Kapur foods are manufacturers of cereal products with manufacturing plants in Ludhiana, Hisar, Amritsar, Meerut and Rampur. Company processes of transforming grains into cereal products begins on the farm with the harvest. Company has a brand image in Northern India and has a 25% market share in cereal products. Major competitors of company are international Cereal suppliers with good supply chain, financial muscle and excellent marketing.

Farms harvest is purchased by company directly from farmers, Food Corporation of India, private and company collection agents appointed by company warehouses in the state of Punjab, Haryana and UP. Warehouses collects and stores grains from areas allocated to in their states. This is followed by primary processing, packing and transportation from company warehouses to the processing plants (depending on the grain). Company employs third party road transportation means for transportation of grains.

Company website does not have e-Commerce capability and has only static Web pages about history of company, information on products, leadership and statutory reports etc. Company has recently tied up with leading Indian and multinational eCommerce players to sell its products all across India. Company will be required to upgrade its IT infrastructure to fulfill e-Commerce partners orders. Company stated objective for current financial year to optimize cost and reduce process losses to improve profitability to generate additional funds for expansion and creating e-Commerce infrastructure.

Government of India has recently launched a tax incentive scheme under Atam Nirbhar Bharat scheme for setting up Agro based industries in rural areas. However, in order to get tax benefits company has to meet new Agro products guidelines issued by regulatory bodies & CSIR laboratories . GOI has also taken out cereals from export ban list and has allowed export of Agro products freely without any restrictions. FICCI study has indicated that demand and consumption of cereals is increasing in India particularly in metro cities because of increasing awareness of health and fitness in younger population.

In order to encash its brand image and increase its market size because of increased demand, opportunities for export of products, and benefits from Government policies, company is planning to set up state of art six plants in rural areas in Western and Sothern India in the state of Gujrat, Maharashtra and Karnataka. It has plan to setup its own warehouses and as an interim measure to use external vendors warehouse for storage. Company is also planning to get listed on Indian Stock Exchange in next six months and issue an IPO to meet its expansion and technology strategy. Pre IPO work is in progress.

During company annual board of directors meeting, recently appointed CTO (MBA from IIM Ahmedabad with 20 years industry experience in Agro Industries) presented report of an internal study on its various operational processes. It was discovered that company has serious logistical problem. It lost almost 15% of the grain value harvested during collection, storage, cleaning, quality inspection, packaging, wastage and transportation from farms to warehouses and from warehouses to factories due to high use of unskilled labor, poor supervision, poor & old technology infrastructure, lack of automation, poor storage infrastructures, poor quality purchase, pilferage, corruption, theft and other issues. CTO proposed a detail study by a consulting company to improve logistics processes, which was approved in board meeting.

Consulting firm proposed a Business Analysis team of four members to undertake detailed study of company processes and systems from purchase of grains till its storages in processing plants and suggest improvements to reduce wastage of grains in the process. Finding & recommendation of team will help in improving existing plants & designing of new plants and its processes.

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i. What will be the role and responsibilities of lead BA to study company problems and suggest a solution?

ii. Can you identify major knowledge areas your team members BAs will be required to have for undertaking this assignment? What are the four key competencies BAs must have for the assignment. Justify your answer.

iii. Why is Prior Research an important first step for BPA assignment? What Prior Research you will take to lead this assignment? Please justify your answer.

iv. What is the importance of POPIT model™ for this assignment? Create a POPIT model™ view required by Business Analyst to explore problem of company and propose solution for successful delivery of business changes.

v. Why understanding strategy of Company is a requirement for this business analysis project. Explain. Undertake SWOT analysis of company based on your understanding of company’s strategy.

vi. As Project Manager lead BA is required to propose project life cycle. What lifecycle you will use for this assignment? What are the major phases/ activities of proposed lifecycle?

vii. How will BA team identify stakeholders for this project? Identify major four stakeholders for this project with justification.

viii. You are planning to use CATWOE techniques for stakeholder analysis. How does CATWOE help in business analysis and decision-making?

ix. What are the investigation techniques you will use to understand company’s problems? Justify your selection of investigation techniques with reasons.

x. To investigate process problems, BA team plans to interview six Warehouse Managers, Head of logistics, Head of production and 10 supervisors. Is this the right approach? Will conduct of questionnaire will be a better option. Lead BA has decided to use structured interviewing technique. What the advantages and disadvantages of structured interviewing in this BPA project.

xi. What are the preparations required for conduct of planned interviews? What is the structure for conduct of an interview? What do you understand by following up interview?

xii. In order to brainstorm findings of interview and agree on solution options, BA has proposed to conduct a workshop with major stakeholders. What are the ways to handle vocal participants during workshop?

xiii. Will you be modeling the processes to study business problems of company? Justify your answer. Which modelling tool will you use for this assignment and why?

xiv. Create a flowchart of Company Procurement Process from grains collection from farmers to its storage in cereal manufacturing plant.

xv. Business Process Analysis assignment is supported by CEO and senior management of company but being opposed by trade union leader and labour employed. Union leader is of the opinion that after the assignment company will bring automation and modern tools to streamline functions which will reduce manpower and loss of jobs. What will be your approach to handle resistant Union leader who is opposing this assignment?