Managing the Rush!!! A Case of a Transport Department in a Management Institute
It was 9:00 a.m. in the morning, Prof. Abhishek Nayak (Nayak), Head of Department (Operations Management), Indore Management Institute (IMI), arrived in his office. As always, he was flooded with official papers waiting to be reviewed by him. The moment he was about to start his work, administrative peon handed him over a letter from Dean (Administration). Prof. Nayak left all his work and started to read Dean’s letter (Exhibit I), as he was not expecting any communication from him and thought there must be an urgent issue to ponder upon............
About Indore Management Institute
The Indore Management Institute established in 1995, is one of the prestigious private business schools in India, located in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India. The 157 acres campus of IMI is located at 15 km from Indore city. The institute offers various programmes in management discipline:...........
Transport Department at IMI
Transport department, one of the key departments at IMI employed a large share of its total employees. It was responsible for providing commutation facilities to the students for coming and going out of the campus. The department had a good mix of buses and vehicles for different purposes:............
The Challenge: Manage the Rush
After reading the letter and reviewing the data attached (Exhibit III, Exhibit IV (A), Exhibit IV (B) and Exhibit IV (C)), Prof. Nayak was wondering how a management institute is not able to manage its most vital operation. After spending some time on the problem, he decided to first forecast the demand of the immediate week, i.e., 1st week of April 2015 based on data of past three months. Forecasting demand over a longer period may have led to inaccurate forecasts due to seasonal trends such as examinations, festivals, admissions, fests, etc...........
Exhibits
Exhibit I: Letter from Dean (Administration)
Exhibit II: Programme-wise Break-up of Students
Exhibit III: Shuttle Bus Schedule
Exhibit IV (A): Demand of Students for January 2015
Exhibit IV (B): Demand of Students for February 2015
Exhibit IV (C): Demand of Students for the Month of March 2015
Exhibit V: Actual Demand Data for the First Week of April 2015