Finding 'Where to be?' with four Operations Mapping workflows
- Arpit Shah
- Dec 31, 2024
- 15 min read
Updated: Apr 25
Introduction
From seeing potential in linking Mapping with Operations in 2018 to operating Intelloc Mapping Services - the business entity behind Mapmyops.com full-time post the Coronavirus pandemic, I feel excited when I receive responses to my email campaign from prospects seeking to know more about what my firm does, how it could benefit their organization, for addressing a query, or for quoting towards a current requirement. Often, I do get requests for demonstration from prospects - for a drone service trial, web map application, virtual presentation, site visit, and so on.
As there are a wide range of solutions that my firm offers and given that it is not viable to provide a custom demonstration free of cost, I prefer to codify useful workflows into an article+video format on this website and share the relevant ones with prospects which come close to addressing their queries. I feel more inclined to be of service to someone who, by virtue of reviewing the content and knowing how I work, finds the idea of engaging with my firm and exploring a solution to be meaningful and potentially beneficial.
Another advantage of having the workflows (50+) published online is that it attracts readers from around the world - students and young researchers often connect seeking to know more about a methodology or to access a particular dataset that I have utilized in a post and I feel happy to support them to the best of my ability. Such interactions helps me build my professional network and I hope to collaborate with them on an exciting research opportunity in the future.
In this post, I will cover these workflows (hyperlinked to their respective sections)-
You would not be wrong to think that these topics are somewhat disparate - I had developed these demonstrations for different prospects and well-wishers addressing their unique requirement. Besides the theme of what my firm does - Mapping Solutions for Operations Improvement, and the headline of this post - Finding where to be (which I spent more than an hour to arrive at), there is virtually nothing in common between these workflows. I could have very well chosen to flesh each topic out into individual posts as the subject matter is wholesome. However, instinctively I felt that I had to close the loop for these in 2024 itself through this consolidated post - and start 2025 afresh!🤩
Let's begin...
Modeling 'Green' in Supply Chain Network Design
In this workflow, using a fictitious example involving the Supply Chain of Kissan - an established food brand in India, I’ll demonstrate how to apply Linear Programming using the Solver tool in Microsoft Excel to determine/design an optimal Supply Chain with the objective to achieve lower CO2 emissions from inbound and outbound transportation in a three-echelon supply chain network involving Agricultural Farms (Suppliers) → Kissan (Manufacturer) → Distributors (Customers).
Reducing Greenhouse gas emissions helps make progress towards United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal #.13 on Climate Change which calls for urgent action to prevent the Earth to warm in excess of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (breached 1.1 degrees already).
The video demonstration below covers these aspects-
Optimizing Material Flows to arrive at the lowest Total Supply Chain Cost
Modeling in a 5% reduction in total GHG emissions (inbound + outbound CO2)
Explaining how the model adapts to the new constraint and re-optimizes Material Flows
For those unfamiliar with Supply Chain Network Design and how Linear Programming works, I'll recommend that you review my comprehensive work on this topic here. That being said, this demonstration was designed on a standalone-basis, so you can choose to view it straightaway.
Slider 1: Comparing the Optimized and GHG-Optimized Supply Chain Network of Kissan
While the technology to perform Operations Mapping activities has become more advanced over the years - with the capability to create dynamic web and mobile applications - one should never underestimate the utility of possessing a printed 2D Map.
Depicting a Supply Chain Network on a Map can not only serve as an infographic to refer for senior executives, but also it can be used to train and induct new joinees in the organization.
Route Mapping for Ascetics
Those with religious vows are duty bound to lead a self-disciplined and virtuous life. It so happens that in my culture, the ascetics choose not to reside at one location for long periods of time, lest they develop an attachment to it, is something which they endeavour to free themselves from through a life of austerity and penance. As a result, they journey barefoot from one location to another throughout the year, barring the monsoon season (rationale).
I had harbored a wish that my mapping services can be utilized to preserve my culture and Indian culture in general, but I had never really planned on how to work towards it. One fine day, a rare visit to pay homage to a group of monks and a chance discussion with one of them about what I do for a living prompted a query-
The ascetics do not own or keep any material possessions and have restrictions pertaining to using commonplace objects and technology as well. So I snapped out my phone and upon querying Google Maps, relayed to the monk- 'There are three distinct routes to travel to Ayodhya, ranging from 550 kilometers to 660 kilometers, and only one viable route to travel to Bhopal from there which would be 680 kilometers. In order to complete the entire journey in the stipulated time-frame of two months, you will have to cover 20-25 kilometers on an average daily'.
