Chapter 20

The purchasing agent for Wegmans, a grocery store, would

E. all these choices

Which of the following statements about the relationship between operations management and utility is TRUE?

a.

Dorothy loves eating at Panera Bread. She likes the taste of the food. This is an example of which dimension of quality?

a. Aesthetics

Which of the following is NOT a current use for robotics?

a. Loan approval

Clif Bar and Company makes Clif energy bars. Which type of layout would you expect to find in the manufacturing plant that makes Clif bars?

a. Product

United Technologies offered to buy Goodrich. This is an example of what kind of an operations decision?

a. Product-service mix

Which of the eight dimensions of quality refers to the probability of a product NOT malfunctioning during a specified period?

a. Reliability

____ is the process of managing operations control, resource acquisition and purchasing, and inventory to thus improve overall efficiency and effectiveness.

a. Supply-chain management

Which of the following is NOT one of the units of analysis used to calculate productivity by level?

a. Total factor

____ is a comprehensive, organization-wide strategy for improving product and/or service quality on a systematic and continuous basis.

a. Total quality management

In the short-term people may lose their jobs, but in the long-term jobs are generally created by...

a. automation.

When General Mills looked for ideas on how to reduce the time it took to convert its production lines from one cereal to another, it sent a team to observe the pit crews at the Indianapolis 500. As a result of using ____, General Mills cut its plant changeover time by more than 50 percent.

a. benchmarking

Boeing sent change management consultants to a newly acquired company to learn how that company managed change in the past. This is an example of

a. benchmarking.

Many parents complain that a PG-13 movie today was rated R in the past. Movie companies may be following the letter of the standards, if not the spirit, to gain access to more viewers. This is an example of

a. conformance.

The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street protesters both use Facebook to encourage supporters to assemble and show their support. Facebook has become an invaluable tool for organizers to

a. improve productivity.

Two broad methods by which organizations can improve productivity are

a. improving operations and increasing employee involvement.

Intel decided the new Itanium chip would replace the Pentium. During the transition, Pentium chips would be cheaper, but once the Itanium facility was operational, Intel would cease manufacture of Pentiums. The decision to cease Pentium production is a decision that most directly involves its

a. operations systems.

Just-in-time systems are a means of improving the management of

a. raw materials and component parts.

Rich is comparing the quality and features of Facebook to those on Google+. This is an example of the ____ of quality.

a. relative nature

When Intel assesses the productivity of each of its chip plants, it is determining ____ productivity.

a. unit

Callaway makes golf clubs. Which type of layout would you expect to find in a manufacturing plant that makes silverware?

b. Cellular layout

Heather's boss has just given her the responsibility of developing a new line of protective gear for kayakers. However, he warned her that the time available for development is not as long as she would probably like. What should Heather use to speed up the development process?

b. Computer-aided design

One of the major tasks for movies like The Chronicles of Narnia is to create costumes for various species that reflect the mythical persona and that can be worn by humans for lengthy periods of time. ____ could be used to speed up the development process.

b. Computer-aided design

The fact that a product or system needs to be capable of meeting established standards refers to which quality dimension?

b. Conformance

Which of the eight dimensions of quality is a measure of product life?

b. Durability

Ford recently mandated higher quality standards for all of the parts that it buys from suppliers. This is an example of which major component of a total quality management strategy?

b. Materials

Which sector of the United States economy was responsible for 80 percent of the GNP in 2009 and almost 90% of new jobs created since the 1990s?

b. Service

Which of the following statements concerning the relationship between productivity and quality is TRUE?

b. There is a direct, positive relationship between the two.

The first application of robots was for which of the following?

b. Welding

Which of the following statements about the use of operations management as a control is TRUE?

b. When operations management is used as a control, operations managers should be held responsible for all product-related activities.

At a UTC facility the quality control people sample 5 percent of the finished Carrier air conditioners to check for adherence to more than 25 quality standards. This is an example of

b. acceptance sampling.

According to the text, the major problem associated with total factor productivity is that

b. all ingredients must be expressed in the same terms.

