefore, it’s quite unfair sustainability: to have one business that affects the overall condition of a region’s economy because it hampers the business’s ability to prosper.

Here, the main concept or the basic understanding is to infer that whether the company’s perspective is towards using the current resources sustainably. So, a company’s use of natural resources, recycling capacity, and waste reduction are analyzed through the production and sales process.

2. Social Sustainability

This term can also be referred to as equal sustainability as it denotes that the community can access similar resources equally. Social Sustainability demonstrates an understanding of the basic needs of all residents

What is Sustainable Business?

It is a business that consists of environmental, social, and economic impacts that are associated with operations and the sustainable use of the resources for the long-term survival of many businesses. A business should always be able to have a positive social, environmental, and economic impact, and taken together it is Collecti-

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Free Ways to Begin Greening Your Business:

vely referred to as the triple bottom line.

Tips

to

Increase

Your

Social

Impact:

1. Make sure to review the 10 principles of the UN Global Compact and abide by them.

2. Always be able to buy fair trades, this would ensure a fair wage for workers.

3. Ensure that there is a positive social impact of your company policies on your employees.

4. Evaluate the impact of your corporate giving programs.

5. Understand all the conditions that are required for the supplies to be produced.

6. Make sure your business meets the necessary requirements of all the fair practices for the labor force.

7. Check the ISO 26000 standards on social responsibility for companies.

Tips to Green Your Office:

1. Office Paper- Switch from 100% virgin paper to recycled paper products.

2. Hand towels- Switch to recycled hand towels 3. Toilet tissue- Switch to recycled bath tissue 4. Electronics and office equipment- Turn it off when not in use, make sure the products have an ENERGY STAR rating.

5. Recycling- Check with the city sanitation department to see what can be recycled and where it can be recycled.

6. Office supplies- Use recyclable or refillable items.

7. Printing and copying- For printing, reset the default font size on all devices to 10 or 11.

8. Cleaning suppliesUse green cleaning products or a green cleaning service.

How to Incorporate Sustainability in Operations Management?

Two basic challenges that are faced while linking business strategies with Operations: 1. Formulation of Operations Strategy that aligns with the business and the environment.

2. Implementation of the strategies.

3. Steps were undertaken to overcome these challenges: 4. Enabling sustainability into the stages of operations strategy.

5. Analyzing the forces that could impact sustainability and its relation with the concepts.

6. Presenting possible outcomes of evolving sustainability.

1. Use of e-mails instead of paper.

2. Print on both sides of the paper.

3. Try to buy and use recycled paper.

4. Use of eco-friendly cleaning supplies and detergents.

5. Unplug items when not in use.

6. Create a green team and track the amount of waste produced, and work towards it.

Managing Sustainability

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Strategy Formulation and Implementation

To manage sustainability, it is very important to understand that sustainability operations strategy and its sustainability operations are analyzed together.For the same Huff’s framework presenting dimensions of the strategic process was used. So, the process is divided into two processes:

According to the figure above, any idea starts with making the strategy first and then operationalizing it. Comparing two situations: (“how things are done” and “how things should be done”). The formulation shows the 5 key questions that need to be answered: The first one is “where” (in the value chain) it is considered to be one of the core information that needs for the understanding of the managing and technical staff. The second question is “why”, knowing the reason for integration would lead to the growth strategy that ultimately helps in the cost reduction strategy. The third question is “what”, answering what we exactly need to execute to pinpoint the operations that are going to be affected by the change. The fourth one is “who”, knowing who are the stakeholders gives an idea of the amount of change that can occur. The fifth one is “how”, to know how exactly are we going to organize the entire procedure.

Therefore, after finding the answers to all the 5 key questions, the implementation would become much easier for the operational managers, we conclude that SUSTAINABILITY is an OPERATION.

References: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/business-definition-operational-sustainability-25509.html https://saylordotorg.github.io/text_a-primer-on-sustainable-business/s04-operationsmanagement.html https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212827115000906

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Emerging Managers

Ms. Somjeeta Chatterjee B.Sc in Politics and Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science

Women in Economics- Debunk, Disrupt and Diversify How can you expect diversity of thought, if the but rather, because it can help to shape better thinkers themselves look identical? It’s much like policies. expecting the perpetual drizzling British weather to become like that of Mauritius- one can only dream!

