Operations management
a popular visual tool for planning and scheduling simple projects, and for monitoring progress, is the:
Gantt chart
Project management differs from management of more traditional actives mainly because of:
I and II (its limited time frame and its unique, defined set of activities)
Which of the following are advantages of PERT and CPM
I and III (it is visual and activities that need to be watched closely can be identified
the basis for use of the beta distribution is PERT is:
its features that make it attractive in practice
increasing the service offered to the customer makes it more difficult to compete on the basis of:
price
the ratio of good output to quantify of raw material input is called
process yield
the responsibilities of the operations manager include:
the creation of goods or provision of services
which of the following stages is that one in which the project's expected costs, benefits, and risks are assessed?
initiating
Time-based approaches of business organizations focus on reducing the time to accomplish certain necessary activities. Time reductions seldom apply to:
internal audits
The advantage a precedence diagram has over a Gantt chart is:
its ability to reveal relationships among activities
Dealing with the fact that certain aspects of any management situation are more important that others is called:
recognition of priorities
core competencies in organizations generally do Not relate to:
sales price
at which point does crashing of a project cease?
when the cost to crash equals or exceeds the benefit of crashing
a hierarchical listing of what must be done in a project is called a:
work breakdown structure (WBS)
a productivity increase in one operation that does not improve overall productivity of the business is not
worthwhile
Budgeting, analysis of investment proposals, and provision of funds are activities associated with the _______ function.
Finance
Which of the following is true?
Functional strategies are shaped by corporate strategy.
Which of the following is Not one of the six key decisions in project management?
II (deciding on the project manager's title)
The fact that a few improvements in a few key areas of operations will have more impact than many improvements in many other areas is consistent with the:
Pareto phenomenon
Which of the following is Not true about the systems approach?
a systems approach concentrates on efficiency within subsystems
If one organization is better able than most to respond to changes in demands or opportunities, we say that organization exhibits higher:
agility
technology choices can have a major impact on:
all of the above (productive, customer satisfaction, quality, costs)
In "crashing" a project, a manager will generally focus on activities which:
are on the critical path and are the least costly to crash
The process of comparing outputs to previously established standards to determine if corrective action is needed is called:
controlling
Unique attributes of firms that give them a competitive edge are called:
core competencies
shortening activity duration is called:
crashing
Which of the following is Not a characteristic of service operations?
easy measurement of productivity
Which of the following is Not among the chief reasons organizations fail?
emphasizing labor productivity in labor-intensive environments
which of the following is determined as a direct result of computing the earliest starting and finishing times for the activities of a project network?
expected project duration
Measurements taken at various points in the transformation process for control purposes are called:
feedback
Which is Not an area of significant difference between manufacturing and service operations?
forecasting demand
in project network analysis, "slack" refers to the difference between:
latest and earliest times
in a project network, the critical path is the sequence of activities which has the:
longest duration
Marketing personnel and product designers must work closely with operations to successfully develop and produce new products because operations personnel can best judge___ how new product designs will be
manufacturable
Which of the following factors would tend to reduce productivity?
more inexperienced workers
in the probabilistic approach to project network analysis, the time estimate annotated tm for any activity is the:
most likely time
an organization's mission statement serves as the basis for:
organizational goals
a sequence of activities that leads from the starting node to the finishing node is called:
path
in the execution phase of a project's life cycle, activities are guided by decisions that were made in the ___ phase
planning
competitiveness doesn't include:
profitability
which of the following is Not a key factor of competitiveness?
size of organization
product design and choice of location are examples of ___ decisions
strategic
Which of the following most involves coordinating the activities among all the elements of the business including its suppliers and distributors?
supply chain management
Business organizations consist of three major functional areas which, ideally:
support one another
Which of the following refers to service and production processes that use resources in ways that do not harm ecological systems
sustainability
which of the following is Not a benefit of using models in decision making?
they force the decision maker to take into account qualitative issues such as personalities and emotions