When General Odierno said the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan was going too fast, he was making a ____ statement.

b. capacity

The Federal Communications Commission has a list of words broadcasters cannot say on the air. This is a dimension of quality known as

b. conformance.

Dina works in construction. She travels to the job site to build the next house. This is an example of a ____ layout.

b. fixed-position

Operations managers must specifically address both ____ when setting up an operations system.

b. location and layout

There is a Canadian insurance company that provides only one kind of insurance. It insures athletes who have multimillion dollar contracts that must be paid, even if the athlete is injured or in some other way unable to play. Owners buy the insurance policies as a way to protect themselves. When the insurance company decided to specialize in this type of insurance, it made a ____ decision.

b. product-service mix

When GE executives decided to sell NBC network they were making a ____ decision.

b. product-service mix

A product layout MOST likely would be found in organizations

b. using large-batch (mass production) technology.

Operations management is primarily concerned with which element of systems theory?

c.

____ is the total set of managerial activities that an organization uses to create its products or services.

c.

Which of the following is classified as a partial productivity ratio?

c. Capital productivity

GE offers an eight-hour seminar based on its six sigma quality program, which aims for only one defect per 1,000,000-unit production run, to employees in its new facility in Brazil. This example focuses on which component of the quality management strategy?

c. Employee involvement

____ sampling is a type of statistical quality control that involves testing products as they are being made.

c. In-process

Which of the following is NOT one of the constraints with which a purchasing agent must deal?

c. Integrating purchasing with production

Which of the following would seem especially appropriate for firms using a just-in-time inventory system?

c. Multiple sources of supply

Which of the following is NOT an important part of automation?

c. Plotters

Dale has seen unit production costs go up dramatically during the past two or three years. One major reason is high interest rates on money borrowed to purchase and store inputs. Which of the following should Dale consider?

c. Quality circles

Restaurants are in which industry?

c. Service

What is the relationship between operations management and organizational strategy?

c. There is a direct relationship between the two so that each affects the other.

A furniture manufacturer in Durham, North Carolina, has a pay-for-knowledge compensation system in which an employee's hourly wage depends on how many different jobs she or he can do. Which of the following statements describing research results about such programs is FALSE?

c. Unions support such programs because they give the worker more voice in operations.

Almost 20,000 UPS employees are now equipped with ring scanners⎯small electronic devices worn on their index fingers and wired to a small computer on their wrists. When a UPS employee holds a package, the ring shoots a pattern of photons on the package. Within moments, its location is updated at the UPS website. This use of ____ allows UPS to better track its packages and to provide better customer service.

c. an operations improvement

Calphalon makes pots and pans using similar techniques but each in their own family of product, like nonstick, stick or copper. This is an example of a ____ layout.

c. cellular

Dorothy loves eating at Panera Bread. She thinks of all the fast food, it is the healthiest. Healthy food is a dimension of quality known as ____.

c. features

A consulting firm calculates an efficiency index for each of its consultants by dividing each consultant's total hours of work by the number of billable hours. This is a measure of ____ productivity.

c. individual

Toyota installed a flexible manufacturing assembly line in its plant outside Columbus, Ohio. It can make a variety of cars one after the other, switching production by using scanners that read codes. This is an example of

c. operations improvement.

The Malcolm Baldridge Award is given to companies that make major ____ advancements.

c. quality

A ____ organization is one that transforms resources into an intangible output and creates time or place utility for its customers.

c. service

Operations management can BEST be used to improve speed by

c. starting from scratch, which usually enhances speed more than modifying current systems.

The goals of operations managers are efficiency and effectiveness, which are achieved through

d.

An organization can manufacture 10,000 widgets with 10 hours of direct labor. What is its labor productivity?

d. 1,000 units per labor hour

Ephraim is analyzing the productivity of his section. Last week his crew worked 4,000 hours and produced 600,000 units of product. The average hourly wage was $7 per hour, and 200 hours were lost to absenteeism. The sale price for the items produced is $2 per unit. What is the labor productivity index?

d. 157.89

Which of the following organizations creates form utility?

d. Audi

The production manager has just received a large block of orders for products that are not manufactured yet; however, he is not concerned. Which of the following items can you safely assume this production manager uses?

d. Computer-aided manufacturing

____ productivity ratios are most useful to the manager for determining how to change operations to improve productivity.

d. Partial

Which of the following statements about the relationship between productivity and quality is true?

d. Productivity and quality are inversely related.