Yet, the dream that can be turned into reality, is the diversity of thinkers. Yes, by that I mean Economists. In terms of ‘pluralism’ in Economics, what strikes me first is the fact that, in the UK and across many countries in the world, merely a 1/3 of Economics undergraduates are females… please allow yourselves to let that sink in.

Some of you may have read or heard about the dire need for there to be higher gender diversity in ‘STEM subjects’ in the media. ‘STEM’ refers to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Yet, not many people seem to highlight the fact that even STEM subjects have higher numbers of female students than Economics and Finance. The graph below depicts this fact for the USA, but the scenario is very similar for many countries all over the world. These numbers drop even further when it comes to female Economists in the labour market. Why is this an issue?

Pluralism should not exist for the sake of plurality,

A table of purely or majorly male policymakers should not be allowed to decide whether they should levy tax on female sanitary products, or whether women should be granted access to abortion. The table should include all, whether they identify as male, female or LGBTQ+. Clearly, the number of students being higher in STEM subjects than in Economics, proves that the common misconception, regarding women preferring to

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avoid the mathematical rigour required of Economics, is misleading. Part of the reason why females studying Mathematics may not choose to study Economics, could be due to the existence of a false perception regarding the subject. Since Economics and Finance are not a common part of the secondary school syllabus, students may not actually realise what exactly the subjects are all about!

So, what should the next steps be?

A group of academics and students are starting to realise this problem, and more importantly, they are acting on it. In my University, the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), I and a group of undergraduate students have set up a research project on how we can increase numbers of female Economics undergraduate students. Our motto is to ‘Debunk, Disrupt and Diversify’ the discipline!

Victorian philosopher Thomas Carlyle in the 19 th Century. Economists are not monotonous; not all of them only care about ‘money’! Particularly, studies have indicated that many women place a lower weight on financial return when choosing their career options; the idea of making a difference to the world seems more appealing to them. On the contrary, the image of Economics being a ‘money’related subject appeals to more men. Hence, our aim is to change the perception of Economics for those who are about to choose their University subjects. Particularly, through our project, students should be able to realise that studying Economics will provide them with ample opportunities to change the world. We want to disrupt this statusquo of gender-imbalance and make Economics a more diverse discipline. Policymakers and senior executives should represent the pluralist thoughts and ideologies that the world stands for. They should make policies for all, not for the few.Thus, together let’s debunk, disrupt and diversify Economics.

To address the elephant in the room, we want to debunk the myth that Economics is a ‘dismal science’, as described by the renowned Reference: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/economics-and-finance/economics-has-a-gender-problemand-it-starts-at-school

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x

Emerging Managers

Ms. Awari Renuka Sambhaji MBA, Batch 2020-2022, IBS Hyderabad, India.

IOT in Operations Management “If you think that the internet has changed your life, think again. The IoT is about to change it all over again!” — Brendan O’Brien, Chief Architect & Co-Founder, Aria Systems

Acceleration, tilt, humidity, sound, leaks etc.

Connectivity includes Ethernet, Bluetooth, WiFi, LTE, GPS, LAN, MAN, WAN, USB, 3G, 5G etc; Data and Analytics. IoT is at its flex because the hardware is cheap, Connectivity is pervasive, From the invention of the Internet in 1983, there Development is easy, Moore’s law continues to have been major developments and waves but the exist, Metcalfe’s law also exists. great Tsunami came when fixed internet, mobile internet and IOT were invented. IoT is cyber- The major beneficiaries of IoT are users, makers physical systems incorporating internet and the operation environment. connectivity with the ability to sense and react to the world in innovative and highly useful ways.

