Operation management business report

Rennes International School of Business

ESC RENNES

Executive Master of Business Administration
EMBA

COHORT 1 (2003 - 2004)

Operations Management
Conducted by:
Graham BROWN

Delta Branch QS Operation

By
Magdy A. Sattar

January, 2004
Cairo, Egypt

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTEVE SUMMARY ………………………………………………………II

1. Introduction & Objectives .………………..……………………………..1

2. What is Menatel ....…………………………………………………………….1

3. Delta Branch ……………………………………………………………….1

3-1 Environment ……….………………………………………1

3-2 Objective. ……………………………………………….1

3-3 Organization ……………………………………………….2

4. Data Analysis ……….……………………………………...……………….3

4-1 Problem identification ….……………………………3

4-2 Elements of the problem ……………………………….4

4-3 Alarms category possible reasons ...……………………..4

4-4 Q.S/alarms category / Governorate ………………………..5

4-5 Branches benchmarking the current situation for resources
analysis ………………………………………………..6

4-6 Technicians, cars distribution / Governorate / Rout ………..8

5. Conclusion ……….……………………………………………………….9

5-1 Potential solutions characteristics. ………………………..9

6. Recommendations ………………………………………………………..10

6.1 Suitable solution, Action plan and implementation ………..10

6.2 Monitoring the solution ………………………………..12

6.3 Reporting System ………………………………………..12

EMBA Cairo
Rennes International School of Business I

EXECUTEVE SUMMARY

This report is to cover the QS operation at Menatel Delta Branch demonstrating my
understanding of the principles and techniques of operations management. I will start
by a short presentation about Menatel and Delta Branch, environment, objectives, and
organization. Analyzing the available data to identify the problem and its elements,
then breaking down the problem to its alarms category and possible reasons showing
how the alarm category per Governorate affects the QS. Benchmarking the branch
resources and current situation with other branches and the current technicians and
cars distribution to analysis how the branch resources are managed. Driven by the
analysis results a final conclusion is obtained and the characteristics of the potential
solutions in order to recommend the suitable solutions, action plan, implementation
steps that can be done with the available resources, and the solution monitoring and
controlling system.

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Rennes International School of Business II

1- INTRODUCTION & OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this report is to allow me to demonstrate my understanding of the
principles and techniques covered during the operations management course. I will
submit a business report that will address Delta Branch QS analysis, potential
solutions, action plan, and how to monitor and control this operation process.

2- WHAT IS MENATEL
Menatel is a joint stock company under investment low number 8/1997 registered in
1998 under number 314030. Menatel is granted a ten years; renewable license, to
install, operate, and manage a telecommunication network of at least 33,000 public
payphone. Menatel is determined to achieve this target by the end of 2004. Egyptian
shares are 51% and foreign shares are 49%. France Telecom (FCR) “providing
Menatel with the know-how technology and management” holds the main foreign
shares, which is 44 %. The main Egyptian company with 18% share is the National
Bank of Egypt (NBE).

3- DELTA BRANCH
3.1 Enviroment.
The green triangle occupying the north of Egypt’s map we call it Nile Delta, as it
occupies the landscape in which the two branches of the Nile (Damiatte and Rasheed)
flows with all their sub-branches. This landscape occupies 16411Km.*, divided into 6
governorates, 31 City, 45 Town and 3000 Village and small village, shaping a
percentage of 30% urban and 70%rural. Delta population is 20 Million their main
source of income is agriculture and some small industries related to it. There is a high
percentage of illiteracy among Delta population especially females, which is
considered a great obstacle on the way of social and economical development.

3.2 Objective.
Delta branch objective is to install, operate, and manage a telecommunication network
of 4200 public payphone by the end of 2004 all over the assigned area, most of this
area is rural inhibited by more than 20,000,000 people, 33 % of them inhibit urban
and the remaining inhibits rural.

