Organizational Agility
_____ tags help boost logistics efficiency and speed in the distribution system and even at some retailers.
RFID
_____ engineering refers to a design approach in which all relevant functions cooperate jointly and continually in a maximum effort aimed at producing high-quality products that meet customers' needs.
concurrent
An operation that achieves increased efficiency while simultaneously improving effectiveness is best described as practicing ____.
lean manufacturing
An organization that is skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights is known as a ____ organization.
learning
When an organization's definition of customer expands to include internal customers, the word customer is best defined as the ____.
next process
What is a strategic alliance?
A formal relationship created among independent organizations with the purpose of joint pursuit of mutual goals
Which of the following statements about types of economies is true?
An organization's large size often creates scale economies and economies of scope.
Which of the following is an important component of time-based competition?
Concurrent engineering
Which of the following is one of the criteria for receiving the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award?
Customer and market focus
Which of the following constitutes the strategic triangle of a business unit?
Customers, corporation, and competitors
The top management team at Gargantuan Industries has decided that it needs to close one of its divisions and eliminate a level of middle management at the surviving divisions. What process is Gargantuan going to implement?
Downsizing
Which of the following is an advantage of a large organization?
Easier access to capital
Which of the following is one of W. Edwards Deming's 14 points of quality?
Eliminate slogans and buzzwords.
A strategic alliance can be made with just about any other organization except one's competitors.
FALSE
A value chain is the sequence of activities that flow from raw materials to the delivery of a good or service, with value subtracted at each step.
FALSE
In a lean manufacturing organization, the emphasis is on cost, efficiency, and hierarchy.
FALSE
Reengineering answers the question "If you were the board of directors, how would you like us to operate?"
FALSE
The mechanistic organization emphasizes flexibility and is less rigid than the organic structure.
FALSE
Usually, companies with higher volumes of products tend to offer more varieties.
FALSE
Which of the following statements is true about strategic alliances?
For the alliance to work, the partners should consider one another's areas of expertise.
Which of the following is an effective practice in downsizing?
Giving special attention and help to those who have lost their jobs
Which of the following is an advantage of a small organization?
Greater employee involvement
A series of quality standards developed by a committee working under the International Organization for Standardization to improve total quality in all businesses for the benefit of both producers and consumers is known as ____.
ISO 9001
Which of the following is a primary activity in the generic value chain?
Inbound logistics
Which of the following aspects of an organization creates scale economies and economies of scope and leads to advantages like lower operating costs, greater purchasing power, and easier access to capital?
Large size
Executives at a pharmaceuticals company have been working with a consultant to implement ISO 9001. They have established the company's vision and goals, and they have been working hard to provide inspiration to their employees and establish trust. Which of the following principles is the company addressing here?
Leadership
Which of the following is an operation that strives to achieve the highest possible productivity and total quality by eliminating unnecessary steps in the production process and continually striving for improvement?
Lean manufacturing
Which of the following is a characteristic of continuous process technologies?
Machines and/or computers do all the work.
_____ refers to the production of varied, individually customized products at the low cost of standardized, mass-produced products.
Mass customization
According to Deming's 14 points of quality, which of the following has to be eliminated, as they are contrary to the idea of continuous improvement?
Numerical quotas
An organization's size has a large impact on its ability to respond effectively to its environment.
TRUE
It is a challenge for companies to be both big and small to capitalize on the advantages of each.
TRUE
Strategies and structures are based on the firm's core capabilities, its strategic alliances, its ability to learn, and its ability to engage all the people in the organization in achieving its objectives.
TRUE
The difficulty of controlling a large company with many product lines and divisions is an example of a diseconomy of scale.
TRUE
Which of the following is true of small batch technologies?
The emphasis is on mutual adjustment among people.
Which of the following statements is true of a high-involvement organization?
The organizational form is a flat, decentralized structure built around a customer, good, or service.
Which of the following statements is true of organic firms?
They are faster at responding to changing competitive demands.
_____ refers to strategies aimed at reducing the total duration it takes to deliver a product or service.
Time-based competition
_____ is an integrative approach to management that supports the attainment of customer satisfaction through a wide variety of tools and techniques that result in goods and services of high standards.
Total quality management
Which of the following is a characteristic of flexible factories?
Using decentralized scheduling
A form of organization that seeks to maximize internal efficiency is called
a mechanistic organization
In organic organizations, communication tends to occur through _____.
advice
Glen wants to balance the strategic triangle for his company. To do this, he must take into account the competition, the customer, and the _____.
company itself
In an organic structure, what are the responsibilities of jobholders usually like?
broad and flexible
In Japanese operations strategy, kaizen refers to ____.
continuous improvement
In the realm of customer relations, _____ includes continually changing in order to connect with customers, even without waiting for customers to make the first move.
continuous improvement
Total quality management is a way of managing in which everyone is committed to the _____ of his or her part of the operation.
continuous improvement
The formal structure of an organization is primarily put in place to:
control people, decisions, and actions.
A _____ is the knowledge, expertise, or skill that underlies a company's ability to be a leader in providing a range of specific goods or services.
core capability
A well-understood, well-developed _____ can enhance a company's responsiveness and competitiveness.
core capability
Diseconomies of scale refers to the
costs associated with an organization being too big.