IoT can be used to improve customer experience to reinvent, improve operational efficiency and cost The Businesses that survive in the 21st century are reduction, develop a new business model the pioneers in IoT, willing to learn and take risks information you need to make an IoT device differs building virtual teams internally and externally, from businesses to organizations. their success is determined not by age but by their ability to develop agile, flexible business solutions. Type of data mostly required are as follows: The four major components of IoT are Sensors & Actuators like position, presence, proximity, Motion, Velocity, Displacement, Temperature,

1. Process duration.

2. Individual labourer.

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3. Idle time versus dynamic time.

broadband Internet has become more widely, available and affordable, the cost of connection to 4. The time between request accommodation the Internet has decreased, having access to realand initiating of request. time data from loT can help to identify potential risks in the supply chain, provide real-time 5. Time spent on workers on each job each day, traceability and enable notification when shipments will be late due to weather and other delays. week and month.

The reasons for the use of IoT in supply chains are that it enables real-time visibility, help companies ensure compliance with chain of custody regulators, especially for sensitive cargo, Facilities

6. Cost per work.

7. Time spent looking for devices.

IoT solutions for Transportation and Logistics are sensors in vehicles which report the state of each vehicle this reduces the truck operations and delivery systems costs as the delivery disruptions are less, on-time delivery is increased with optimized logistics systems.

IoT solutions for Oil and Gas are Sensors placed on oil rigs which enable operations to identify problems before they occur this reduces time to oil extraction and utilization of all the assets efficiently.

integration between systems to enable seamless supply chain. Enables performance measurement and monitoring so that malfunction can be detected.

Improves forecasting accuracy. Helps to reduce equipment damage. Can capture load discrepancies and notify all in real-time. Enables better track and trace of inventory. Enables continual feedback in real-time for the warehouse that “live-unload” trailers. Can provide direction and feedback to truck drivers regarding conditions and trailer delivery times. Helps to prevent damage of goods.

IoT solutions for Smart city are connected devices improve a multitude of city services, increased Including IoT technology will result in digital revenue and reduction of cost with the efficiency of transformation that delivers the following benefits: operations, optimized personnel with more data.

This improves the quality of life. IoT enables a 1.10%increase Fieldworker real-time utilization person to have a quantified self and lifelogging with rates. measuring all the activities, having a digital diary, understanding oneself, maintaining physical health 2.50% Reduction in Office administration costs etc. Other examples of IoT enabled services are by eliminating re-entry of field data.

Smart Parking, Smart Waste Management. The major revolution in the field of operations is IOT in 3.19% Increase in asset availability. warehouse and supply chain operations. The simple and intuitive concept that is helping to digitally 4.60% Reduction in Mean Time To Repair transform the supply chain and the way consumers (MTTR). live is Home automation in smart houses.

5.100% real-time Management / Data insights on IoT is becoming widespread in the supply chain as GeoPal dashboards.

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It may seem to you as if we live in an Internet of Everything world today. Business models are developing to enhance customer experiences.

Keeping the Internet of Things secure is a top priority to safeguard personal data.

devices. Robotic and AI solutions are being utilized in warehouses and operations in concert with warehouse workers to improve performance and reduce errors. Facility managers now can rely on

IoT for the workhorse of their operation and reduce In the world of warehousing, IoT has taken hold. their dependence on unreliable workers.

To speed up the handling and shipping of inventory, warehouses are using more of IoT We all need to get SMART.

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“

Emerging Managers

Ms. Manya Verma MBA, Batch 2020-2022, IBS Hyderabad, India.

World Class Manufacturing Manufacturing has been growing continuously since the beginning of the industrial revolution. In the current competitive and global era, it is a must for an organization to have its manufacturing practice, which is efficient, lean, flexible, and cost-effective.

World class manufacturing is a group of concepts that sets standard of production and manufacturing for organizations across the globe to follow.

Japanese manufacturing is considered a pioneer in the concept of world-class manufacturing.

Automobile, Electronic and Steel industries were first to be introduced with World class manufacturing concepts.

● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Smaller lot sizes Collection of parts Doing it right first time Higher employee involvement Cellular or group manufacturing Zero Defects Just in Time Cross Functional Teams Increased consistency Statistical process control Multi-Skilled employees Visual Signalling

World class manufacturing is a process driven approach where various philosophies and techniques are used in one or more combinations.

