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SMU MBA SEM 2 FALL 2015 ASSIGNMENTS

MB 0044 - PRODUCTION AND OPERATION MANAGEMENT

1 Write short notes on:

Outsourcing strategies for capital productivity

Implementation of operations

Basic competitive priorities

Market survey method of forecasting

2 “Gujarat’s emergence as an auto hub is a positive for the economy

Saturday, 17 September 2011 - 8:00am IST | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

Several domestic and foreign auto manufacturers have either announced plans to establish manufacturing plants in Gujarat or are considering it as a possible location.

Those establishing the plants include the US-based Ford Motor and PSA Peugeot Citroen from France, joining India’s Tata Motors, General Motors of US, Bombardier of Canada and Asia Motor Works (AMW), a heavy commercial vehicle manufacturer.

Auto ancillary hubs, which are critical for a thriving auto hub, are located in Rajkot, Ahmedabad and Vadodara, and more to come in Kutch and Sanand districts. A precision engineering park is planned to come up in Dahej.

Domestic companies that are considering to enter Gujarat, with the exception of Maruti Suzuki, include Hero MotorCorp (formerly Hero Honda), Bajaj Auto and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), a public sector company specialising in production of aircraft and helicopters. (Recently Maruti Gujarat’s auto hub thus goes beyond the production of cars. The mix of domestic and foreign auto companies also provides opportunities for skills transfer and learning.

Total installed capacity of Tamil Nadu, mainly around Chennai, is 1.28 million units, and is among the top 10 centres globally for car manufacturing, while that of Maharashtra, mainly around Pune, is 0.61 million units. With the entry of Ford and Peugeot, Gujarat’s production capacity, mainly around Sanand, is projected at 0.76 million by 2014. This will rise significantly if Maruti’s production, largely for export, comes on stream.

Gujarat’s currently established but relatively mid-sized auto ancillary units are getting a boost from these automakers, referred to as OE (original equipment) procedures, asking their tier I, II and III vendors to locate manufacturing and assembly facilities in and around their main production sites. Tata, for example, is encouraging and facilitating key vendors to locate to Sanand and set up a facility within a reasonable time horizon.

Gujarat’s emergence as an auto hub is not an accident, but an outcome of leveraging its strengths through sound economic policies and competent management by the state government.

Gujarat has leveraged its locational advantages, with relatively low transaction costs for accessing markets in the western and northern India. Good rail connectivity is slated to improve significantly with the opening of the dedicated freight corridors to Dahej and Nhava Sheva passing through large parts of Gujarat. Sanand is also a part of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), a multi-billion dollar India-Japan initiative. The Delhi-Mumbai freight corridor project will provide excellent rail connectivity for the auto sector in Sanand and for other industries.

Gujarat’s port development initiatives are closely coordinated with rail transport. These provide access for exports to the West, a favoured market for Indian OE. Since 2009, Maruti has been shipping cars by rail from Manesar to the Mundra Port, where there is a roll-on-roll-off (RORO), terminal for receiving and prepping new cars for exports. Korean automakers are also exploring this option.

Gujarat’s port development also could permit economical transportation to other parts of the country, through viable coastal shipping routes which is yet to take off, thus diversifying transport modes.

Developing domestic and international financial services, improving road and air connectivity and focusing on affordable housing and other amenities could further add to Gujarat’s locational advantage.

One of the advantages of Gujarat is the larger share of non-fertile agricultural land. This potentially makes managing the requirements of industry for land easier. Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) deserves credit for turning the above potential into actual accomplishments.

As many of the established tier I, II and III manufacturers in Tamil Nadu and Delhi are faced with space and environmental constraints in expanding their operations in their historic sites, they are exploring alternate avenues. Gujarat’s land bank could thus be an attractive factor.

Sanand is a part of special investment region, which permits firms investing there to avail various fiscal and non-fiscal benefits, reducing project costs, including time for completing the project cycle.

