[Chapter 4] Process Improvement

[T/F] Average labor utilization can be greater than 100%

False

Which are appropriate expressions of takt time?

How many seconds it takes to make a burger, how many minutes are spent with a customer

What is true about line balancing without having to observe a fixed sequence?

It lowers the costs of direct labor

Which is the most accurate measure of labor content?

The amount of time it takes to serve one customer.

Which of the following contribute to labor content?

The time a worker works on the flow unit, the time a worker spends inspecting a flow unit

What is the goal of determining takt time?

To meet demand rate as closely as possible

The calculation of labor content requires ______ all of the processing times for serving one flow unit

adding

What term describes the relationship between the flow rate and the capacity of each labor resource that works in a process?

average labor utilization

The amount of work that goes into serving one customer is called labor

content

When wages per unit of time go up but flow rate stays the same, what happens to the costs of direct labor?

costs increase

Costs of direct labor measure the labor cost associated with serving one

customer (consumer)

Being able to line balance without having to observe a fixed sequence will _______ costs of direct labor

decrease

To increase profit a firm can do the following

decrease average cost, increase flow rate, increase average price

When the takt time increases, the demand rate must have ___.

decreased

If the cycle time increases--and everything else remains constant--average labor utilization ______

decreases

Takt time depends on ________

demand

Takt time is solely driven by the rate of

demand

The labor cost associated with serving one customer is called the costs of _________ labor

direct

Average labor utilization equals labor content ______ (cycle time multiplied by number of employees)

divided by

To satisfy all demand we want cycle time to be _______ takt time

equal to

If the activities have to be carried out in a given order they are said to have a ______ sequence

fixed

The longer the processing time at a resource, the ______ the target manpower for a desired capacity

greater

A process that is efficient is one where labor utilization is as ______ as possible

high

The higher the desired capacity at a resource, the ______ the target manpower

higher

The time a resource is paid but not working is referred to as ______ time

idle

As idle time goes up, the costs of direct labor ________

increase

If flow rate goes up then profit will _________.

increase

When takt time is less than cycle time target, manpower should ________.

increase

When labor content goes up, target manpower ________

increases

When takt time goes up, target manpower ________

increases

What happens to takt time as the demand rate increases?

it decreases

What happens to the takt time when available time goes up?

it increases

What happens to the takt time when the demand quantity goes down?

it increases

What happens to total idle time if the number of employees increases while all other factors remain the same?

it increases

When you increase the flow rate of a process while keeping the number of resources used the same, what happens to the efficiency of the process?

it increases

Setting an expected demand rate for a given period of time is referred to as ______ the demand

leveling

The more a resource is idle the ____ its utilization

lower

When there is a fixed sequence of activities, labor utilization is typically ______ than when there is no fixed sequence

lower

Which is the best description of labor utilization?

measure of efficiency

If takt time is less than cycle time then we are ______ demand

not satisfying all

What general term describes a number of improvement strategies in which work is moved away from the bottleneck step?

off-loading the bottleneck

What term is used to describe a strategy that offloads a bottleneck by having some of the work done elsewhere?

outsourcing

What factor is subtracted from cycle time in order to figure out how much idle time exists in production?

processing time

In order to set a staffing level, leveled demand is turned into a ______ time

takt

When quantity demanded goes up, ________.

takt time decreases, target manpower increases

When flow rate goes up but wages per unit of time stay the same, how are costs of direct labor affected?

the costs decrease

Consider two processes that produce the same output with the same amount of resources. Which one is more efficient?

the one with the higher flow rate

______ ______ time is the amount of idle time per flow unit added up across all resources

total idle

[T/F] To calculate total idle time, one must know the amount of idle time per flow unit

true

[T/F] When staffing to meet demand yields a process with idle time, the staffing level will be higher than the target manpower

true