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Rennes International School of Business 1

3.3 Organization.
In a centralized management environment, the branch manager in the matrix heads the
branch organization with functional managers in the head office. The branch manager
is responsible to manage the branch team to meet the objectives planned by Menatel
Managing Director in accordance with company strategy and guidelines given by the
functional directors. The branch team is organized in a simple flat structure
corresponding to the nature of the activities, which are technical activities
(production, maintenance, and Payphone Management System “PMS”), commercial
and customer service activities, financial and administrative activities, and finally
public relations and logistic activities. As for the sales team they are supervised by a
local sales supervisor who is reporting technically to Menatel cards distribution
manager and administratively to the branch manager in matrix organization as it
shows below for Delta organization chart.

Branch Manager

In Matrix with Menatel Secretary
Functional Managers
1

Engineers Commercial Customer Accountant Sales
Agent Service Supervisor
3 1
1 1 1

Technicians Cleaning Public Sales
Controllers Relation Reps
19
3 2 12

Office
Boy

2
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4- DATA ANALYSIS

4.1 Problem Identification.
The monthly Q.S/Branch for the year 2003
Months Cairo Alex. Canal Delta MUE SUE
January 97.10 % 95.80 % 97.90 % 94.50 % 98.20 % 98.40 %
February 97.38 % 96.96 % 98.33 % 95.19 % 98.37 % 98.41 %
March 97.51 % 98.69 % 98.20 % 95.50 % 98.40 % 98.56 %
April 97.90 % 98.70 % 98.00 % 96.20 % 98.50 % 98.70 %
May 97.80 % 98.96 % 97.81 % 96.21 % 98.46 % 98.46 %
June 98.13 % 99.02 % 98.15 % 96.66 % 98.47 % 98.97 %
July 98.32 % 98.17 % 98.16 % 96.79 % 98.31 % 98.67 %
August 98.37 % 97.82 % 98.55 % 97.26 % 98.41 % 98.86 %
September 98.59 % 98.59 % 98.69 % 97.28 % 98.21 % 98.89 %
October 98.52 % 99.04 % 98.72 % 96.65 % 98.23 % 98.98 %
November 98.49 % 98.69 % 98.73 % 97.90 % 98.20 % 98.88 %
December 95.51 % 99.43 % 98.93 % 98.73 % 98.89 % 99.33 %
Average 97.80 % 98.32 % 98.34 % 96.57 % 98.37 % 98.75 %

The previous table identifies the problem that Delta branch Q.S is low.

Gab under study Time Progress Chart
100
99
99
98.5
98
98 Cairo
Alex 97
97.5
Canal 96
97
Delta 95
96.5
MUE
94
96 SUE
93
95.5
92
95
Nov
Jun
Jul
May
Jan

Aug

Oct
Mar
Apr

Dec
Feb

Sep

QS

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As it is shown in the above charts we can identify the gab between Delta Q.S and the
other Branches and this gab is the one that need to be analyzed, also we can see from
the time progress chart that the Q.S process is improving which is a good sign
concerning the success probability to eliminate the under discussion gab.

4.2 Elements of the problem.
 Telecom Egypt Network
According to telecom Egypt executives, Delta network Q.S is 87.5 % due to the water
saturated-soil of delta which affects the isolation of telecom Egypt network cables and
the life time of the network itself. Also the technology used in most of the exchanges
in delta is very old not updated one.
 Geographical characteristics of Delta region.
 Spare Parts and Tools availability.
 PMS (S/W) performance.
 Skills of the technicians and the supervisors.
 Preventive maintenances.

4.3 Alarms category possible reasons.
First PMS indicates Program Management System, which is the control system that
manages Menatel payphones and monitors all the alarms of the payphones, and
categorizes them into the following four categories.
MS: this is minimum service alarm and normally is due to payphone faults that is
technician responsibility.
OOI: this is out of order incidence alarm and normally is due to payphone faults, that
is technician responsibility also.
OOS: this is out of order supervisor alarm and normally is due to the exchange or the
PMS faults, that is S/W or system responsibility.
NK: this is not connected alarm and normally is due to communication link between
the payphone and the PMS is cut, that is line, cable, production, technician, Telecom
Egypt network, or PMS responsibility.