The Gujarat government recognises the importance of overall conducive investment environment in attracting investments rather than merely relying on tax incentives. This policy lesson is applicable to the investment and manufacturing zones (NIMZs) under the national manufacturing policy (NMP) which is being finalised. It envisages around five greenfield integrated industrial townships.

Another noteworthy policy initiative is establishment of an automotive skills development institute at Sanand on a public private partnership basis by Gujarat government and Peugeot Citroen. This approach to human capital development will serve, India, Gujarat and the new entrants well as they will have access to a younger work force, well trained in modern manufacturing techniques with skills honed around the productivity needs of the future.

There are several reasons why Gujarat’s emergence as an auto hub is a positive for India’s economy. First, the auto sector is a mother industry and for every direct job in the OE, minimum 5-7 indirect jobs are created in tier I, II and III, not including jobs for drivers, service station attendants and mechanics that form a well paying proposition for many relatively less skilled, but aspirational Indians.

Secondly, importance of transport equipment, which includes all types of motorised vehicles, in India’s trade has been increasing. Its share in India’s exports rose from 2.3% in 2000-01 to 7.8% in April-February 2010-11; while the corresponding share for imports soar from 1.4% to 2.5%. The emergence of Gujarat as an auto hub is expected to assist in India’s external trade in transport equipment as exports are likely to constitute a significant proportion of auto sector’s output from Gujarat.

Many European OE are building their design and engineering back offices in India, providing job opportunities for the design, hardware and software engineers. This will help India to develop a niche position globally and diversify its export basket.

Thirdly, healthy competition among auto hubs in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat will be a positive for the manufacturing productivity. This is because such competition will mitigate against complacency by each of them and contain costs.

Finally, it would assist India in progressing towards the goal of increasing the share of manufacturing in GDP from 16% in 2010 to 25% by 2022. It could also assist in India’s international competitiveness in manufacturing as PTAs (preferential trade agreements) with economic partners with strong manufacturing sectors, such as China, Japan, and Korea, are implemented.”

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report-gujarat-s-emergence-as-an-auto-hub-is-a-positive-for-the-economy-1588052, accessed 24th Oct, 2014

Instructions: Read the above article and hyperlinked articles to answer the question given below

Question

Evaluate the factors that favour Gujarat as a location for manufacturing automobiles.

List the general factors that favour Gujarat as a destination for automobile manufacturing

List the special factors that favour Gujarat as a destination for automobile manufacturing

Explain why each of these factors favour Gujarat as automobile manufacturing hub

Compare Gujarat with other states like Tamil Nadu or Haryana in terms of locating a automobile manufacturing plant

Summarize if Gujarat is a better location for manufacturing automobiles

3 Write short notes on:

5Ss system of waste elimination

Scheduling in services

Vendor managed inventory

Subcontracting capacity (production) option

4 Describe the post implementation review of a project. Explain the tools that may be considered for post implementation review.

Description of the four parts of the post implementation review of a project

Final product review

Outstanding project work review

Project review

Process review

5 Explain the steps to set data in logical order so that the business process may be defined.

List the ingredients of a business process.

Explanation of the steps to set data in a logical order

Listing of the ingredients of a business process

6 Describe the dimensions of quality.

Explain the four dimensions of quality

MB0045- FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

1 Explain the liquidity decisions and its important elements. Write complete information on dividend decisions.

Explanation of liquidity decisions with its important elements

Explanation of dividend decisions

2 Explain about the doubling period and present value. Solve the below given problem:

Under the ABC Bank’s Cash Multiplier Scheme, deposits can be made for periods ranging from 3 months to 5 years and for every quarter, interest is added to the principal. The applicable rate of interest is 9% for deposits less than 23 months and 10% for periods more than 24 months. What will be the amount of Rs. 1000 after 2 years?

