MANAGING INFORMATION

Managing Information



Table of Contents

Executive summary2

Chapter 1: Introduction2

Chapter 2: Short Justification of Strategic Analysis Techniques3

Chapter 3: Statement of the Information Needs4

Chapter 4: Diagrams9

SWOT15

Chapter 5: Architecture of the New System17

Chapter 6: Conclusion19

References22

Managing Information

Executive summary

The paper aims to carry out a performance benchmarking study of the zones of Santa Cruz Railways (SCR) to develop an alternate approach for measurement of aggregate operational performance of the railway zones and to envisage its operations in a supply chain perspective, so as to gain academic and practical insights.

Within the set of inputs and outputs considered, the exercise identified the best performing railway zones over the years and the efficiency trends. Some weaknesses of the conventional DEA were addressed by including the concept of cross-efficiencies along with self-efficiencies, by analyzing longitudinal data spread over four years and also by comparing the efficiencies with the operating ratios. To an extent, this study has also helped to understand the impact of the recent restructuring of the zones on their performance.

Chapter 1: Introduction

This paper reports a study conducted on the supply chain performance benchmarking of SCR zones using DEA. The remaining part of the paper is structured as follows. The next two sections describe the background of the study setting and attempt to provide a supply chain perspective of the railway operations. Further, DEA models which are used in this study and subsequently the application of these models for performance benchmarking of SCR zones have been presented. The last section contains discussion and conclusions of the study.

The loading of goods, the movement of the same through the different zones till it reaches the destination and then unloading of the same at the destination are sequentially related activities related to the freight traffic. Similarly, in the case of passengers, it is their effective and efficient movement from a point-of-origin to a point-of-destination that constitutes the sequentially related activities of the supply chain. From the customer perspective, SCR can be perceived as a single entity and there is no need to be concerned about its internal organization while specifying the operational and commercial requirements.

Chapter 2: Short Justification of Strategic Analysis Techniques

The information society has passed through four transformational stages of development, the most radical stage started with the tail-end of the twentieth century which has brought a never-ending revolution, particularly with the introduction of information and communication technologies (ICTs). During this period, there have been unprecedented developments, profoundly affecting the social structure - the decline of manufacturing sector as compared to the prospering information-rich service sector is one example of such developments (Kumar and Singh, 2000, p. 104). Santa Cruz is moving fast towards becoming an information society as the Government of Santa Cruz is paying due attention to the use of information technology (IT), and creating an environment for the Santa Cruz work-force to become involved in information activities.

It wasn't so long ago that the Railways worked with a system in which a central authority allocated 'ticket quotas' to each station along a train's ...