INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS CHAPTER 9

Firms often use a(n) _____________ when working on a major project involving the production of a large item such as an airplane, ship, or bridge.

fixed-position layout

Transformation, Inc. builds machinery and robots that can assemble a variety of autos and trucks - including light pick-up trucks, two-seater sports cars, luxury sedans, full-size vans, and SUVs. Transformation sells products to companies that require __________.

flexible manufacturing.

A benefit of CAD (Computer Aided Design) and CAM (Computer Assisted Manufacturing) is

it permits customization without a significant increase in price.

With the __________ inventory control system, producers hold only the amount of materials and parts that they need for a short period of time - sometimes just a few hours.

just-in-time (JIT)

To reduce the cost of holding too much inventory, many companies have implemented

just-in-time inventory control.

Superior Supplies' largest customer recently implemented a just-in-time inventory system. As a supplier of materials to this customer, Superior Supplies' will

likely increase its effort and likely experience higher transportation costs.

Contemporary producers and their suppliers,

locate close together to decrease the cost of distribution.

In the past, the idea behind mass production was to:

make large quantities of a limited variety of products at very low cost.

A firm would be most likely to employ statistical process control (SPC) if it wanted to

make sure products meet quality standards all along the production process.

MRP is a technique that helps managers:

make sure that the right parts and materials are available at the right time.

A big advantage of computer integrated manufacturing software is that it:

makes it possible to custom-design products to meet the needs of small markets with very little increase in cost.

Both PERT diagrams and Gantt charts are useful to managers concerned with:

making sure that projects are completed on time.

MRP is the acronym for

managed resource priorities.

In ___________, materials are physically or chemically changed to produce a product.

process manufacturing

____________ uses computers to help design products.

CAD

What is an important part of operations management?

Choosing the best location for a firm's facilities

ERP is the acronym for:

Enterprise Resource Planning.

___________ is a computer application that enables a firm to combine computerized functions of all divisions and subsidiaries of the firm into a single, integrated software program that uses a single database.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

T or F? Recent changes in information technology have led firms to favor locations near major urban areas

False. Manufacturers often seek to reduce time-to-market by locating facilities in areas with access to key modes of transportation

___________ utility is the value added by the creation of finished goods and services using raw materials, components, and other inputs.

Form

____________ standards are concerned with the best practices for managing an organization's environmental impacts.

ISO 14000

___________ is a set of international standards for quality management and quality assurance.

ISO 9000

The Ritz-Carlton hotel offers restaurants with the finest service, elevators that run smoothly, and a front desk that processes people quickly. Many times fresh-cut flowers are in the lobbies and dishes of fruit are in each room. __________ is responsible for implementing these customer benefits.

Operations management

__________ is the specialized area of management that converts or transforms resources into goods and services.

Operations management

__________ is the creation of goods and services using land, labor, capital, entrepreneurship, and knowledge.

Production

__________ is the operations management planning function that searches for quality material resources, finds the best suppliers, and negotiates the best price.

Purchasing

____________ examines statistical samples of product components at each stage of the production process and plots the results on a graph in order to spot and correct any variances from desired quality levels.

Statistical process control

T or F? Facility layout is important for manufacturing plants because facilities layout decisions can have a huge impact on the firm's costs

TRUE

As businesses strive for market expansion, companies add to their sales force, but opt to eliminate sales offices across the nation and internationally. How are these firms able to remotely operate a sales force that contributes toward increasing the bottom line?

The operation is managed with teleconferencing information technology, and telecommuting

T or F? Advances in information technology will give firms more flexibility in their location decisions by reducing the need to locate close to sources of labor

True

The Deming Cycle is:

a process for finding potential quality errors before they occur.

Cooltreet, Inc., combines sugar, cream, eggs, and flavorings, then churns and cools the resulting mixture to a very low temperature until it freezes, creating ice cream. The method Cooltreet uses is an example of:

a process manufacturing.

In today's quality control programs, emphasis is placed on

achieving customer satisfaction.

Megatronics, Inc. obtains computer components from a variety of suppliers and puts them together according to customer specifications to create custom-made computers. This process is an example of:

an assembly process.

The first step in the development of a PERT chart is

analyzing the tasks and determining the sequence in which they must be performed.

In a just-in-time inventory system, suppliers..

become more like a department in the producing firm rather than a separate business.

Sophisticated software that enables computer-aided design machines to communicate with computer-aided manufacturing machines is called:

computer-integrated manufacturing.

Efforts to redesign and rebuild America's manufacturing base are likely to:

continue to be an important issue in the near future.

In a PERT network, the sequence of tasks that takes the longest to complete is called the

critical path.

An example of a __________ is building a new home on a lot.

fixed-position layout

Production creates:

form utility.

New developments in information technology have

given firms even greater flexibility in their location decisions.

The purpose of determining the critical path on a PERT network is to

identify the sequence of tasks that takes the longest to complete.

CAD has __________ productivity in many firms.

increased

A company becomes lean by _________ its capacity to produce high-quality goods, while ___________ its need for resources.

increasing; decreasing

Most new manufacturing facilities use:

intermittent processes.

Unlike an assembly line where workers perform only a few tasks, in a _________ layout, teams of workers combine to perform a variety of tasks needed to produce more complex units of a final product.

modular

At Stevens Manufacturing workers are organized in teams that combine their efforts to produce complex units of a final product. Stevens is using a facility layout known as a(n):

modular layout.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) goes beyond the capabilities of MRP because it:

monitors the computerized functions of all the divisions and subsidiaries of the firm in a single software program.

Becca works as a new product development engineer for a company that makes solar panels for residential and commercial purposes. Her company uses PERT network software for all development projects. As she nears the final month of her timeline for completing a new panel, Becca will focus on those activities that are:

on the critical path of the PERT network.

The goal of lean manufacturing is to

produce goods and services with less of everything that goes into the process.

The main objective of lean manufacturing is to:

produce goods using less of all types of resources.

Maintaining ___________ involves producing what the customer wants while reducing errors before and after delivery to the customer.

quality

The basic reason the term production management has been replaced by the term operations management is that:

the United States is now a service economy.

A just-in-time inventory system usually reduces costs for:

the producer, but not its suppliers.

The purpose of a PERT network is:

to monitor the progress of a multi-step project during its development.

Experts in operations management for service industry type businesses stress:

training employees on quality management.

A basic characteristic of flexible manufacturing is that it:

uses machines designed to perform multiple tasks so they can be used to produce a variety of products.

A firm that is certified as meeting both ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 standards has demonstrated:

world-class management of both quality and environmental standards.