Explanation of doubling period

Solving the problem

Explanation of present value

3 Write short notes on:

a) Operating Leverage

b) Financial leverage

c) Combined leverage

Explanation of operating leverage

Explanation of financial leverage

Explanation of combined leverage

4 Explain the factors affecting Capital Structure. Solve the below given problem:

Given below are two firms, A and B, which are identical in all aspects except the degree of leverage employed by them. What is the average cost of capital of both firms?

Details of Firms A and B

	Firm A	Firm B
Net operating income EBIT	Rs. 1, 00, 000	Rs. 1, 00, 000
Interest on debentures I	Nil	Rs.25,000
Equity earnings E	Rs.1,00,000	Rs.75,000
Cost of equity Ke	15%	15%
Cost of debentures Kd	10%	10%
Market value of equity S = E/Ke	Rs. 6, 66, 667	Rs.5,00,000
Market value of debt B	Nil	Rs.2,50,000
Total value of firm V	Rs. 6, 66, 667	Rs,7,50,000

Explanation of factors affecting capital structure

Solution for the problem

Interpretation

5 Explain all the sources of risk in capital budgeting with examples.

Solve the below given problem:

An investment will have an initial outlay of Rs 100,000. It is expected to generate cash inflows. Cash inflow for four years.

Year	Cash Flow
1	40000
2	50000
3	15000
4	30000

If the risk free rate and the risk premium is 10%,

a) Compute the NPV using the risk free rate

b) Compute NPV using risk-adjusted discount rate

Explanation of risk in capital budgeting with examples

Solution for the problem with interpretation

6 Explain the objectives of Cash Management. Write about the Baumol model with their assumptions.

Explanation of objectives of cash management

Explanation of Baumol model with assumptions

MB0046- Marketing Management

1 Suppose you are the marketing manager of a banking firm. Your bank has opened its first branch overseas. What factor do you think will affect the choice of marketing the most and why?

Define environment scanning

Demographics

Political and Legal environment

Socio-cultural environment

2 A brand is a composite set of beliefs and associations in the mind of consumers. In brand development, as a part of branding strategy decision, the brand manager can decide to create new brand elements for the new products, apply some of the existing brand elements to the new product, or use a combination of existing and new brand elements to the existing and new products. Explain the different branding strategies used by the companies for their range of products.

Definition of Brand

Advantages of Brand

Explanation of different branding strategies adopted by companies

3 Describe the international market entry strategies in brief.

Joint ventures

Strategic alliances

Direct investment

Contract manufacturing

Franchising

4 Personal selling focuses in on ‘personal’ or ‘one to one’ selling. It involves an individual salesman or a sales team establishing and building a profitable relationship with customers over a period of time through a series of steps. Explain the steps in the personal selling process which helps in the successful sales.

Definition of Personal Selling

Explanation of steps in the Personal selling process

5 Describe the stages in consumer decision making process.

Explanation of consumer decision making process

6 Describe some of the strategies for effective marketing and advertising in rural market. Also explain the innovative use of media in rural market.

Nature of the rural market

Strategies

Innovative use of media

MB0047 – MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM

1 In the current e-world any organisation’s massive operations are managed by various types of information systems that help them to achieve their goals of servicing their clients. This can be done by the growth of modern organization. Discuss some of the essential features of modern organisation.

[Listing the features

Explaining each of them in brief]

2 Marketing managers are keener to look for a least cost route that also allow a sales person to meet all his customers. Identifying a least cost route with this features is slightly complicated. Therefore, managers depend on decision support tools to find the most cost effective routes to cover the market. The travelling salesman problem is one of such tool. Describe the tool with a diagram.

