OPSESSION
Volume 2|Issue 3
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Cover Story: X-Ops conducts its annual business conclave “Ashwamedh-15”
X-Ops conducts A session on ‘Crack It’
Opsession
Around the World with Operations Management
August Issue This is the third issue from volume two of Opsession, the monthly newsletter of X-Ops. The newsletter was introduced last year by X-Ops with the intention of covering all the activities and events that took place during the span of a month.
Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar Volume#2
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Volume 2|Issue 3
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Around the world with Operations and Supply Chain Management The perils of Internet of Things While many regard the IoT or Internet of Things as a beacon of revolutionary changes in supply chain and logistics planning, its detractors now have stronger reasons to question its impact. IoT has gained momentum with the conversion of earlier dumb devices into smart devices as a source of useful information. Supply chain wise its means higher supply chain visibility and better control. But the security concerns associated with it have been heightened by a recent software glitch in the controls of Jeep Cherokee that allows hackers to maneuver the vehicle while on move. Such occurrences have huge implications for supply chain pundits who are increasingly advocating the use of IoT in traditional supply chain networks. Whether such threats can be successfully thwarted or written off as insignificant, remains to be seen.
India posed to be the next car export hub for GM General Motors is planning to invest USD 1 million in India over the next few
years to turn it into a global car export hub. With Make in India campaign turning India into a lucrative investment opportunity GM is considered it as a part of its larger plan for creating a global market for its Chevrolet ranges of cars. It would be a strategic move for this automobile giant even though it has cut down on its production in India owing to the sluggish demand. With this investment in the offing, General Motors joins the group of elite multinational firms eyeing India as their next big investment.
Yuan Devaluation: A Chinese gimmick? Last month the news was flooded with the reports of China devaluing the Yuan by almost 3%. While trade pundits have been closely watching the movement of the Chinese currency and assessing its impact, few believe this might be a tactic by the Chinese government to boost the export trade which saw a decline of 8.3% during July. With its economy relying heavily on its
export trade, it might be a calculated move for China. With the US Dollar seeing an upturn recently, the comparative value of Yuan has gone down quite a bit. While this obviously means less expensive exports from China, whether or not it leads to a volume boost that China expects and its impact on the global economy and especially the global logistic network is yet to be ascertained.
Tianjin Explosions: A cause of concern for Global Supply Chain? The August 12 blasts at a container storage location of the Ruihai International Logistics Warehouse of Tianjin Port in China has left hundreds of people dead along with stalling of operations of the port and several other businesses nearby including that of Japanese automobile giant Toyota. Although most of them have already restarted their operations or are planning to do so soon, some are still sceptical of its impact on the global supply chain. With Tianjin Port being one of the significant hubs of global trade, the normalcy of its operations lies at a stake owing to the several repercussions of the explosions like long term environmental and health hazards due to the possible release of toxic materials to the environment. Moreover, the previous track record of the Chinese government for downplaying such incidents and hushing up public information has added fuel to such scepticism.
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Crack It session by X-Ops
T
he onset of life at a B-School is marked with a lot of excitement and anxiety as the students embark upon a highly eventful journey of two years. While much of the early few weeks are spent getting accustomed to the new routine, it is also expected of them to be ready for the corporate journey that these two years would culminate into. B-School competitions launched by industry stalwarts is one such platform to expose them to the real face of business management. These competitions not only offer lucrative prizes but are a great way of learning for the students through live cases that help explore their business acumen. But such competitions can at times become a bit overwhelming for the new students due to a lack of experience. X-Ops as a committee has always endeavoured for promoting better learning opportunities for the student community at XIMB and thus has been providing a platform for guiding the students for facing these competitions with its initiative “Crack It”. Continuing its pursuit of holding out a
helping hand to the students of XIMB, XOps, the Operations Committee successfully conducted ‘Crack It’ on 10th August. ‘Crack It’ serves as a platform where successful participants from the 2nd year who have previously won or represented the institute at national or regional rounds of notable B-School competitions, interact with the students and share their valuable experience and offer their advice for approaching such competitions. The speakers for this occasion were:
Padmalaya Mallick, Girish Kuttisankaran & Esha Epsita (Carpe Diem Challenge 2014 – HUL)
Allwin R. Amalraj, Ashwin Srivastava & Vishwajeet Kumar Jha (Brew-a-career' case study competition 2014 – SAB Miller)
Padmalaya Mallick, Esha Epsita, Sourabh Ranjan Khuntia & Nitika Baralia (Mahindra Warroom Season 7 - Mahindra Group)
Abul Hasnain Zaidi & Mohit Jain (TCS Casewiz competition 2014 – TCS)
Javed Iqbal, Kanakesh Gupta, Pradyumn Passari & Omkar Modak (Steel-a-thon - TATA Steel)
Nibesan Bhawsinka, Neetesh Singh, Ananta Lal (L'OREAL Brandstorm L'OREAL) BRIEFLY STARTED OUT WITH A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE COMPETITION AND THEIR EXPERIENCE FACING THE JURY FOR EVALUATION. THE EVENT CONCLUDED WITH A BRIEF QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION.
Each team of speakers started out with a brief description of the competition and their experience facing the jury for evaluation. The teams briefly displayed the presentations that they had made for the competitions and shared several valuable tips for making a good presentation. Each team further elaborated on the various nuances of preparing for such competitions like the amount of primary and secondary research that a team needs to carry out, the reliable sources of information and the method of approaching each case. Apart from a general approach for case evaluation, the speakers shared several tips that would really help the students to make a mark. The event concluded with a brief question and answer session, where the speakers faced a volley of questions from the inquisitive students by enthusiastically answering their queries. A huge round of applause at the end was a testimony to the efforts put in by each speaker and the mark they had made upon the students. It was a really enlightening and inspiring experience for the students who at the end were ready to participate and Crack It!
