Operations Cases? McK

Question

I had a recent first round and had two very specific operations Cases, both having to calculate OEE. I've practiced every other case type and even though I passed this round, these through me for a loop as structuring and ideas were on the micro level very different then many of the other cases I've done.

Anyone have any resources for practicing these specific case types?

Answer 1

Hi,

There are several types of operational cases that you may have:

1) Operational math problems. (e.g. Should we increase the speed of the elevator or just buy a second one? How should we reduce the queues? How should we increase the output of a factory?).

Structuring:

Usually, you have to look at the process. Even the most complicated systems have the inflows and outflows

The key concepts that you have to learn:

Capacity and utilization (both machine and people)
Cycle time, Throughput time, Little's Law
How the does lowest cycle time influence the production? (Lead time = cycle time of the slowest process)
How can we mitigate the bottlenecks with low cycle time? (Buffer, Parallel process, speeding up)

2) Cost cutting cases

Structuring:

What is the cost composition and what are the biggest costs
Benchmarking of the biggest costs to find the improvement potential
Process improvements to meet the benchmarks
Costs and benefits of the proposed initiatives

The key concepts that you have to learn:

Internal / external benchmarking
Idle time
Core processes (usually are optimized) and the supporting processes (usually are cut)
Math structures (Frequency of operations * time per operation)
Other useful structures (e.g. people - process - technology)

Feel free to reach me for further help with these cases.

Best

Answer 2

Hi! Here an OPS Associate at Mckinsey

I had 3 + 3 interviews and only one was really about operations.

It was about calculating the OEE of a manufacturing plant. However, there is no need to have specific knowledge since you will receive the instructions in case you dont know how to calculate it.

Answer 3

YES! Ping me a DM for some real case examples. Warm regards, Frederic

Answer 4

It's not very different from hiring for a regular general track McKinsey hire. You'll have cases and the areas can vary widely - sure, you might get an odd ops case, but if you do really well in them, they'll quickly challenge you with non-ops cases.

Answer 5

Can you please clarify what OEE is? Acronyms can mean different things to different people. Thanks.