ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD admission and fellowship) · India · National Testing Agency for ICAR
Original practice questions written to the published syllabus · not past papersDesigning and running production: location, layout, planning, inventory, quality and productivity, applied to processing plants and agribusiness operations.
In the exams: agribusiness management PhD entrance and fellowship examinations, production and operations (heavy)
ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF (PhD) - Agri-Business Management, operations unit
The heaviest source of questions. Expect definitions and attributions (Skinner, Hayes and Wheelwright, Taylor, Gilbreths, Shewhart, Deming, Juran, Crosby, Ishikawa, Taguchi, Ohno, Shingo, Orlicky, Hammer and Champy, Miles, Nakajima); layout types and line balancing (cycle time, minimum stations, efficiency, balance delay); location methods (factor rating, centre of gravity, locational break-even, Weber's material index); level, chase and mixed aggregate plans; MPS, time fences and ATP; SPT, EDD, critical ratio and Johnson's rule; method study symbols and steps, normal and standard time; ABC, VED and FSN; MRP netting, MRP II and ERP; JIT, kanban number, seven wastes, 5S, SMED; cost of quality, control-chart limits, Cp and Cpk, OC curves, AQL and LTPD; HACCP principles, ISO 9001 and 22000, BIS and AGMARK; maintenance types, availability, OEE and TPM.
How our questions for ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF spread across the units of Production & Operations Management. Difficulty: 33 easy, 72 medium, 25 hard.
| TQM, statistical process control and acceptance sampling | 16 | |
| Standards: ISO, HACCP, national standards bodies and grade marks | 10 | |
| Maintenance management | 10 | |
| Master production schedule | 9 | |
| Business process re-engineering, value engineering and lean | 9 | |
| Productivity | 8 | |
| Plant layout | 8 | |
| Work study | 8 | |
| Facility location | 7 | |
| Aggregate planning: level, chase and mixed | 7 | |
| Materials management, MRP, MRP II and ERP | 7 | |
| Inventory management | 7 | |
| JIT and Kanban | 7 | |
| Process types: job, batch and continuous | 6 | |
| Forecasting | 6 | |
| Process-product matrix | 5 |
Choose an answer, then open the working. Each explanation says why the right answer is right and why the others are not.
A juice bottling plant must fill 60,000 bottles a day. Each filling machine is rated at 1,500 bottles per hour, the plant runs 16 hours a day, and machines achieve 80% of rated output on average. How many machines are needed?
B. 4 machines
Output per machine per day = 1,500 x 16 x 0.8 = 19,200. Machines = 60,000/19,200 = 3.125, rounded up to 4; rounding down to 3 leaves demand unmet. Ignoring the 80% factor gives 2.5, which also tempts students to answer 3; using 24 hours instead of 16 gives 2.08, wrongly rounded to 2. 5 over-provides.
Further reading: Stevenson, Operations Management
A sugar mill's crushing line has four sequential stages with hourly capacities of 120 t (cane preparation), 100 t (milling), 90 t (clarification) and 110 t (evaporation). What is the line's capacity, and where should the next investment go?
C. 90 t per hour; expand clarification, the bottleneck
In a sequential process the system capacity equals the slowest stage, here clarification at 90 t/h. Averaging stages (105) or taking the first stage (120) overstates capacity; adding capacity elsewhere adds nothing until the bottleneck is relieved, after which milling at 100 t/h becomes the new bottleneck.
Further reading: Stevenson, Operations Management
As a processing operation moves from job-shop towards continuous-flow production, which change is expected?
B. Unit variable cost falls while fixed cost and capital intensity rise
Continuous processes spread high fixed cost over large volumes, so unit variable cost falls, but flexibility falls and work-in-process is lower. Craft skills matter most in job shops; continuous plants need monitoring skills.
Further reading: Stevenson, Operations Management
A dal mill compares two sites. Site A: fixed cost 3,000,000 currency units a year, variable cost 400 per tonne. Site B: fixed cost 5,000,000 currency units a year, variable cost 300 per tonne. At what annual volume do the two sites cost the same?
A. 20,000 tonnes
Set 3,000,000 + 400V = 5,000,000 + 300V, so V = (difference in fixed cost)/(difference in variable cost) = 2,000,000/100 = 20,000 tonnes. Adding the fixed costs (80,000) or the variable costs (2,857) instead of subtracting them gives the wrong crossover; 5,000 divides the fixed-cost gap by Site A's full variable cost of 400 instead of the 100 gap.
Further reading: Heizer, Render and Munson, Operations Management
A custom flour mill has five orders on one machine, with processing time and due date in days: P 6 and 10, Q 2 and 6, R 8 and 18, S 3 and 15, T 9 and 23. Using the shortest-processing-time rule, what is the mean flow time?
C. 13.0 days
SPT order Q, S, P, R, T gives completion times 2, 5, 11, 19, 28; mean = 65/5 = 13.0. 15.4 is FCFS and 13.6 is EDD; 28/5 = 5.6 is mean processing time, not flow time.
Further reading: Stevenson, Operations Management
A dairy cooperative is choosing an ERP system. Which feature is most specific to its needs rather than to general manufacturing?
D. Procurement from many farmers with quality-based payment and lot traceability
General ERP covers accounts, payroll and sales. Agribusinesses also need grower accounts with payment on fat and SNF or sugar content, batch traceability and shelf-life control, which standard packages may lack without adaptation.
Further reading: Heizer, Render and Munson, Operations Management
Heijunka in the Toyota Production System refers to:
C. Levelling production volume and mix over time
Heijunka is level, mixed-model scheduling. Stopping the line is jidoka; mistake-proofing is poka-yoke; card signals are kanban.
Further reading: Ohno, Toyota Production System
Which list gives Womack and Jones's five lean principles in order?
D. Specify value, identify the value stream, flow, pull, perfection
Lean Thinking (1996) set out value, value stream, flow, pull and perfection. PDCA is the Shewhart-Deming cycle, DMAIC is Six Sigma, and 5S is workplace organisation.
Further reading: Womack and Jones (1996)
In a flour mill, lorries queue for two hours at the weighbridge before unloading. In lean terms this is primarily:
D. Waiting waste
Idle time of people, vehicles or material is waiting waste. Over-processing adds work the customer does not value; defects are rework or scrap.
Further reading: Ohno, Toyota Production System
For the same filler (subgroups of 5, average range 8 g, D3 = 0, D4 = 2.114), what are the R chart limits?
D. UCL 16.912 g, LCL 0
R chart: UCL = D4 x R-bar = 2.114 x 8 = 16.912; LCL = D3 x R-bar = 0. The A2 factor belongs to the X-bar chart (8 +/- 4.616 gives 12.616 and 3.384); a symmetric lower limit (8 - 8.912 = -0.912) is wrong because D3 = 0 for n = 5; 24 uses 3 x R-bar.
Further reading: Montgomery, Introduction to Statistical Quality Control
Ten here, 130 in the app. The Laisha app has every practice question we have written to ICAR AICE-JRF/SRF in this subject, marked as you go, with timed papers, a jump-to-unanswered list and a certificate when you pass at 70 per cent.
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