Some of the techniques in world class manufacturing are as follows: ● ● ● ●

Quick replacement Make to order Streamlined Flow Total preventive maintenance

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Idea behind using techniques mentioned above is on production of products that are aligned with to focus on creating cost efficient organization, forecasted demand to meet customer operational efficiency and reducing waste. This expectations. will help in creation of a highly productive organization that uses concurrent production ● Postpone product mutation: To techniques rather than sequential production achieve a higher degree of customization methods. many changes must be made in the final product. However, it is important that World Class Manufacturers mutation conceived in the design stage, implements only after final operation.

World class manufacturers try to implement best practices and invent new practices, to stay above Principles of World Class Manufacturing the rest in the production and manufacturing sector. Quality, cost effectiveness, flexibility and There are three major principles that drive innovation are the main parameters that determine world-class manufacturing. world-class manufacturers.

These manufacturers implement robust control ● Implementation of lean management and techniques but, to make the system efficient, there just in time leads to reduction in wastage are following five steps to be followed. therefore reduction in cost. ● Reduction of tuning of machinery and set up time: It is important that organizations can reduce or cut back time in tuning machinery before production and in setting up of machinery.

●

Implementation of total quality management encourages zero tolerance towards defects and leads to reduction of defects.

● Implementation of total preventive Reduce WIP material: It is a tendency of maintenance will lead to stoppage of manufacturing organizations to maintain a production due to mechanical failure. high level of WIP materials. Increase in WIP leads to increase in cost and decreased WIP Aspects of World Class Manufacturing results in more focus on production and fast movement of goods and materials.

The major aspects of the world class manufacturing process are as follows: ● Cellular Manufacturing: It is necessary that production processes are divided according to ● Operations area their nature, that is combining processes with ● Industrial culture area similar nature together. ● Product development area ● Market/client area ● Remove the trivial many and focus on vital ● E-Performance area few: It is necessary for an organization to focus ●

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Emerging Managers

Ms. Garima Soni MBA, Batch 2020-2022, IBS Hyderabad, India.

Earned Value Analysis Earned Value analysis is a method of performance measurement. Earned Value is a program management technique that uses “work in progress” to point what is going to happen to figure within the future.

er run, the project management team may execute a value engineering program for cost reduction either reducing scope and quality in some sections of the project or providing an additional budget to cover overrun cost. Similarly, for time overrun cases, they may plan some programs like fast-tracking or time Earned Value is an enhancement over traditional crashing for time reduction. accounting progress measures. Traditional methods focus on planned expenditure and actual Parameters costs. Earned Value goes one step further and examines actual accomplishment. This gives EVA uses cost because of the common measure of managers greater insight into potential risk areas. project cost and schedule performance. It allows the With a clearer picture, managers can create risk measurement of cost in currency, hours, workermitigation plans supported by the actual cost, days, or the other similar quantity which will be schedule, and technical progress of the work. It is used as a standard measurement of the values an “early warning” project management tool that associated with project work. EVA uses the permits managers to spot and control problems subsequent project parameters to evaluate project before they become insurmountable. performance: It allows projects to be managed better – on time, Budget at Completion (BAC) on budget. Earned Value Management System isn't a selected system or toolset, but rather, a The original budget of the project. group of guidelines that guide a company’s management control system. In the case of cost ov- Planned Value (PV)

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Planned Value describes how far along project work is meant to be at any given point within the project schedule and price estimate. Cost and Schedule baseline refers to the physical work scheduled and the approved budget to accomplish the scheduled work. Planned Value (PV) is decided by the value and schedule baseline.

PV= Planned % Complete x BAC Actual Value (AC)

method.

Schedule Variance status does not address the impact of work sequence, address the importance of work, reflect critical path assessment, indicate the amount of time it will slip, identify the source (labor & material) of difference, indicate the time ahead/behind (or regain) schedule, nor indicate the value needed to regain schedule.

Actual Cost (AC), also called actual expenditures, is that the incurred for executing work on a project.

Current AC is the actual costs of activities performed during a given period. Actual Cost (AC) is decided by the actual cost incurred on the project.

