Operations Management - Chapter 2

Little's Law states there is a relationship between:

-inventory -flow time -throughput

Little's Law is very general, so it is not necessary that flow rate and flow time use the same time units.

False

If you maintain inventory at a constant level and keep the throughput rate constant:

customer delivery dates become more reliable

Over the course of a month, which of the following is most likely to describe an appropriate flow unit for a process analysis of a hospital? -the number of physicians -the number of beds -the square footage of the building -the number of patients

the number of patients

For the purpose of process analysis, which of the following measures would be considered an appropriate flow unit for analyzing the main operation of a gas station? -sales dollars -number of gasoline pumps -number of employees -number of customers served

-numbers of employees -number of customers served

Over the course of a 24-hour period a call center handled 1200 different calls and at noon there were 50 callers "in" the center (talking or waiting to talk to a representative). The sixth caller of the day spent 2.5 minutes with a representative. Which of the given numbers is an inventory? -1200 -50 -2.5

50

Six customers enter a gift shop during a 3-hour period. On average there are 0.25 customers in the gift shop and each spends 7.5 minutes in the shop on average. Which of the following numbers is most directly associated with the flow rate of customers? -6 -0.25 -7.5

6

A computer server experiences large fluctuations in the amount of data requests it receives throughout the day. Because of this variation, Little's Law does not apply.

False

Throughput, sometimes referred to as output rate, is expressed in units produced per hour.

False

If you maintain inventory at a constant level and keep the throughput rate constant: -cycle time will decrease -customer delivery dates become more reliable -you are following a push operating system -your processes are operating under normal condiitons

customer delivery dates become more reliable

Forty customers per 90 minutes is a(n) ______ -inventory -flow rate -flow time

flow rate

If inventory is measured in kilograms, then when applying Little's Law the flow rate can be measured in ______ -units per kilogram -minutes per kilogram -kilograms per second -kilograms per kilometer

kilograms per second

Over the course of a day, fans pour into a NASCAR venue at the rate of 8,000 people per hour. The average rate at which fans leave the venue ______. -must be less than 8,000 people per hour -must be exactly 8,000 people per hour -must be more than 8,000 people per hour -could be more or less than 8,000 people per hour

must be exactly 8,000 people per hour

From the perspective of process analysis, which of the following could be appropriate flow units for a hardware store? -number of workers -number of cash registers -number of customers -number of suppliers

number of customers

For the purpose of process analysis, which of the following measures would be considered an appropriate flow unit for analyzing the operation of a coffee shop? -square footage of the store -number of employees -number of hours the store is open -number of customers served

number of customers served

For the purpose of process analysis, which of the following measures would be considered an appropriate flow unit for analyzing the main operation of a local accounting firm? -number of accountants -number of tax returns completed -number of customers with past-due invoices -number of reams of paper received from suppliers

number of tax returns completed