CHAPTER 6 QUIZ

Does a standard UPC bar code contain lot and batch information?

A UPC code cannot identify products by their serial number and therefore cannot identify lot and batch information.

Which of the following is true of radio frequency identification (RFID)?

A passive tag is "a RFID tag which does not send out data and is not self-powered" (APICS Dictionary, 15th edition).

Which of the following will filter the output of an analysis into role-specific information so that a decision support system (DSS) can make sense of voluminous data?

A presentation dashboard provides role-specific sorting of the voluminous data created by data mining in a DSS.

A relational database links tables:

A relational database allows any tables (sets of database records for items such as orders or suppliers) to be related to one another provided they share at least one common data element or field such as Part_Number or Supplier_Number.

A company that sells spare parts for cash registers has multiple inventory inaccuracies, multiple names for parts in their systems, and redundant products. Which of the following are the best first steps to help the company improve these issues?

After data cleansing, the firm must take steps to ensure that the data quality doesn't degrade to its original state by instituting role-based access policies, procedures, and software limits for adding, deleting, and modifying information and investing in data maintenance/continuous improvement process training for current and future users. A new software system will not help maintain data accuracy in and of itself without these steps.

Which of the following would be the least likely reason to implement radio frequency identification (RFID) at a company?

Although all of the examples listed could have other factors that would recommend the use of RFID, inventory accuracy in a situation where the inventory is already very low and therefore likely very accurate is the least likely to provide a return in excess of the costs of the implementation. RFID implementations should be performed only if they provide benefits in excess of their costs over their life.

Which of the following is the primary limiter on the spread of radio frequency identification (RFID)?

Because the price of a bar code label is very low, the price of an RFID tag is quite a significant factor in its applicable uses. Currently it is constrained to case- and pallet-level tagging and for high-value goods where the tag price is relatively small compared to the value of the item.

Which of the following is part of a good policy on data capture?

Capturing partial data is better than capturing no data.

Which of the following is true of bar codes?

Combination bar code/RFID printers allow the technologies to coexist.

An organization wants to automatically record the movement of inventory through its supply chain using a warehouse automation system (WMS). It typically is looking for information on a limited number of high-value items as well as a large number of medium- and low-value items. What is the best way to track the inventory using the WMS?

Companies will likely use a mix of active and passive tags, for example, placing active tags on high-value assets and whole containers and passive tags on boxes full of merchandise. The cost of tags is a limiter in the expansion of RFID, since, in comparison, the cost of a bar-code label is practically negligible.

Which of the following forms of interface devices would be best for a small firm that wants to make a connection to a second small firm where both have highly customized software?

Custom linkage

Which of the following analytical tools would be able to find hidden patterns in the data that are collected from each of a company's retail locations?

Data mining is a method of finding hidden patterns or relationships in data.

A business gathers information from its accounts information system to identify those customers who have bought a large volume of items in an innovative product group. This is an example of:

Data mining is the process of studying data to search for previously unknown relationships.

A company with multiple versions of the same enterprise resources planning (ERP) system and also a second ERP system due to a merger has experienced data quality and formatting problems, cannot leverage purchasing contracts effectively, and has no common metrics for management control purposes. Which of the following would be the best solution for this company's problems?

Don't replace any versions or vendors but use internet-based interface devices.

Which of the following is true of ISO standards for the EPC Gen 2 standard for radio frequency identification tags?

EPC Gen 2 is recognized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as the ISO 18000-6 class of standards.

All of the following are prerequisites for companies wanting to invest in radio frequency identification (RFID) except:

High inventory accuracy is a product of an RFID implementation and a reason for using it, not a prerequisite. The other items imply that the firm should be at a high stage of supply chain development before implementing RFID.

An organization is approached by a partner organization that suggests that the two organizations work to integrate software. The first organization is concerned about data protection and is hesitant to agree. Which solution would help allieviate this organization's concerns?

Implement process-oriented middleware.

An organization wants to create automatic communication between its inventory management system and its main supplier's inventory management system, which are incompatible. They decide to use data-oriented middleware despite the labor-intensive setup process. What long-term risk is associated with this selection?

