National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) Placement Interview Questions

• Q1. (Duration – 20 mins) My first round was with the Partner in the firm. He asked me about some CV Questions on my work experience, internship and hobbies. Apart f...read more
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• Q2. Any questions?
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2 interviewers (1 Senior Manager, 1 Manager)

Duration – 45-50 mins

Round started with interviewers introducing themselves followed by the question tell me about yourself. Next, there were a couple of CV Questions. After that, they straight away went to case.

There is an insurance firm who primarily operates in 3 segments (Segments names were given). The profits for the firm were given for 2012, 2013 & 2014 year and there was a significant drop in the profits. Accordingly, CEO of the firm has made 4 hypotheses for declining profits:

a) Economic slowdown
b) Increase in competition
c) Ineffective Sales and Marketing
d) Internal process Issues

Now the CEO has hired consultants and want us to evaluate these hypotheses, find out the major one, and subsequently turnaround the company.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: I first summarized the case & then asked if there are any secondary objectives that we need to achieve.

I: No

C: Ok, so we need to first look at external factors first.

I: Interrupted me in between, and asked me what profit is?

C: Revenue – Cost

To evaluate the revenues, I need to know the revenue streams and last 3-year trends

I: Handed me a data sheet, containing data for the years – 2012, 2013 & 2014 for all the 3 sectors of the firm. The data was about no. of clients each year and revenue per client in each year.

C: I can infer that for Segment – 1 and Segment – 3, there is an increase in the number of clients and revenue per client. For segment – 2, number of clients are decreasing and revenue per client is increasing. So, I need to calculate that.

After calculation, I stated that revenue for Segment – 2 is also increasing and hence the overall revenues are increasing.

I: Good, so what can you say about the initial 4 hypotheses?

C: Since revenues are increasing, I can say that Economic slowdown, competition and ineffective marketing and sales are not the major factors responsible for declining profits. I need to further investigate internal process issues and need cost related data for the same.

I: You are right. Company is incurring major costs on technology front and handed me some data about technologies. Data included 5 technologies (let’s say T1, T2, T3, T4 & T5), the year in which they were built and their functions. Some other details mentioned were:

• Technologies will function in sequence, from T1-T5, (i.e. T3 can only work after T2, T4 after T3 and so on).
• T1 & T2 are unstable and many a times not able to function properly.
• If T4 & T5 are not functioning properly, firm won’t be able to do due diligence of their clients.

So, what can you infer from this data? You can take a minute to think about it.

C: T1 & T2 are unstable and hence might be many a times down. Consequently, T3, T4 & T5 won’t be able to function properly. Hence there will be no due diligence, and firm might insure those people which will in turn lead to huge losses.

I: Ok, good. So, what do you recommend?

C: Since problem is primarily with technology, we can upgrade the existing technology.

I: What else?

C: We can introduce a new technology.

I: Ok, What else?

C: We can club all technologies together and substitute it with 1 technology. This will remove the individual downtimes and improve productivity.

I: Ok & Handed over data about 2 proposals:

1st proposal: Introducing a new technology: It involved cost incurred by the firm in 2012, 2013 & 2014 and corresponding productivity increase (in Million $) for each year.

2nd Proposal: Upgrading the existing technology: It involved cost incurred by the firm in 2012, 2013 & 2014 and corresponding productivity increase (in Million $) for each year I want you to do the cost benefit analysis for each proposal. Take a minute and tell me how you will go about it.

C: Sir, I will use Net Present Value (NPV) concept to do the cost benefit analysis.

I: What is NPV concept?

C: Explained the NPV concept and asked about the discount rate.

I: Assume 10%.

C: Calculated the NPV for new technology proposal. And then started calculations for 2nd proposal.

I: Interrupted me in between and said it’s ok. You don’t need to calculate NPV for 2nd proposal. Now assume you have calculated NPV for both proposals, which one will you choose?

C: The proposal with higher NPV.

I: Great. Let’s assume proposal 1 with new technology has higher NPV. How will you go about implementing it in the firm?

C: We will need to hire skilled workforce to handle the superior technology.

I: What else?

C: We need to create awareness among the existing workforce and conduct trainings to bring them up to speed with the new technology.

I: What else?

C: We can first start with a pilot in a division or facility and if the results are promising then we can tell the CEO that hypothesis – 4 is valid and we can horizontally deploy it in all areas.

After this, the case finished. He asked some more CV Questions and then asked if I have any question for him.

Overall Experience was very smooth. Interviewers dictated the entire case to me in the beginning and gave all the data in a printed sheet. They were very helpful, polite and appreciative. You just need to keep your cool.

Round 1 - 20 mins

It started with the basic introduction and a brief chat on how my experience was with Reliance. What learning did I get from there and how it has helped me.

