Case Analysis I: Clean India Mission: Building Nation through Sustainable Waste Management Practices

Abstract

This case starts with the implications of the Clean India Mission in the city of Indore and captures the operational concerns of the environmental company namely, Eco Pro while working in close cooperation with the civic administration of Indore in an environmental sweep project. The case focuses on the various operational challenges that such organizations face while involved in environmental projects, the primary perspective being the capacity constraints of the fleet involved in the logistics of waste collection, the coverage of the collection within a stipulated time frame and management of the expenses incurred in the collection. The discussion of the case unfolds the importance of the environmental sweep in different cities of India, the attempts made by various government bodies to accomplish the same and the challenges faced by the corporations which are providing consultation to those bodies for achieving the success in such projects. Further, the set-up of the case leaves ample room for using various algorithms and heuristics used for optimization of the transportation cost of a logistical network considering the capacity and the timeframe at the same time. The way the data is presented, heuristics such as capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP), vehicle routing problem with multiple trips (VRPMT) and vehicle routing problems with time windows (VRPTW) look like some of the appropriate techniques that may be applied by the Eco Pro to get a cost-efficient collection process with their existing fleet. This may ease the situation for Praveen Vishwakarma, the Senior Manager, Operations at Eco Pro Environmental Services.