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4.4 Q.S/alarms category/Governorate.
This table briefs the alarms category situation and the corresponding percentage of
each category of the total Q.S.
 For the lowest month.
Governorate Q.S MS OOI OOS NK
Kafer El sheikh 94.78 % 1.51 % 9.06 % 5.13 % 84.29 %
Dakhlia 93.15 % 0.65 % 14.6 % 3.64 % 81.11 %
Sharkia 94.51 % 2.07 % 17.43 % 4.22 % 76.28 %
Kalyobia 97.11% 1.68 % 23.25 % 5.66 % 69.41 %
Monofia 94.86 % 2.04 % 18.18 % 5.53 % 74.25 %
Gharbia 93.98 % 1.69 % 19.22 % 4.4 % 74.69 %
Average 94.50 % 1.56 % 16.67 % 4.15 % 77.27 %

This table gives us the first indicator to the problem that 77.27 % of the alarms are
caused due to NKs, second 16.67b% due to OOIs alarms.
 For the highest month.
Governorate Q.S MS OOI OOS NK
Kafer El sheikh 98.74 % 1.43 % 24.66 % 12.51 % 61.38 %
Dakhlia 98.58 % 3.12 % 24.29 % 9.85b % 62.01 %
Sharkia 98.85 % 5.49 % 24.71 % 15.33 % 54.45 %
Kalyobia 98.62 % 2.95 % 17.95 % 7.32 % 71.75 %
Monofia 98.90 % 5.53 % 30.10 12.89 % 51.46 %
Gharbia 98.61 % 3.12 % 29.69 % 14.10 % 53.06 %
Average 98.73 % 3.80 % 25.60 % 12.40 % 57.90 %

This table confirms the first indicator to the problem that 57.90 % of the alarms are
caused due to NKs, second 25.60 % due to OOIs alarms.

60 80
50
60
40
30 NK 40 NK
20
20
10 OOI
OOS MS OOI OOS MS
0 0

It is obvious from the above Pareto charts for the lowest and the highest Q.S for a
month that the NK category is the driver of the global Q.S followed by the OOI
category, that is to say eliminating the causes of both category will positively drive
the global Q.S to the right direction and help improving the total Q.S.

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OOS (10%) NK (67%)
PMS
Exchanges 10%
5%
People
S/W
27%
PMS Preventive Maintenance
5% 30%
Installation
QS
Tools Skills
People
People
Spare
Parts
Controlling
MS (3%) OOI (20%)
As we see from the above cause-and-effect diagram that the main cause of the
identified problem are:
 50 % due to PEOPLE.
 30 % due to PREVINTIVE MAINTINANCE.
 20 % due to P.M.S PERFORMANCE.
4.5 Branches benchmarking the current situation for resources
analysis.
Items Menatel model Cairo Alex. Canal Delta MUE SUE
Average Q.S 98 % 97.80 % 98.32 % 98.34 % 96.56 % 98.37 % 98.75 %
Technicians 120 47 18 15 19 10 8
Vehicles 60 21 10 10 8 5 7
Exchange 480 93 62 63 88 54 35
Lines IO 30,000 12000 4739 4054 4150 2555 2150
Supervisors 10 4 3 2 1 2 3
Average calls 45 42 31 38 37 47 40
Tech./line 250 255.3 263.2 270.2 218.4 255.5 307.1
Tech./exch. 4 1.97 3.44 4.2 4.63 5.4 4.3
Veh./tech. 2 2.2 1.8 1.5 2.3 2 1.1
Veh./exch. 8 4.4 6.2 6.3 11 10.8 5
Sup./tech. 12 11.75 6 7.5 19 5 2.6

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Tech. / Line

Delta
Sup. / Tech.
MENATEL Model

Tech. / Ex.

Veh. / Tech.
Veh. / Ex.

Tech. / Line

Delta

Sup. / Tech.
SUE

Tech. / Ex.

Veh. / Ex.
Veh. / Tech.

Gab analysis for the Delta branch available resources compared to Menatel model and
also to the best branch of Q.S shoos that Delta is need for:
 Two Vehicles.
 One more Supervisor.