Guesstimate: It was taken on-the-spot from my CV. I was asked to calculate the number of completed Coursera Certificates in India during the past 1 year.

Case studies based on operations strategy. Was asked about the forecasting factors to be considered for the sale of TATA Nexon car in India. 2nd case was based on the sale of Boost brand (of GSK) to HUL. Why HUL bought the brand, what factors did they consider and what synergies can emerge from this sale for GSK.

(20 minutes)

A case study and discussion based on procurement and sourcing strategy in Oil & Gas Industry. Primarily the discussion was based on reducing procurement cost using various methods and at what stages costs can be reduced. Asked some clarifying questions regarding the case and strategy or sourcing methods currently followed.

(20 minutes)

Estimate no. of malaria-virus carrying mosquitoes in Bangalore.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Usually mosquitoes lay eggs in stagnant waters so we will first estimate the area portion in Bangalore with stagnant water. As it will also depend on rural and urban locality, addition layer is imposed to find net area with stagnant water. Further argued that per square km of water, x eggs are laid and y% of eggs turn successfully into mosquitoes. Out of total mosquitoes, assuming only a out of b species can carry malaria virus, total no. is found out to be z.

I: Ok, that seems fair. Now, can you find out, based on this figure, how many patients will suffer from malaria in Bangalore?

C: assuming out of z mosquitoes, some will bite multiple times and all humans bitten will fall ill to malaria. Taking different probabilities of successive bites, total no. of ill patients are calculated. To verify the approach, total no. of malaria patients in Bangalore is compare with per sq km population and is found to be within feasible limits.

What inventory classification techniques are you aware of?
Told about commonly used techniques with criteria to use.

Assume you are a consultant to a hotel chain and the owner wants to redecorate the interiors (assume only sofas) for the lobby. You need to identify the best supplier for the purpose. What factors will you consider for decision making?
Started with clarity on the problem by asking preference of design, material, price, etc. Wrote down a list of parameters to judge supplier performance and then arranged it according to the client’s requirements.

Assume you the owner of a departmental store. The average footfall of customers is quite low at present. How will you increase footfall to generate higher revenues?
Started with improving the visibility of my store based certain marketing techniques but was asked to restrict my ideas within store.

Next, products variety offered, pricing, availability, etc. were discussed to generate higher revenues.

Estimate the no. of flights handled by Mumbai Airport.
As a preliminary question, I iterated what was asked and specified on aspects like the time scope (day), type of day (weekday, weekend), time of the year (is it a holiday season), type of flights (domestic/international). I started off with stating that there are 2 runways but only 1 is used at a time and asked if I can go on with this data.

I divided the day into peak and non-peak hours and stated the assumed runway utilization for both periods. I assumed the time between two flights to be 2 minutes. The interviewer asked me the rationale behind it. I told him how the flight take-offs are constrained by the landing and take-off time of the previous flights. He was convinced by the provided rationale. Finally, I concluded by calculating the total no. of flights. I was thinking out loud, so he’s aware of what I am doing all along the interview.

Work experience in Oil and Gas.

Different scenarios regarding the supply and demand, refineries and terminal locations and asked me the effect on lead time, inventory, safety stock etc.

A manufacturing client which is facing difficulties on meeting its promised lead time.

Why consulting? And about the structure of PRTM.

An Oil and Gas firm is unable to deliver the LPG cylinders on time in a particular region in South India.
I stated the assumed structure of an oil and Gas firm and asked, if there had been any recent changes to the company-dealership structure around that region. He replied that the delivery issue is not seasonal and exists for a long time. I suggested some of the possible root causes and suggested some recommended solutions to address them.

• Q1. Introduce yourself.
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• Q2. If you are a thief and you have an option which shop will you steal? Why? 1) Chandeliers shop. 2) Flower shop 3) Bakery.
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The client is an electronics retail chain market leader; his profits are declining. Help the client to deal the given situation.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: Profits are declining, can I assume that they are not making loss.

I: Yes, it’s true.

C: What is the trend of revenue is it increasing or decreasing?

I: Revenue is falling drastically.

C: How about the industry scenario and competitor performance.

I: Industry is generally performing low; competitor is also facing similar downfall.

C: What’s the trend of footfall in retail stores.

I: Footfall is declining rapidly which is treated as the main reason for declining revenue.

C: How is the marketing and promotional activities performing.

I: The company has decided to give free HD TVs for 10 lucky draw winners to improve footfall. What should be the price of HDTV to compensate loss due free offers.

C: What is the Selling price of HDTV and the current profit margin.

I: Good, the price of Single HDTV is 1000USD, Profit margin is 30℅.