'We are familiar with the onward route to Bhopal, however, we've never visited Ayodhya from Parasnath before. Can you elaborate the three route options for that?'
'Route 1 is the shortest and it goes via Azamgarh...
Route 2 is slightly longer and it goes via Varanasi...
Route 3 is the longest and goes via Gorakhpur. You'll encounter several pilgrimage sites on the way...'
'Sounds interesting. You are into Mapping, isn't it..can you chart these options on a Map? I'll use it to consult the head monk and he will take the decision about which route we should embark on...'
'Sure', I said sensing the glorious opportunity, 'Let me come back to you day-after-tomorrow'.
'That is fine. Do not waste a lot of paper.'
On my way back home, my mind had already begun racing-
- 'It is such an open-ended task!,' I muttered. 'I should have asked the monk to specify what he wanted me to depict on the map.'
- 'Should I use Google Maps or Google Earth or GIS to make the Map?'
- 'What would be a good way to depict a 500+ kilometers walking route on a piece of paper?'
- 'Should I use English or a regional language to label the Map?'
- 'How do I make a Map that is useful, something that the monks will will cherish?'
The navigation instructions to travel to Ayodhya, both visual and written, were highly detailed on Google Maps - the latter ran into more than half a dozen pages in standard font size.
I wondered to myself-
- 'Can I find a way to condense this information without losing out on efficacy?'
- 'Is there any other way to depict the route information on a Map?'
While I could toggle the language mode and download the instructions from Google Maps in the regional Hindi language as well as the native Gujarati language, I decided against using the navigation instructions altogether - it dawned on me that I'd be better off using a professional Map-making software (GIS) to present all relevant information aesthetically on a piece of paper instead of obtusely trying to fit all of Google Maps' navigation instructions on it somehow.
As a result, I turned to the powerful ArcGIS Pro software. Because it is a creator platform (GIS) and not a navigation tool like Google Maps, I would have to first build my own Location dataset and subsequently reverse geocode it onto the Map layer in ArcGIS Pro.
Given that the monks would need to travel ~20 kilometers daily and have a resting place at evening, I deemed it necessary to depict a suitable stopover location at/below this distance interval on the Map.
As a result, I began to scour Google Maps for urban, semi-urban and large rural settlements which are directly adjacent/near the route and which are compatible with this distance criteria.
As the routes to Ayodhya from Parasnath traversed through populous plains in the states of Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh respectively, I had little difficulty in finding reasonably large settlements 15-20 kilometers apart from each other. Fortunately, Google Maps even labels settlements based on their relative importance in the search extent - notice how the village Aoura is labelled in capital letters at 0:12 mark in Video 3 above - this feature made it easier for me to spot and select the largest settlement from the places mentioned.
Now having a list of settlements which could be suitable for night halts, I proceeded to add their coordinates and other relevant attributes to the dataset, knowing fully well that it would be useful while working on labelling and symbology aspects later on.
And with the help of Google Translate, I also created a Gujarati (native language for the ascetics) version of the Location Dataset-
I had preempted that just having a Map-based visual output wouldn't be ideal. Instead, this table can be printed on the back of the Map and would serve as a handy reckoner. As it is, the text and labels on the map would be written in English as ArcGIS Pro does not seem to support regional Indian languages and while the monks can read and understand simple English, having the information printed separately in their native language on the Map paper itself would be convenient. Besides, I had also anticipated that depicting all the information on the Map may not be necessary and would contribute to clutter, and hence, having a separate data table capturing all the attributes of the Location Dataset would be much better.
Slowly but surely, the skeleton of my creation was forming and I felt optimistic...
While I had identified the settlements that were compatible with the daily distance criteria, I wondered if I could go a step ahead and find an actual resting spot within them. I knew that, when stationary during the monsoon season, the ascetics typically reside at a resting place attached to/in the vicinity of their place of worship. The only thing they need was a covered shelter - no beds (as they sleep on the floor), no kitchen (as they seek food as alms everyday, typically from households from the same religious background), no electricity or telephones (as they desist from material and technology comforts) and no security guards (as they do not possess anything worth securing).
