Organizational Agility

_____ tags help boost logistics efficiency and speed in the distribution system and even at some retailers.

RFID

_____ engineering refers to a design approach in which all relevant functions cooperate jointly and continually in a maximum effort aimed at producing high-quality products that meet customers' needs.

concurrent

An operation that achieves increased efficiency while simultaneously improving effectiveness is best described as practicing ____.

lean manufacturing

An organization that is skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights is known as a ____ organization.

learning

When an organization's definition of customer expands to include internal customers, the word customer is best defined as the ____.

next process

What is a strategic alliance?

A formal relationship created among independent organizations with the purpose of joint pursuit of mutual goals

Which of the following statements about types of economies is true?

An organization's large size often creates scale economies and economies of scope.

Which of the following is an important component of time-based competition?

Concurrent engineering

Which of the following is one of the criteria for receiving the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award?

Customer and market focus

Which of the following constitutes the strategic triangle of a business unit?

Customers, corporation, and competitors

The top management team at Gargantuan Industries has decided that it needs to close one of its divisions and eliminate a level of middle management at the surviving divisions. What process is Gargantuan going to implement?

Downsizing

Which of the following is an advantage of a large organization?

Easier access to capital

Which of the following is one of W. Edwards Deming's 14 points of quality?

Eliminate slogans and buzzwords.

A strategic alliance can be made with just about any other organization except one's competitors.

FALSE

A value chain is the sequence of activities that flow from raw materials to the delivery of a good or service, with value subtracted at each step.

FALSE

In a lean manufacturing organization, the emphasis is on cost, efficiency, and hierarchy.

FALSE

Reengineering answers the question "If you were the board of directors, how would you like us to operate?"

FALSE

The mechanistic organization emphasizes flexibility and is less rigid than the organic structure.

FALSE

Usually, companies with higher volumes of products tend to offer more varieties.

FALSE

Which of the following statements is true about strategic alliances?

For the alliance to work, the partners should consider one another's areas of expertise.

Which of the following is an effective practice in downsizing?

Giving special attention and help to those who have lost their jobs

Which of the following is an advantage of a small organization?

Greater employee involvement

A series of quality standards developed by a committee working under the International Organization for Standardization to improve total quality in all businesses for the benefit of both producers and consumers is known as ____.

ISO 9001

Which of the following is a primary activity in the generic value chain?

Inbound logistics

Which of the following aspects of an organization creates scale economies and economies of scope and leads to advantages like lower operating costs, greater purchasing power, and easier access to capital?

Large size

Executives at a pharmaceuticals company have been working with a consultant to implement ISO 9001. They have established the company's vision and goals, and they have been working hard to provide inspiration to their employees and establish trust. Which of the following principles is the company addressing here?

Leadership

Which of the following is an operation that strives to achieve the highest possible productivity and total quality by eliminating unnecessary steps in the production process and continually striving for improvement?

Lean manufacturing

Which of the following is a characteristic of continuous process technologies?

Machines and/or computers do all the work.

_____ refers to the production of varied, individually customized products at the low cost of standardized, mass-produced products.

Mass customization

According to Deming's 14 points of quality, which of the following has to be eliminated, as they are contrary to the idea of continuous improvement?

Numerical quotas

An organization's size has a large impact on its ability to respond effectively to its environment.

TRUE

It is a challenge for companies to be both big and small to capitalize on the advantages of each.

TRUE

Strategies and structures are based on the firm's core capabilities, its strategic alliances, its ability to learn, and its ability to engage all the people in the organization in achieving its objectives.

TRUE

The difficulty of controlling a large company with many product lines and divisions is an example of a diseconomy of scale.

TRUE

Which of the following is true of small batch technologies?

The emphasis is on mutual adjustment among people.

Which of the following statements is true of a high-involvement organization?

The organizational form is a flat, decentralized structure built around a customer, good, or service.

Which of the following statements is true of organic firms?

They are faster at responding to changing competitive demands.

_____ refers to strategies aimed at reducing the total duration it takes to deliver a product or service.

Time-based competition

_____ is an integrative approach to management that supports the attainment of customer satisfaction through a wide variety of tools and techniques that result in goods and services of high standards.

Total quality management

Which of the following is a characteristic of flexible factories?

Using decentralized scheduling

A form of organization that seeks to maximize internal efficiency is called

a mechanistic organization

In organic organizations, communication tends to occur through _____.

advice

Glen wants to balance the strategic triangle for his company. To do this, he must take into account the competition, the customer, and the _____.

company itself

In an organic structure, what are the responsibilities of jobholders usually like?

broad and flexible

In Japanese operations strategy, kaizen refers to ____.

continuous improvement

In the realm of customer relations, _____ includes continually changing in order to connect with customers, even without waiting for customers to make the first move.

continuous improvement

Total quality management is a way of managing in which everyone is committed to the _____ of his or her part of the operation.

continuous improvement

The formal structure of an organization is primarily put in place to:

control people, decisions, and actions.

A _____ is the knowledge, expertise, or skill that underlies a company's ability to be a leader in providing a range of specific goods or services.

core capability

A well-understood, well-developed _____ can enhance a company's responsiveness and competitiveness.

core capability

Diseconomies of scale refers to the

costs associated with an organization being too big.