[Graphical representation of Travelling salesman problem

Describing the problem]

3 There are many examples of digital goods. Companies such as Amazon.com are selling digital versions of books over their site. These digital books can be read on special readers that display the pages on a screen.

a. List the important properties of information goods

b. Explain positive feedback with diagrams

[a. Listing the properties

b. Two diagrams

Explanation on positive feedback]

4Decision support systems (DSS) are used extensively across organisations to assist managers with making decisions. Decision making by managers involves the phases of intelligence, design, and choice, and DSS help mainly with the choice part as they support structured and unstructured types of decisions.

a. What is it that managers do when they make decisions?

b. Explain the different types of decisions

[a. Explaining decision making process

b. List and describing the different types of decisions]

5 What is crowdsourcing? How does the site Galaxy Zoo manage crowdsourcing?

[Crowdsourcing definition

Explaining site Galaxy Zoo management]

6 Data and information relating to individuals could be of sensitive nature. Give some examples of such kind of data

[Explaining five examples]

MB0048 OPERATIONS RESEARCH

1 Describe the framework of Operations Research

List the seven stages of Operations Research

Briefly explain seven stages of Operations Research

2 a. Explain the graphical method of solving Linear Programming Problem.

b. A paper mill produces two grades of paper viz., X and Y. Because of raw material restrictions, it cannot produce more than 400 tons of grade X paper and 300 tons of grade Y paper in a week. There are 160 production hours in a week. It requires 0.20 and 0.40 hours to produce a ton of grade X and Y papers. The mill earns a profit of Rs. 200 and Rs. 500 per ton of grade X and Y paper respectively. Formulate this as a Linear Programming Problem.

[Meaning of Linear programming problem

Explanation of graphical method of solving Linear Programming Problem

Formulation of LPP (Objective function & Constraints)]

3 a. Explain some of the important terms of the transportation problem.

b. Explain the steps of MODI (Modified Distribution) method.

a. List and briefly explain some of the important terms of the transportation problem

b. Describe the procedure of MODI method

4 a. Explain the steps involved in Hungarian method of solving Assignment problems.

b. Find an optimal solution to an assignment problem with the following cost matrix:

JI	J2	J3	J4
10	9	7	8
5	8	7	7
5	4	6	5
2	3	4	5

a. Steps in Hungarian method

b. Computation/Solution to the problem

5 a. Write a short note on Monte Carlo Simulation.

b. Hindustan Bakery is popular for its delicious fruit cakes. The table below shows the daily demand for the bakery’s cakes.

Daily demand	0	15	25	35	45	50
Probability	0.01	0.15	0.2	0.5	0.12	0.02

Simulate the demand for cakes for 10 days using the following sequence of random numbers:

22, 26, 48, 53, 93, 89, 42, 91, 25, 20

If 35 cakes are baked every day in Hindustan Bakery, determine the inventory stock. In addition, estimate the daily average demand for cakes on the basis of simulated data.

a. Explanation of Monte Carlo Simulation

b. Calculation/ Solution to the problem

6 a. State the assumptions of game theory.

b. What are the characteristics of Markov chain?

c. What are the rules for prioritising jobs?

a.List the assumptions of game theory

b.List the characteristics of Markov chain

c.List and briefly explain the rules for prioritising jobs

MB 0049 - PROJECT MANAGEMENT

1 Explain the phases of project management life cycle.

Explanation of the 5 phases of project management

2 Write short notes on:

Economic feasibility of a project

Need for project planning

Diversity management

Rules for network construction

3 What are the key steps for effective risk management?

Explain any FIVE risk identification techniques.

Outline of the steps in risk management

Description of any FIVE risk identification techniques

4 Write short notes on

Parametric estimating tool of cost estimating

Procurement process

Project team’s responsibilities in project execution

Project termination

5 What is Quality planning? Explain the inputs, tools and techniques and outcomes of quality planning.

Definition of quality planning

Description of the inputs to quality planning

Description of the tools and techniques to quality planning

Description of the outputs from quality planning

6 Describe the various types of project performance evaluation techniques. List any FOUR benefits of performance measurement and evaluation.

Description of the 4 types of project performance evaluation techniques

Listing of any 4 benefits performance measurement and evaluation