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4.6 Technicians, Cars distribution/Governorate/Rout.
Governorate Routs PPs IO Tech. Car T/L T/E V/T V/E S/T Q.S
Kafer El sheikh 3 488 3 0 162.6 4 0 0 3 96.70 %
Dakhlia 4 836 3 2 278.6 6 1.5 9 3 96.00 %
Sharkia 6 982 4 2 245.5 6 2 12 4 97.00 %
Kalyobia 2 405 2 1 202.5 3.5 2 7 2 97.80 %
Monofia 4 607 3 2 202.3 5 1.5 7.5 3 96.50 %
Gharbia 4 832 4 1 208 3 4 12 4 96.30 %
Average 23 4150 19 8 218.4 4.63 2.37 11 19 96.57 %

140 250
120
200
100
80 150
KSH GHR
60 100
40
50
20
0 0
T/L T / Ex V/T V / Ex T/L T / Ex V/T V / Ex

200 200

150 150

100 DAK 100 SHR

50 50

0 0

160 120
140 100
120
100 80
80 MEN 60 KAL
60 40
40
20 20
0 0

The above charts show that Delta Branch is in need for:
 One vehicle for Kafer El Sheikh Governorate.
 One vehicle for either Gharbia or Sharkia Governorate.
 This in addition to one more supervisor for controlling.

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5- CONCLUSIONS

As the data analysis shows, Delta Branch is 1.43 % below the targeted Q.S, which
means the branch, consequently Menatel, is losing the opportunity to generate daily
revenue of about 1200 LE, a bout five hundred thousands Egyptian pounds annually.
Breakdown this 1.4 % we see that 67 % of it is NK incidences, 20 % OOI incidences,
10 % OOS incidences, and 3 % MS incidences.
The cause of this 1.43 %, 50 % is due to people effects, 30 % is due to preventive
maintenance, and 20 % is due to PMS performance.
Benchmarking the branch resources we see that Delta Branch is in shortage of
vehicles and number of supervisors, but on the other hand the number of technicians
is over what is needed to cover the assigned number of payphones. Another element
of Delta situation that analysis shows is the big number of remotes area assigned for
this region, which affects the technicians and vehicles distribution.

5.1 Potential solutions characteristics.
 People solutions that provides:
Accurate controlling and supervising the concerned persons through coaching,
planning, time management, problems solving, and team building skills.
Providing the effective tools and spare parts to technicians to insure effective solving
to payphones incidence.
Provide the suitable training for all staff to in reach the necessarily skills for obtaining
total quality performance.

 Preventive maintenance solutions that provides:
Design a process that facilitates the quality operation and keep tracking the results to
improve the quality operation.

 PMS performance solutions that provides:
Eliminating any payphone failure due to H/W connections to the PMSs, or any PMS’s
power problems.

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6- RECOMMENDATIONS
As it shows from the solutions characteristics that 80 % of the solution is an internal
organization solutions related to managing people and available resources also
implementing a quality process that provide preventive maintenance. Our philosophy
it to improve and keep improving gradually, simply to achieve better next month and
more better the month after, and so on, monitoring and evaluating the quality process
aiming for continuance improving.

6.1 Suitable solution, Action plan and implementation.
First;
In cooperation with the HR department to provide the necessary training to all the
involved persons to in reach there skills. The table below shows the recommended
programs for the involved persons.
Program Name Duration Target Audience Objective Cost
Basic Communication Understand the important of
2 Days All Levels 225 LE/day/person
communications in the organization.
Teamwork Getting around obstacles that prevent
1 Day All Levels 225 LE/day/person
team success and build an effective team.
Problem Solving Improving analysis skills for identifying
2 Days All Levels problems and recommending creative 225 LE/day/person
solutions that help the organization.
Customer Orientation 3 Days All Levels Understand customer satisfaction. 225 LE/day/person
Negotiation Skills Understand the important of effective
2 Days Commercial persons 225 LE/day/person
negotiation to the organization
Supervisory Skills Understand the role of supervisor,
4 Days Supervisors understand people, how to manage 225 LE/day/person
people.
Service Quality Understand quality and quality process;
2 Days Technicians understand the important of customer 225 LE/day/person
satisfaction.

Second;
In order to have proper and effective controlling over the operation an internal
rotation is a must to replace the current maintenance supervisor with one that is more
skilled in terms of time management and planning.