The formula utilized to express schedule variance is project earned value minus the project planned value as of the date of examination. If the variance is equal to 0, the project is on schedule. If a negative variance is decided, the project is not on time and if the variance is positive the project is ahead of schedule.

Earned Value (EV)

SV = EV – PV

To report the accomplishments of the project, Earned Value (EV) is applied to the figures and calculations in the project. EV is that the quantification of the “worth” of the work done so far. EV tells you, in physical terms, what the project has accomplished. As with PV and AC, EV re often presented in a Cumulative and Current fashion. Cumulative EV is that the sum of the allow the activities accomplished so far.

Current EV is the sum of the budget for the activities accomplished during a given period.

Earned Value is additionally called the Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP). Earned Value (EV) tells you, in physical terms, what the project accomplished. EV is the amount of money worth of work you actually did on the project.

Cost Variance (CV)

EV= Actual % Complete x BAC Schedule variance (SV)

The cost variance is defined as the “difference between earned value and actual costs.” Sometimes this formula is expressed because of the difference between the budgeted cost of work performed and the actual cost of work performed. If the variance is equal to 0, the project is on budget. If a negative variance is determined, the project is over budget and if the variance is positive the project is under budget.

CV = EV – AC Schedule Performance Index (SPI) The SPI is defined as “a measure of schedule efficiency on a project. It is the ratio of earned value (EV) to planned value (PV).

The SPI is equal to earned value divided by planned Schedule Variance status does indicate the dollar value. An SPI equal to or greater than one indicates value difference between work that is ahead or a positive condition and a worth of less than one behind the plan and reflects a given measurement indicates an unfavourable condition.”

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SPI = EV/PV

The performance that must be met to end the project within the budget.

Cost Performance Index (CPI) TCPI = (BAC – EV) / (BAC – AC) The CPI is defined as a “measure of cost efficiency on a project. It is the ratio of earned value (EV) to actual costs (AC). The CPI is equal to the earned value divided by the actual costs.” A CPI equal to or greater than one indicates a favourable condition and a value of less than one indicates an unfavourable condition.

CPI = EV/AC Estimate to Completion (ETC) Forecasting the amount that will be needed to complete the current project based on the current performance.

ETC = EAC - AC Variance at Completion (VAC) The difference between the original budget and the new forecasted budget. This value should be positive for projects that may end at or under budget VAC = BAC - EAC To-Complete Performance Index (TCPI)

Implementation Challenges For organizations implementing Earned Value Management, the challenge lies not just in the mechanics of the method, but more often in the cultural change required to underpin an EV based project control system.

Additionally, when most organizations first attempt to use EVM, they typically find that it highlights weaknesses or gaps in the project planning and control processes and capabilities. For example: ● A robust baseline needs to be developed as soon as possible after contract award – this task alone challenges many organizations – and then it must be maintained ● The planning process must identify all major project deliverables clearly, not just the functional effort assumed to be required to deliver a project ● Objective measures of physical progress must be assessed routinely ● Business systems and processes need to provide data in a timely manner (e.g. costs) and need to be structurally compatible with the needs of the EVM system.

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ABOUT US The word “Kaizen”, where “Kai” = change “Zen” = good, simply means “change for better”. In English Kaizen is typically applied to measures for implementing continuous improvement. It is an approach to activity organisation based on common sense, self -discipline, order and economy and is a strong contributor and fundamental part of a lean production process model in lean manufacturing.

Kaizen- The Official Operations Club of IBS Hyderabad believes in relishing in the essence of "Constant Change and Evolvement" and hence we, as an organization work willingly for the betterment of the student community.

KORE- Kaizen’s Operations and Research Entity, one of our primary wings which flaps to cater to the needs of students and motivate them to soar high by polishing their technical competencies. KORE’s area of expertise includes Case Based Research, Consultancy, Live Projects and Workshops.

LAKSHYA, an initiative taken by KORE primarily focuses on the concepts of operations management and various articles based on the day to day operations and logistics of an organisation.

NISHU KUMARI KEJRIWAL EDITOR IN CHIEF - KORE Kaizen – IBS Hyderabad Batch 2019-21

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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.

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