MGMT 3332 Chapter 1

The greater the degree of customer involvement, the more challenging the design and management of operations.

True (Greater customer involvement leads greater variation in the goods and services provided. This creates greater variation in production or service requirements and results in more complexity in the design and management of operations)

People who work in the field of operations should have skills that include both knowledge and people skills.

True (Operations management requires a blend of knowledge and people skills.)

If one organization is better able than most to respond to changes in demands or opportunities, we say that organization exhibits higher:

agility

Operations managers are responsible for assessing consumer wants and needs and selling and promoting the organization's goods or services.

False (Operation managers are not responsible for promoting goods/services. It is the marketing functional area that is responsible for assessing consumer wants and needs and selling and promoting the organization's goods or services.)

Service operations require additional inventory because of the unpredictability of consumer demand.

False (Service operations cannot use inventory as a hedge against unpredictable demand.)

Goods-producing organizations are not involved in service activities.

False (There are very few pure goods or pure services, so most companies sell product packages which combine goods and services. Therefore, most production systems involve a blend of goods and services.)

Which of the following is a system in which low-skilled workers use specialized equipment to produce high volumes of standardized goods?

mass production

Buying goods or services instead of producing or providing them in-house is called:

outsourcing

Modern firms increasingly rely on other firms to supply goods and services instead of doing these tasks themselves. This increased level of _____________ is leading to increased emphasis on ____________ management

outsourcing; supply chain

Production systems with customized outputs typically have relatively:

skilled workers