Rick is the marketing head of a firm. He usually strives for long-term improvement rather than short-term profit, regardless of the economic environment. In the context of Deming's 14 points of quality, this is an example of

creating constancy of purpose.

A multifaceted process focusing on creating two-way exchanges with customers to foster intimate knowledge of their needs, wants, and buying patterns is called _____ management.

customer relationship

Uma wants to improve her customer service department by using information technologies to create two-way conversations with customers to gain more knowledge of their wants and preferences. Uma wants to institute _____ management.

customer relationship

Total quality management is characterized by a strong orientation toward both external and internal _____.

customers

Iris Paint, a manufacturer of designer indoor paint, is in the process of eliminating some positions in its organization. Its management has carefully analyzed all of the jobs and strategically determined which to keep, with an eye toward protecting its most talented people. Which of the following refers to what Iris is doing in this scenario?

downsizing

The planned elimination of positions or jobs is known as _____.

downsizing

Exploration and _____ are the two ideal areas on which a learning organization should focus.

exploitation

Managers who want to strengthen their firms' competitiveness via core capabilities need to focus on

extending capabilities to find new applications and opportunities.

Structurally, a high-involvement organization is usually ____.

flat and decentralized

A company that receives certification that it meets ISO 9001 standards is a company that

has begun the process of achieving quality.

In a _____ organization, top management ensures that there is consensus about the direction in which the business is heading.

high-involvement

Natasha, the CEO of Ellis and Peters Associates, seeks input from both her top management team and the lower levels of the company before she decides on strategies about the future direction of the company. Judging from this, Ellis and Peters Associates is a(n) _____ organization.

high-involvement

To be successful, partners in a strategic alliance must pay the most attention to the _____ partnership.

human relationships in the

A small office with only a single accountant and a receptionist/secretary is an example of a _____ shop.

job

A system that calls for subassemblies and components to be manufactured in very small lots and delivered to the next stage in the production process as they are needed is known as a ____.

just-in-time (JIT) operation

Perfect quality, elimination of waste, value-added manufacturing, and employee involvement are all components of ____.

just-in-time operations

In which type of organization are jobs most likely to be specialized?

large

McDonald's and Burger King have production processes that tend to be standardized, and all customers receive similar if not identical products. These organizations are examples of ____.

large batch technologies

McKittridge Consulting pursues activities such as engaging in disciplined thinking, searching constantly for new knowledge, benchmarking, and sharing ideas throughout the organization via information systems. Which type of organization is McKittridge Consulting?

learning organization

Large organizations are typically _____ than small ones.

less organic and more bureaucratic

Problems with which of the following are most likely to result in products going out of stock and consumers choosing alternatives?

logistics

Survivor's syndrome refers to the

loss of productivity and morale in employees who remain after downsizing.

Rey's company produces a high volume of bicycle helmets, yet they come in a high variety of distinctive styles. The company is engaging in _____.

mass customization

Economies of scope refers to the idea that

materials and processes employed in one product can be used to make other related products.

If jobholders rely more heavily on judgment than on rules, the organization most likely has a(n) _____ structure.

organic

The _____ structure is an organizational form that emphasizes flexibility.

organic

Which of the following words best describes decision making in a small batch organization?

organic

The factor that differentiates flexible factories from traditional factories is that flexible factories

organize work flow around products.

Downsizing in organizations refers to the

planned elimination of organizational positions.

A company that asks itself "If you were the customer, how would you like us to operate?" and then takes action to transform itself is best described as using the notion of ____.

reengineering

The process of completely overhauling an operation to achieve the greatest possible benefits to the customer and to the organization is known as _____.

reengineering

The term logistics refers to the movement of

resources into the organization and products from the organization to its customers.

The principal idea of reengineering is to

revolutionize key organizational systems and processes.

The successful effort to achieve an appropriate size at which a company performs most effectively is known as _____.

rightsizing

Big companies can typically lower costs per unit of production. In other words, large size allows for _____.

scale economies

Because Mega Corp. is very large, it has the ability to use the same process to manufacture multiple related products. This type of efficiency is referred to as an economy of ____.

scope

One of the most important contributors to total quality management has been the introduction of statistical tools to analyze the causes of product defects in an approach called ____.

six sigma quality

Which type of company is better at providing quality goods and services to targeted market niches?

small

Cancer Survivors Counseling and FlexiSolution Software recently joined forces to produce a nutrition-planning program for use on home computers. The two organizations are working together on the project since neither could have developed it using only their own resources. Both will own the resulting program. This is an example of a ____.

strategic alliance

According to Dr. Kenichi Ohmae, customers, corporation, and competitors make up the ____.

strategic triangle

Missy's company just went through the process of downsizing. Missy retained her job, but now she has a much heavier workload. Since the layoffs, Missy has been worried about her future and more reluctant to take risks on the job. Missy is showing the symptoms of ____.

survivor's syndrome

The phenomenon in which employees who retain their jobs during a layoff subsequently exhibit a loss of productivity and reduced morale is known as _____.

survivor's syndrome

Which of the following is a support activity in the generic value chain?

technology development

The sequence of activities that flow from raw materials to the delivery of a good or service, with additional value created at each step, is known as ____.

the value chain