Operation Management

Operation Management Case Studies Case study (20 Marks) Tirumala is one of the largest and busiest pilgrimage centers in the world, having a history of 2000 years. Over the years, the pilgrimage center has witnessed a continuous increase in the number of visitors, with the average number going up from a day in 1990s to a day in The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD), which administered the Tirumala temple along with a few supporting services to pilgrims, experienced great difficulty in managing the darshan queue. With the objective of reducing the waiting line, TTD approached academic consultants. "The way to manage the queues is by either reducing the inflows or increasing the rate of outflows or both.

Estimate the average number of pilgrims waiting for darshan and the average waiting time of pilgrims in queues. Inflows can be controlled by prior booking to a large extent," explained A Kesavarao, retired IIM-Bangalore professor. A few experts suggested that another way would be to increase the number of channels of entry and exit into the main temple complex and setting up parallel queue (2-3 instead of a single) lines that would enable more pilgrims to have a darshan. For instance, 72,000 pilgrims could have darshan in a day (20 hours-72,000 seconds) with a darshan time of one second in a single line but the numbers could go up to 140,000 if two lines were organized. These consultants began devising different strategies of reducing the waiting line from the 1990s. Though things have improved a lot, there is still much that need to be done. This case study elucidates the different types of strategies to manage the waiting line and reduce the waiting time that TTD had been trying out from the 1990s. It also explains certain constraints that TTD was facing and a few new proposals.

Answer the following question. Q1. Discuss and understand waiting line/queuing theory with the help of Tirumala Q2. Elucidate how TTD managed the waiting line and discuss the constraints related to the management of darshan queue Q3. Discuss how the new strategies/proposals could be effective for TTD Q4. Discuss what TTD could do in future to overcome its challenges in managing the waiting line