C: In that case Profit earned for selling each HDTV is 300USD. What is the offer period?

I: The offer is for 10 days, if the company wants to earn a profit of 15000USD, how many TVs should be sold.

C: With the given data, the loss incurred by giving freebies is 7000USD I.e., (700USD per TV) must be divided among the 100 HDTVs expected to be sold. Hence Selling price of HDTV must be increased to 1070USD. Hence to get a profit of 15000 we must sell at least 50 TVs (15000/300) during the offer period.

I: do you think increasing price is a good decision.

C: yes, for the given situation to improve revenue promotional offers are inevitable and at the same time we must absorb the cost incurred in promotional activities by cross subsidization.

I: What will be the effect of increasing price on demand.

C: Yes, there will be marginal decrease in the demand due to increased price. Is there any data on relationship between Incremental cost and demand?

I: Yes, you can assume an increase of 70USD will lead to 5℅ reduction in total sales.

C: Yes, adding this assumption we must further increase the price to compensate for lost sales to maintain the net profit. Hence 5℅ reduction in total sales is 2.5 TVs unsold =approx. 3 TVs, this should be factored into the price of the product i.e., (3*300) loss due to reduced sales should be compensated on product price i.e., Piece of TV should be increased by another 20USD (900/47TV) to attain the profit of 15000USD.

I: Good, Thank You. That’s all. Do you have any questions for us?

C: How’ll the typical work day as a consultant be?

I: He explained about a typical work day and During on-site assignment.

• Q1. (Total duration – 20 mins) The interview started with a basic Tell me something about you question. Then she asked about some HR questions like: any achievement...read more
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• Q2. After that she gave me a guesstimate about number of Counter Strike downloads in Mumbai per year (as I had won CS championship in college).
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My case based round was taken by two persons one of them being a Manager. The case was about expansion of valves manufacturing company (US based) in Indian and Chinese market. At the starting of the case itself the panelists told me that I need not ask about any data because they were interested in my approach.
After the case was given I summarized it and asked for any specific targets that company is aiming for. They told me market acquisition up to 10% in first year.

I started with asking questions about our client – its products, revenues, costs and customer it is targeting for. All this information was given to me as and when asked. Then I enquired about the competition in Indian market (as they asked me to focus on India). I asked about the market share by each competitors.

After this, I started with barriers to entry in the Indian market like Government regulations, access to raw materials, land, labor etc., threat from competitors, customer targeting.

After this point, I was asked to calculate the market share for valves. The information given included sectors where valves is used like Oil plants, Gas and thermal power plants etc. The panelists were less interested in numbers and more in approach.

Once the market share was calculated, then I was asked about selecting location for manufacturing plant. I considered factors like – labour and raw material availability, supplier availability, states acting as tax havens, distance from our targeted customers etc.

Once the location was finalized, I was asked about how these factors would change if I were to open a plant in China. I told India has more youth and thus better and cheap skilled labour. They seemed to like my approach till then.

Then the interviewer asked about how would I approach opening a plant. I gave three options – starting from scratch by constructing a plant, having a JV with an existing market leader and acquiring a small player so as to capitalize on his distribution channels and build it further. I told final decision would be taken on the basis of cost-benefit analysis.

Overall, very less data was given to me even if I asked for it. The panelists told that were more interested in my approach of solving the case. The case went very smooth. There were 1-2 times when I was deviating from the path but they guided me by giving small hints.

The interview started with the Interviewer asking me to introduce myself. I did that as prepared. There were a few more questions based on my work experience, some achievements during work ex etc. I explained all those clearly. After this, the interviewer said that we shall discuss a case now. It was a profitability case, and details are as below.

Consider this situation. There is a coffin manufacturer in XYZ country. The population of the country is 4 million. The manufacturer is currently using manual methods for coffin manufacturing. First let’s calculate the total profit earned by them in a year.
[Please note that I stands for Interviewer and C stands for Candidate]

C: (Repeated the case as given by the interviewer).

So our objective is to find out the total profit earned by the coffin manufacturer in a year. Are there any other objectives I should be looking at?

I: You are correct, carry on with analyzing the profit.

C: Profit can be given by revenue minus cost. I would like to start with the revenue part.

I: Sure.

C: The current population is 4 million. I need some information regarding the population growth rate and the mortality rate in the country.

I: The population growth rate is stagnant at 0. The average life expectancy is 75 years. Additionally, only 75% of the deceased are buried in coffins.

C: That’s interesting. So, going by the life expectancy of 75 years for a population of 4 million and that only 75% are buried in coffins, the total number of coffins required per year can be calculated as below:

No. of coffins required per year= 0.75 *(4,000,000/75) = 40000

I: That is correct.

C: Can I have some information about the current market share of our client in the coffin sales?

