Dear Friends, This note is intended for those who wish to take up their summer intern ships in operations.

I have appended the key areas where you could look at for a project and also a representative list of specific areas that you could look it. I would advice you to go through this before you start to make your choices on the same. Following guidelines can help you in making your project experience a satisfying one. 1. Be prepared on what you are looking specifically in a project even before you go to an organization and discuss the same. If you do not have this clarity, you might be forced to do some routine mundane project. It would always be good if you prepare on at least 4-5 options so that some of these might find takers in the organization. Preparing this way, will give an impression to the organization that you mean business and that you are professional and focused. 2. While selecting a project topic in your major area, try to do a project that would do some justice to the minor area. For eg if you are specializing in Ops and Marketing, a supply chain project will do justice to both the areas. 3. You should be prepared on the latest trends in the area that you take up for the project. (These apply for goods and services)

Topics Productivity improvement Forecasting Design

Specific projects that you could look at Output enhancement projects Input reduction projects Improving the forecasting process Value engineering projects Mass customization Reliability Improvement

Process improvement

Capacity Layout

Bringing robustness to design Failsafing design Reduction on Non value adding activities Failsafing process Recovery mechanisms Measures for process measurement Standard Operating Procedures Opportunities for concurrent engineering QFD Service Blueprinting Debottlenecking processes and operations Layout changes to manage efficiency variability tradeoff Improving service layouts Product and service profiling Cellular layout design Line balancing and smoothening flow Throughput improvement Scope of enrichment and enlargement Ergonomics Methods analysis Motion study Costs of Quality Variability reduction in process Quality assurance programs Quality circles Root cause analysis Formalizing a framework for problem solving Process control and Process capability SCOR metrics Logistics performance improvement Optimizing supply chain Managing supply chain tradeoffs Procurement policy and effectiveness Supplier performance monitoring Supplier consolidation

Job design

Quality

Supply chain

Service

Improvement in service effectiveness New service development DEA

Inventory

Service blueprinting Service system design Service quality measurement Assurance in service Benchmarking Process control and capability Service facility design Process analysis Demand and capacity management Yield management Optimizing supply chain Service outsourcing Inventory management Inventory policy Inventory rationalization Inventory classification systems Replenishment policies ABC costing Demand management Capacity management Lean operations Waste reduction Lean building blocks Sequencing Improving scheduling effectiveness Scheduling in services Project performance management Project management framework implementation Network implementation Crashing Risk management in project Conflict management in project Resourcing in projects EVA Waiting time reduction Improving utilization Improving availability Reducing break down Increasing uptime

Costing Aggregate planning JIT Scheduling

Project management

Queuing Maintenance