____ is the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that determines its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs

d. Quality

Which of the following countries has the highest level of productivity?

d. United States

At Wal-Mart, 70 percent of merchandise is rung up at the cash register before the company even pays for it. This is an example of

d. a just-in-time inventory system.

To ensure that a newly designed product moves smoothly to the production stage, ____ could be used.

d. computer-assisted manufacturing

Unmanned aircraft are increasingly sent into combat instead of piloted aircraft. This is an example of

d. robotics.

Wal-Mart replaced some checkout lanes with self-checkout. Customers with full carts waiting in line for full checkout may complain that ____ is not a dimension of quality that is a priority for Wal-Mart

d. serviceability

The problems that operations managers face generally revolve around issues related to

d. the acquisition and utilization of resources for conversion.

Levels of finished-goods inventories are controlled by

d. the overall production scheduling system.

Which of the following is a basic component of a total quality management strategy?

e. All of these choices

Which of the following is a suggested method for improving productivity based on operations?

e. All of these choices

Which of the following is a type of inventory that must be controlled by a manufacturing organization?

e. All of these choices

Which of the following is one of the dimensions that can be used to assess or evaluate quality?

e. All of these choices

Which of the following questions are concerned with capacity utilization decisions that must be made by operations management?

e. All of these choices

Which of the following statements about productivity is TRUE?

e. All of these choices

Which of the following statements about the importance of productivity is TRUE?

e. All of these choices

On your way home from class, you stopped at the student center to get some money from an automatic teller. Which of the following best describes the machine you used?

e. An advancement in service technology

Which of the following would utilize computer-controlled transportation systems?

e. Flexible manufacturing systems

Which of the following pairs of factors that are important to designing operations systems are MOST closely related to demand?

e. Products-service mix and capacity utilization

Statistical quality control is

e. a set of specific statistical techniques used to monitor quality control.

Power School allows parents to review grades, attendance, assignments, and student data on a daily basis. This is an example of

e. advancement in service technology.

Which of the following is a suggested method for improving productivity through motivation and involvement of employees?

e. all of these choices

The basic functional purpose of operations systems is to

e. control the organization's transformation processes.

Which of the following factors is NOT included in the formula for computing total factor productivity?

e. cost inflation

Many shows broadcast on U.S. television today are filmed in British Columbia, Canada. The production company takes advantage of the many amenities that British Columbia offers. Operations management decisions to film in British Columbia are an example of ____ decisions.

e. location

Al Lovata, CEO of Be Our Guest Inc., rented a CFO from Milestone Advisors LLC to help cut cost during the economic downturn. Be Our Guest used

e. outsourcing.

Katina is in the emergency room. They think she has a broken wrist, so she is taken to x-ray. This is an example of the use of ____ layout.

e. process

The Limited has a competitive advantage in speed. The product moves from finish good to retail stores in a fraction of the time it takes competitors to do the same thing. Its operations management excels at

e. the transportation and distribution control system.

Which of the following factors is NOT a consideration when determining the capacity utilization required in an operations system?

A. Technology

Which of the following statements about the effects of automation on employees is TRUE?

A.In the long run, automation will create more jobs than are lost because of it.

The text notes that what we now call operations management was once called production management and implies that there are several reasons for the change in nomenclature. Which of the following is NOT one of those reasons?

B. Changes in manufacturing processes such as the increased use of robots and other computer-based technology

Which of the following factors was largely responsible for the fact that the entire U.S. economy did not mirror declines in the manufacturing sector during the 1970s?

B. Growth of the service sector

Which of the following organizations would provide the consumer with time and place utility through its operations management function?

B. The NYC subway