Can you imagine what will happen if all the people living in Australia start to migrate on one particular day? That’s what happened to China. Chun Yun is the world’s largest regular migration of people. It occurs every year around the Chinese New Year. Chun Yun reached it top of 60,000 passengers per day in 2013.

From my perspective, Chun Yun is a really good example for studying operation.

Let me highlight the main “battle field” of Chun Yun– the Guangzhou Railway Station. What has the Station done?

1. Forecast. By comparing to the last several years, the station made the assumption of how many migrators this year. What’s more, they also figured out what might happen during the Chun Yun. Forecasting is not just about the mathematic number, but the whole picture and all the possibilities. Only after a careful forecast can the station come up with a better solution.

2. Inputs. After forecasting, the Guangzhou Railway Station came up with several ways to solve this problem, for example increasing in frequency (adding150 lines)

3. Coordination. As far as I am concerned, it is the coordination of both internal department and staff with external billions of passengers. By providing the in-time information, the station successfully built a connection between staff and passengers, and ensured everyone getting the most up-to-date information.

Maybe “operation” is a business concept, but the application of it is much wider than I thought.

Reference:

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chunyun

[2]http://www.chinasmack.com/2011/pictures/chun-yun-worlds-largest-yearly-human-migration-1995-2011.html

[3http://www.theworldofchinese.com/2013/01/chunyun-a-spring-migration/