I figured that since finding temple-affiliated rest houses everyday was impossible, the monks typically sought shelter at government schools, bus stations, charitable homes and similar places - they gathered information about such resting spots from the locals during their journey.
If I could find one temple per settlement, the monks can visit it straightaway and obtain directions to a suitable resting spot from there, thereby saving them time and effort as well as allowing them to rest in a private enclosure.
I began the searching for it online, however, as anticipated, there weren't many such temples to be found on two of the three routes to Ayodhya.
Having no option but to manage with what I had, I proceeded to visualize the assimilated Location Dataset on a Map - the outer skin of my creation. However, it took me a lot of time to do so. Here are the kind of dilemmas that I had to grapple with-
Selecting an appropriate basemap was a bit confusing to begin with - whether to show the terrain, or the topography, or aerial imagery, or to keep the background plain
There were roughly sixty settlements in a route to plot and label, and by virtue of it being a contiguous path, the data points appeared clustered on the map rather than being dispersed evenly across the map extent which would have rendered well visually
Settling on the symbology was challenging too - what size of text to use?, what colors to use in order to best represent the relativity between the attributes (villages vs. towns vs. cities)?, etc.
Basemaps are usually accompanied by reference layers which display the location and labels of major topographic features such as cities, rivers and roads. To determine whether to display all of them, or which of them, or any of them was a difficult decision
Navigation and directionality were important aspects that needed to be taken care of. Displaying the exact path to take, besides being technically arduous to do, wouldn't have added meaning to the Map given there were hundreds of roads and streets strewn across the length of the journey. The visual rendition of it would either be unreadable, uninterpretable, cluttered, or partially invisible at the very least if I were to set up preferential labeling based on some logic. I was not even sure whether the roads data which I would extract from the open-source Open Street Maps datasets would be reliable. All in all, I was ready to compromise on visual aesthetics in favor of displaying relevant data points but limited working space on the Map was a major obstacle
Certain minor aspects were also there - for example, 'should I display the Water bodies?'. There were several of them, alongside/intersecting the route. 'Perhaps the monks would prefer a route which had fewer of them due to the risk of flooding?', I wondered.
Eventually, I was able to settle down on this Map design-
To summarize my decisions, I chose-
to keep label sizes relative, based on the type of settlement
to use a single text color, in order to maintain consistency
to use a different color for the settlements, based on its type (city/town/village)
to highlight the total distance elapsed in the labelling so that one can calculate the distance to the next stop if needed (both these data points would be individually depicted in the table)
to use a terrain basemap without reference layer or hillshade in order to keep the map whitey-clean and devoid of unnecessary/rarely needed visual and textual information
to only depict the highway roads on the route and without labels, just to give a visual indication to the monks where they would have the benefit of utilizing a prime path and where they would have to leave it to venture into the interiors. Besides, the data table also captured the name of the primary road which connected one settlement to the next, which the ascetics can always refer to
to not use the navigation instructions at all due to obvious lack of space. As it is, a general sense of directionality could still be gauged from the map - whether the next milestone is north or north-west, for example
to highlight the temple locations with an icon and label them only with serial numbers which could be cross-referenced to the data table behind the map which would contain the details such as name of the temple, its address, nearest landmark, and its phone number if available
I printed the output - one Map each for the three route options to Ayodhya and one map for the onward journey to Bhopal - on four sheets of A3 paper. I preferred size A3 to A4 as it preserved and positively impacted the visual aesthetics of both, the Map as well as the Data Table. 'It would be comfortable to read and refer to', in my assessment...
...and in the monk's opinion as well! He appreciated my efforts and took me along to discuss it with the head monk. Route 2 via Varanasi was deemed the best option as it had more and better-known urban and semi-urban settlements besides having better highway and primary roads connectivity compared to Route 1 which was the shortest but not by a large margin - 16 kilometers. Besides, Varanasi, a major urban centre by itself, had an important pilgrimage site within which the monks would like to visit.
P.S. the head monk requested that I print just the data table for Route 2 on an A4 sheet of paper so that he could keep it handy with him during the journey!