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X-Ops Conducts Ashwamedh’15
n this rapidly changing business environment, no amount of management education is complete without an industry exposure. To provide students with such an opportunity, B-Schools today have many corporate engagements for the students like internships, live projects and corporate competitions among others as an integral part of the curriculum. Among these, a business conclave provides an excellent platform for providing student engagement with the industry as well as helps build excellent and collaborative campus to corporate relationships. Each year at XIMB, the students gear up to be a part of a series of such conclaves in several functional domains that brings together eminent persons from diverse backgrounds like academia, corporate as well as government sector to discuss and present insights into the new developments and trends that are shaping up the landscape of business today. This year X-Ops, the Operations Management Committee of XIMB conducted its annual national seminar “Ashwamedh-15” on 30th August with the theme of “Gaining Competitive Advantage with Operations and Supply Chain Management” which was quite in harmony with the highly competitive nature of business today. Ashwamedh, now in its 11th year has always been a promising engagement for the students for stimulating their young minds. This year the stage was set for another round of enriching discussion
with many stalwarts from various walks of the corporate world joining the panel to share their experience in the field of Operations Management. The eminent speakers for the event were –
Mr. Vinay Singh Kushwaha, VPSupply Chain, Britannia Industries Ltd
Mr. VS Ramesh, Associate VPBusiness Excellence, Godrej and Boyce Mfg Co Ltd
Mr. Baldeep Singh, VP-Operations, Snapdeal
Mr. M.S Harinath, GMProcurement, Mylan Laboratories Ltd
Mr. Soumyakant Dwivedi, ManagerSupply Chain, Beckton-Dickinson and Company
Mr. Subhankar Mahapatra, Associate GM-Adani Ports & SEZ Ltd.
The entire event was moderated by the esteemed faculty of XIMB, Dr W. S. Willam, Professor of Operations Management and Faculty Co-ordinator for X-Ops. The event began with formal introduction of the dignitaries and inviting them on the dais. It was followed by the lighting of the auspicious lamp to mark the formal inauguration of Ashwamedh. At Ashwamedh’14, X-Ops had become the first ever B-School Committee to launch its own mobile app and had launched the annual magazine through the app. Continuing this newly created tradition of going green, the annual magazine of X-Ops “Ashwamedh-15” was launched on the app by our eminent panellists. Prof William set the stage for the discussion by emphasising the role of Operations Management in business where it acts as a core competency for organizations and a tool for creating value for the customers. He also discussed the evolution of Operations Management and Supply Chain Management from the time of Ford in
OPSESSION | Volume 2 | Issue 3 1913 till the present era. Our first speaker for the day was Mr Vinay Kushwaha who discussed the importance of Operations and Supply Chain Management in the packaged food industry with an overview of the practices at Britannia. He also shared the various challenges that the industry faces like low margins, low value density of the food products , the distributed supply chain footprint and the need for enhancing asset productivity by pegging the production capacity with the demand. With his valuable words he stressed the importance of Operations Management to overcome these challenges and gain competitive advantage in the packaged food business. Our next speaker Mr Soumyakant Dwivedi began his talk by citing how successful organizations today rely on supply chain management to ensure that their goods and services flow to the market at competitive rates. Highlighting the importance of collaboration to improve sense in demand and response in supply, he concluded with a quote by Colin Powell “Endeavours succeed or fail because of people involved. Only by attracting the best people will you accomplish great deeds.” The applications of operations management are not limited to just traditional manufacturing sector but are equally important for the service sector as well. The recent proliferation of the ecommerce sector has further highlighted the importance of well-managed operations and logistics network to remain competitive. Our third speaker Mr Baldeep Singh shared his experience at Snapdeal to highlight the key growth drivers and latest trends in e-commerce business. He touched upon several such tools like increase in options in the online mode vis-à-vis a physical store and the improved reach of the global brands to the customers among others. Carrying the discussion ahead, Mr V. S. Ramesh discussed several contemporary issues like skew in demand, discounting, variability in demand and importance of effective dealer network by citing several examples of cases at Godrej Security Services. Mr M. S. Harinath
5 presented an overview of Indian Pharmaceutical Companies and the role of supply chain management practices in shaping efficient delivery systems. He also discussed several challenges that this industry faces in terms of reliability of suppliers, domination of distributors and others that further emphasize the focus on developing strong supply chain strategies. Our final speaker for the day, Mr Subhankar Mahapatra presented his views through several real life examples like Ferrari and McDonald’s and the way they have standardized their products in terms of superior quality globally. Moreover, he stressed on the need for operational excellence for revival of the Indian Railways that currently operates under huge losses. After presenting their views, the speakers enthusiastically answered the queries of the students during a brief interactive Q&A session. As a prelude to Ashwamedh, X-Ops had conducted a white paper writing competition for BSchool students across India on the theme of Ashwamedh’15. The winners
of this completion were felicitated by the honourable guests. Finally the event concluded with all the dignitaries being presented with mementos as a token of our gratitude followed by a Vote of Thanks by Prof Arun Kumar Paul. It was a matter of immense pride for the entire team of X-Ops for creating such a great opportunity for the students to learn and interact with the eminent guests after months of relentless efforts and the able guidance and support of the faculty and administration of XIMB.
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Editorial Board: EDITOR:
ABINASH MALLICK
DESIGN:
ABHINEET SUDHENDRA
COORDINATOR: P H PRUDHVI
Opsession Monthly
XIM, Bhubaneswar