Rick is the marketing head of a firm. He usually strives for long-term improvement rather than short-term profit, regardless of the economic environment. In the context of Deming's 14 points of quality, this is an example of
creating constancy of purpose.
A multifaceted process focusing on creating two-way exchanges with customers to foster intimate knowledge of their needs, wants, and buying patterns is called _____ management.
customer relationship
Uma wants to improve her customer service department by using information technologies to create two-way conversations with customers to gain more knowledge of their wants and preferences. Uma wants to institute _____ management.
customer relationship
Total quality management is characterized by a strong orientation toward both external and internal _____.
customers
Iris Paint, a manufacturer of designer indoor paint, is in the process of eliminating some positions in its organization. Its management has carefully analyzed all of the jobs and strategically determined which to keep, with an eye toward protecting its most talented people. Which of the following refers to what Iris is doing in this scenario?
downsizing
The planned elimination of positions or jobs is known as _____.
downsizing
Exploration and _____ are the two ideal areas on which a learning organization should focus.
exploitation
Managers who want to strengthen their firms' competitiveness via core capabilities need to focus on
extending capabilities to find new applications and opportunities.
Structurally, a high-involvement organization is usually ____.
flat and decentralized
A company that receives certification that it meets ISO 9001 standards is a company that
has begun the process of achieving quality.
In a _____ organization, top management ensures that there is consensus about the direction in which the business is heading.
high-involvement
Natasha, the CEO of Ellis and Peters Associates, seeks input from both her top management team and the lower levels of the company before she decides on strategies about the future direction of the company. Judging from this, Ellis and Peters Associates is a(n) _____ organization.
high-involvement
To be successful, partners in a strategic alliance must pay the most attention to the _____ partnership.
human relationships in the
A small office with only a single accountant and a receptionist/secretary is an example of a _____ shop.
job
A system that calls for subassemblies and components to be manufactured in very small lots and delivered to the next stage in the production process as they are needed is known as a ____.
just-in-time (JIT) operation
Perfect quality, elimination of waste, value-added manufacturing, and employee involvement are all components of ____.
just-in-time operations
In which type of organization are jobs most likely to be specialized?
large
McDonald's and Burger King have production processes that tend to be standardized, and all customers receive similar if not identical products. These organizations are examples of ____.
large batch technologies
McKittridge Consulting pursues activities such as engaging in disciplined thinking, searching constantly for new knowledge, benchmarking, and sharing ideas throughout the organization via information systems. Which type of organization is McKittridge Consulting?
learning organization
Large organizations are typically _____ than small ones.
less organic and more bureaucratic
Problems with which of the following are most likely to result in products going out of stock and consumers choosing alternatives?
logistics
Survivor's syndrome refers to the
loss of productivity and morale in employees who remain after downsizing.
Rey's company produces a high volume of bicycle helmets, yet they come in a high variety of distinctive styles. The company is engaging in _____.
mass customization
Economies of scope refers to the idea that
materials and processes employed in one product can be used to make other related products.
If jobholders rely more heavily on judgment than on rules, the organization most likely has a(n) _____ structure.
organic
The _____ structure is an organizational form that emphasizes flexibility.
organic
Which of the following words best describes decision making in a small batch organization?
organic
The factor that differentiates flexible factories from traditional factories is that flexible factories
organize work flow around products.
Downsizing in organizations refers to the
planned elimination of organizational positions.
A company that asks itself "If you were the customer, how would you like us to operate?" and then takes action to transform itself is best described as using the notion of ____.
reengineering
The process of completely overhauling an operation to achieve the greatest possible benefits to the customer and to the organization is known as _____.
reengineering
The term logistics refers to the movement of
resources into the organization and products from the organization to its customers.
The principal idea of reengineering is to
revolutionize key organizational systems and processes.
The successful effort to achieve an appropriate size at which a company performs most effectively is known as _____.
rightsizing
Big companies can typically lower costs per unit of production. In other words, large size allows for _____.
scale economies
Because Mega Corp. is very large, it has the ability to use the same process to manufacture multiple related products. This type of efficiency is referred to as an economy of ____.
scope
One of the most important contributors to total quality management has been the introduction of statistical tools to analyze the causes of product defects in an approach called ____.
six sigma quality
Which type of company is better at providing quality goods and services to targeted market niches?
small
Cancer Survivors Counseling and FlexiSolution Software recently joined forces to produce a nutrition-planning program for use on home computers. The two organizations are working together on the project since neither could have developed it using only their own resources. Both will own the resulting program. This is an example of a ____.
strategic alliance
According to Dr. Kenichi Ohmae, customers, corporation, and competitors make up the ____.
strategic triangle
Missy's company just went through the process of downsizing. Missy retained her job, but now she has a much heavier workload. Since the layoffs, Missy has been worried about her future and more reluctant to take risks on the job. Missy is showing the symptoms of ____.
survivor's syndrome
The phenomenon in which employees who retain their jobs during a layoff subsequently exhibit a loss of productivity and reduced morale is known as _____.
survivor's syndrome
Which of the following is a support activity in the generic value chain?
technology development
The sequence of activities that flow from raw materials to the delivery of a good or service, with additional value created at each step, is known as ____.
the value chain