Overall, I felt good about my output and the outcome in general - I hope that the monks refer to the map on their journey and benefit from it. The utility of a Map's design is largely subjective in nature provided the basic objective needs are taken care of and I am grateful to have been exposed to aspects that go into effective map-making from the tutorials on Esri's Learn ArcGIS website. In case you have some suggestions on how I could have made the Map even better, I would encourage you to share it.
Terrain Change Detection for Physical Security Planning
The video demonstration below was developed as part of a larger proposal to develop a Geographic Early Warning System for a prospective client - the head of Physical Security at a reputed Indian conglomerate - the proposal included other workflows such as Climate EWS and Line of Sight-based-Security Planning as well.
The business group in consideration has 100+ manufacturing units and mining locations across India, several very large in size and some located in remote areas. To prevent incidents of theft, and for the safety of the workforce and assets, physical security personnel are deployed in multiple shifts at various locations around the site's perimeter 24x7x365. Upon discussing this matter with another Security Head I had worked with previously, I figured that the terrain around a site's perimeter influences the security deployment considerably. For example, if there are marshy spots around, those zones would be less susceptible to incursions compared to an area with dense foliage, which miscreants would look to utilize to their advantage. Thus, planning for and allocating security personnel wisely, by virtue of them being a limited resource, is fundamental.
As a result, I prepared this demonstration on how Mapping technology can be utilized to perform Terrain Change Detection around a site and provide valuable insights to the Security planners-
While I have used a Vegetation Index (NDVI) on Multispectral Satellite Imagery to classify the terrain and to monitor the spots with dense vegetation and their evolution through time in the video, I can also use a Water Index to monitor marshy zones, or generate an Urban Footprint utilizing Radar Remote Sensing to monitor the built-up areas around the site's perimeter.
As Satellites typically prioritize temporal resolution (wide swath and short revisit interval) over spatial resolution (pixel size), one is better off using a Drone with a Multispectral payload in order to map the area around the site perimeter with better clarity and with the freedom to surveil and obtain as many data acquisitions as desired - this would allow for higher quality of Change Detection.
Expanding Market Coverage for Consumer Goods Distribution
An organization's growth potential is usually determined by vertical growth (expansion of offerings) and/or horizontal growth (expansion of markets). I happen to encounter ~20+ news articles every month which revolve around the latter-
I had developed the video demonstration below for a former employer of mine who wanted to see how Mapping technology can help identify locations which have high distribution potential but are currently untapped by the field sales team.
The Location Analytics methodology used in the demonstration is straightforward and can benefit a variety of organizations, particularly those involved in the distribution of consumer goods.
I have used Esri ArcGIS Pro geospatial analytics platform to-
load the PIN code layer of India and clip it to the city of Mumbai
enrich the PIN codes with population data
load an open source Road Network layer and clip it to the city of Mumbai
filter the layer to keep just the Primary, Secondary, Tertiary and Residential roads
reverse-geocode existing Store coverage - using a hypothetical list scraped from Google Maps
compare the Store coverage with the Population of that PIN code
derive a 10-minute walking-time coverage for each Store, which represents its customer reach
filter those roads that lie outside the walking-time coverage areas. Provided the population of that PIN code is high, catering to the stores that fall on these road sections would help expand the company's distribution network and stimulate business growth
Hope you enjoyed exploring these Operations Mapping workflows. Wish you a happy 2025!
ABOUT US - OPERATIONS MAPPING FOR ORGANIZATIONS
Intelloc Mapping Services, Kolkata | Mapmyops.com offers Mapping services that can be integrated with Operations Planning, Design and Audit workflows. These include but are not limited to Drone Services, Subsurface Mapping Services, Location Analytics & App Development, Supply Chain Services, Remote Sensing Services and Wastewater Treatment. The services can be rendered pan-India and will aid your organization to meet its stated objectives pertaining to Operational Excellence, Sustainability and Growth.
Broadly, the firm's area of expertise can be split into two categories - Geographic Mapping and Operations Mapping. The Infographic below highlights our capabilities-
Our Mapping for Operations-themed workflow demonstrations can be accessed from the firm's Website / YouTube Channel and an overview can be obtained from this brochure. Happy to address queries and respond to documented requirements. Custom Demonstration, Training & Trials are facilitated only on a paid-basis. Looking forward to being of service.
Regards,