I: The market share is 10%.

C: That gives the total annual sales of 4000 coffins. Now let’s go to the cost analysis. Can you share some info about the costs of manufacturing?

I: The total cost of manufacturing is $4800 per coffin. Out of which 10% is cost of raw materials and rest is cost of manual labor.

C: Ok. At what price is the client selling the coffin?

I: The selling price per unit is $5000.

C: That gives a profit of $200 per coffin. Therefore, the total profit shall be 200*4000= $800,000 per year. Are there any other fixed costs involved?

I: Good that you asked it. There is a fixed cost of $700,000 per year.

C: So, that leaves a final profit of 800,000-700,000=100,000 per year.

I: Perfect. Let’s move on to some more details. Suppose that the manufacturer wants to invest in some new technology by which the manual labor cost can be reduced by 50%. The total investment required is 1 million. I want you to analyze whether it is feasible to invest in the technology or not.

C: (Repeated the objective) Is there any other objective I should be aware of?

I: No. Everything else remains the same as earlier.

C: Ok. Could you share details about how the manufacturer is planning to raise the find of 1 million? If it is a bank loan, please share the interest and repayment term details.

I: The manufacturer is planning to take a bank loan of 1 million. The interest is 5%, for a repayment period of 5 years. Simple interest method can be used for calculation.

C: Ok. Shall I consider that the capital amount of 1 million is split into 5 equal instalments of 200,000 each and interest is paid on the balance capital remaining to be paid.

I: Yes.

Me: So, the repayment calculation can be analyzed as below:

Year 1:
Repayment amount - 200,000
Balance - 800,000
Interest to be paid - 50000(5% of 1,000,000)

Year 2:
Repayment amount - 200,000
Balance - 600,000
Interest to be paid - 40000(5% of 800,000)

Year 3:
Repayment amount - 200,000
Balance - 400,000
Interest to be paid - 30000

Year 4:
Repayment amount - 200,000
Balance - 200,000
Interest to be paid - 20000

Year 5:
Repayment amount - 200,000
Balance - 0
Interest to be paid - 10000

I: Correct. Let’s consider the profitability of the first year only.

C: Ok. The net repayment for first year towards loan is 250,000. Let’s analyze the cost part now. The manual labor cost will be reduced to half by introducing new technology. The calculations are as below:

Cost of raw materials: 480 (10% as discussed earlier)
Cost of manual labor: 4320/2= 2160
Total cost = $2640 per coffin

I: Correct.

C: Is there any change in the selling price?

I: No.

C: So, the net profit per coffin is $5000-$2640= $2360. The total profit per year for annual sales of 4000 coffins= 2360*4000=9,440,000.

I: That is correct.

C: Is the fixed cost of $700,000 still present.

I: Yes.

C: Therefore, the net profit = 9,440,000-(700,000+250,000) = 8,490,000.

I: Correct. So, should the manufacturer invest in the new technology.

C: Yes, the manufacturer should invest in the new tech as he will be earning much higher profits per year.

I: Thank you.

The interview started with interviewer introducing himself. Then asked me to tell about myself. I did the same introduction as in the previous interview. I had mentioned about photography in my introduction. Then the interviewer put forward a case based on photography.

The case was basically a profitability analysis, where he mentioned that Canon is losing its profits in India. He asked me to analyze the reasons.
I used the same approach of profit= revenue-cost. The interviewer asked to begin with revenue.

I drilled down the several sources of revenue. At every step, I could suggest 3 or 4 reasons for the point analyzed. Some points discussed were types of equipment sold, reasons for dip in sales of point and shoot camera, reasons for popularity of DSLR camera, competitors performance, service levels etc.

There were no numerical involved, so every point was discussed, exploring reasons and suggesting improvements.

The interview took about 20 minutes.

• Q1. This was an HR round; the interviewer was trying to engage me in a conversation. He introduced himself and then asked me to tell about myself. Thereafter the co...read more
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Was asked about how the previous round was etc.

Was then given another problem. There is only one call centre of Airtel in Mumbai. Calculate its approximate operating cost & provide a solution to optimize it.
I divided the cost in various parts such as the labour cost, equipment cost etc.

I started it with finding out the number of airtel customers in Mumbai. Out of all these customers, I found out the percentage that might be interested in using the services provided by the call centre. I divided what percentage of which age group of the customer base might be using the service. I assumed the approximate time for each call & the working hours of each employee. Based on that I calculated the number of employees required & then assumed the salary of each employee to be 20k. I also included the salaries of the various other employees in the hierarchy. This led me to the labour cost involved. In a similar manner I considered the various other costs involved.

That was it, the interviewer seemed happy & I was again asked if I had any questions.