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Third;
Order a purchase request for shortage tools especially the effective ones, and till we
buy them try to organize sharing them among the technicians.
Order a purchase request for one vehicle more, and till the approval schedule
technician’s time to cover different routes in Delta every 48 hours, and assigned a car
per governorate.

Fourth;
Assign one of the technicians for workshop to be responsible for testing new and
repaired spar parts, repairing faulty spar parts, also to be trained to follow up some of
the routine work of the maintenance supervisor to narrow the gape of supervisory at
the branch.

Fifth;
Design a process for quality operation, the block diagram bellow shows the
recommended process guided by TQM philosophy that involves every one in the
branch including the contractors assigned for production, booth maintenance, and
cleaning in continuance effort to improve quality and achieve customer satisfaction.
The process is based on that each block represents a step in the operation each step is
controlled and supervised by a person in charge, who knows his objective and taking
the results. Before and after each block or step a check quality test is done by random
sampling to insure quality at the source.

Civil, Booth,
Payphone Cleaning &
Line PMS Line Payphone &
Maintenance Booth
Request Installing Received Cabling
& Spare Parts Maintenance
Installing

Quality Chick Quality Chick Quality Chick Quality Chick Quality Chick Quality Chick Quality Chick
Test Test Test Test Test Test Test

Reporting System Reporting System
Deviation Control

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Sixth;
For the PMS part the modem line should be 100 % isolated and effectively connected
between the PMS and the modem to insure no miss communication through the
network due to bad connection. Regarding the installed S/W, all the illogical faulty
payphones data are to be collected and reported directly to HQ to be analyzed and
solved if possible.

6.2 Monitoring the solution.
A continues improving of the recommended process and solutions is to be achieved
provided that a good monitoring system is implemented. A reporting system is
established to monitor the QS weekly provided by both the PMS (electronic report),
and the maintenance team (manual report), also a monthly report from both sides in
addition to a monthly report for cleaning, booth maintenance, and customer
satisfaction. This reporting system is to provide the necessary date to be analyzed to
show and measure the progress of the operation, to show if the operation is on the
right trend or not, and to provide warning alarm for any deviation around the targeted
QS.

6.3 Reporting System
 Weekly Reports:
Tow weekly reports are to be submitted to the Branch Manager by the PMS and
Maintenance supervisors, each one of the reports contain the following:
1- PMS weekly report;
This report measures the QS related to each exchange and PMS according to alarms
category (NK, OOI, OOS, and MS), and categorize the PMSs into three categories:
A- More than 98 %
B- Less than 97 %
C- In between.
This categorization allows the branch to evaluate and measure weekly the QS
operation output and provide a guided figure as for the next week target for
improving, matching the branch philosophy to improve step by step, and bushing
category B to C, and C to B, and like that we are on the track to achieve the Branch
objective.

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2- Maintenance weekly report;
This report measures the QS related to each route and technicians according to
numbers of alarms, and categorize the technicians into three categories as like the
three categories of the PMS report. This categorization allows the branch to evaluate
and measure weekly the technicians output and provide a guided figure as for the next
week target for improving, motivating, supporting, and controlling the technicians.

 Monthly reports:
As the quality process block diagram shows that each step is monitored and evaluated
by a monthly report and all these reports are to be submitted to the Branch manager
the first Monday of each month by the following:
1- Maintenance monthly report;
This report evaluate and measure Technicians performance.
2- PMS monthly report;
This report evaluates and measure PMS performance.
3- Commercial and Public Relation monthly report;
This report evaluates and measure lines requested, average revenue, vehicles
conditions, and occupation licenses of the locations.
4- Cleaning quality and booth maintenance monthly report;
This report is to evaluate and measure cleaning and booth maintenance quality (based
on sampling methods).
5- Production monthly report;
This report is to evaluate and measure availability of booths and payphones spare
parts, changed cables, and booths.
6- Customer service monthly report;
This report is to evaluate and measure customer satisfaction (feedback, complains,
new request, and awareness clarification).
All these reports and the monthly comments of the Branch manager is the monthly
Branch meeting subject in which the global branch performance is communicated and
analyzed among the meeting attendances(the concerned staff ).

EMBA Cairo

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