Implementing data-oriented middleware is a labor-intensive process that will result in effective and fast communications, but the process may need to be repeated not only to add a new software system but also after upgrades. Therefore, this middleware option is expensive and may not provide long-term benefits.

Assuming a set of normal business constraints such as a need to constrain costs and provide a positive return on investments, which data capture policy would best allow an organization to more quickly translate data into increased opportunities for profit?

Incremental improvements may be the best policy, because each increase in the amount of data captured can immediately be put to use in improving the bottom line.

Which of the following types of automated identification and data capture (AIDC) systems could be used to read text on the side of a box as it moves on a conveyor belt?

Only a vision system can read text printed on a box. The other systems require some form of tag or encoded symbol to work.

Which of the following forms of interface devices would be best for a firm implementing an internal solution that can be directly extended to integrate external partners who resist standardizing?

Process-oriented middleware (also called business process management or BPM software) can help in implementing an internal solution that can be extended to integrate external partners who resist standardizing because it maps software to business processes and then allows those processes to be adapted as needed. The linkages automatically change along with the process changes.

In an advanced supply chain, which of the following would be the best data for a buyer to send to a sheet metal producer?

Providing access to data involves not only sharing of data but sharing of data in the right format for the user—in this case, sheets of steel rather than the number of finished products. The visibility should also not contain too much information, such as plates of glass or profit margins, both to keep extraneous data to a minimum and to protect each partner's private information.

A small auto parts store is upgrading to digital tracking of parts numbers, order numbers, and customer data. What option should it use for digital storage of these data?

Relational database

Which of the following is true of service-oriented architecture (SOA)?

SOA rules state that messages must be descriptive, not prescriptive. In other words, they tell the system what needs to be accomplished but not how to accomplish it.

Which of the following is true of service-oriented architecture (SOA)?

SOA uses simple and universally available standards such as web services, which constrain the semantics but are extensible, meaning that they can be enhanced without destroying existing services. Descriptive systems are endorsed by SOA because they tell the system what it is they want to do but leave the system to determine how to do that task.

Which of the following situations is the most critical to address in a transportation management system because it could result in workers and managers ceasing to trust in the integrity of the system?

Ten percent of shipped items have missing cube or weight data.

Which of the following can be used to immediately improve an organization's inventory accuracy even if it doesn't reduce lead times?

The APICS Dictionary, 15th edition, defines the point-of-sale (POS) as "the relief of inventory and computation of sales data at the time and place of sale, generally through the use of bar coding or magnetic media and equipment." Transferring information from the POS to the organization's information systems in real time allows the organization to deduct inventory from the books immediately at the time of sale.

Which of the following is true regarding unauthorized persons creating counterfeit EPC Gen 2 RFID tags with a manufacturer's code and product SKUs (stock keeping units)?

The EPCglobal Network's Gen 2 tag data standard adds a level of security against counterfeiting to RFID tags. Although a counterfeiter could make a tag with someone else's company and product SKUs, only EPCglobal's object naming service can issue headers for a tag. Because the product identifier is checked against this online registry, counterfeit tags would be immediately detected.

Which of the following is important in the selection of a decision support system (DSS)?

The selection of a specific DSS by an organization is dependent upon the company's manufacturing capabilities, changes in demand, and transportation and inventory costs.

A ski resort wants to automatically detect when skiers have a lift ticket and when to offer a returning skier a loyalty discount. Which technology would meet these objectives with the least trouble for skiers?

The ski resort can use mounted or handheld RFID readers at ski lifts to detect whether each skier has a valid RFID lift ticket card. The pass can be reused, and returning skiers can be detected and offered a discount without having to provide their personal information again or get a new card.

Which of the following is true of a manager's transportation execution decision support system (DSS)?

The transportation execution DSS uses simpler models than strategic or tactical DSS systems.

Which of the following allows developers to wrap otherwise incompatible electronic messages in a shell for universal message receipt?

Web services

Each company in an extended supply chain has its own decision support system, each run separately using the same data. Often some firms end up with a surplus while others have shortages. Which of the following describes this supply chain's problem?

When each part of a system is optimized without regard to the needs of the whole, the process is called suboptimization. Optimization must occur to all parts of the process, or it applies to none of them.