MG 390 Exam #1
You are a consultant called in to estimate the costs after the employees learn how to do a job more efficiently by repetition of new product. You find a company can produce a product the first time at a cost of $5,000. If their 90% learning curve allows them to reduce their costs on each unit, what is the total cost of producing 100 units of the new product?
$290,700
A company can produce a small lot of products the first time at a cost of $2,000. If their 85% learning curve allows them to reduce their costs on each lot, what is the total cost of producing 5 lots?
$4,031.00
A company can produce a small lot of products the first time at a cost of $10,000. If their 75% learning curve allows them to reduce their costs on each lot, what is the total cost of producing 10 lots?
$55,890.00
A company can produce a small lot of products the first time at a cost of $3,000. If their 65% learning curve allows them to reduce their cost on each lot, what is the cost of producing the 12th lot?
$640.50
T/F The learning curve states that the more experience you have in a particular activity, the less surprised you will be when something goes wrong
False
T/F The point at which the scale economy curve and the learning curve intersect is called the capacity optimum
False
T/F The process when a company seeks to match the benefits of a successful position while maintaining its existing position by adding new features, services, and technologies into its current portfolio is called flexibility
False
T/F The supply chain processes mentioned in the textbook are planning, sourcing, delivering, and returning
False
T/F The unit improvement factor is not as useful as arithmetic tabulation of learning curve statistics in adjusting time estimates for learning
False
T/F Value analysis/value engineering has as its objective to increase product quality and reduce costs
False
T/F Wall Street analysts are not particularly concerned with how efficient companies are from an operations an supply management view
False
T/F When plotted on a graph, the learning curve can;t be expressed as logarithm
False
The purpose of value analysis/value engineering (VA/VE) is to:
Simplify products and processes
Which of the following is a reason that there are disparities between a firm's learning curve rate and that of its industry?
There may be procedural differences in the manner that different firms collect and report data
T/F A learning curve is a line displaying the relationship between unit production time and the cumulative number of units produced
True
T/F A learning curve shows the decrease in time required for each successive unit completed
True
T/F A major aspect of planning involves developing a set of metrics to monitor the supply chain
True
T/F An assumption of learning curves is that the time required to complete a unit will decrease at a decreasing rate as the cumulative number of units completed increases
True
T/F An order qualifier is a set of screening criteria that permits a firm's products to be considered as possible candidates for purchase
True
T/F Core Services provides integrate tangible goods into their product
True
T/F Green and black belt programs teach six-sigma quality tools to managers at many corporations
True
T/F Just-in-time (JIT) production was a major breakthrough in manufacturing philosophy pioneered by the Japanese
True
T/F Learning curves can be applied to individuals and to organizations
True
T/F Learning curves have a wide range of business applications
True
T/F On a learning curve plot, the time per unit is usually displayed on the vertical axis
True
T/F One of the competitive dimensions that form the competitive position of a company when planning its strategies is delivery speed
True
T/F Quality function deployment involves listening to customers to determine the characteristics of a superior product
True
T/F Service science management and engineering aims to apply the latest concepts in information technology to continue to improve service productivity of technology-based organizations
True
T/F Target customers are specified during "Phase 0: Planning" of the generic product development process
True
T/F The Baldrige National Quality Award was started under the direction of the National Institute of Standards and Technology
True
T/F The term "electronic commerce" refers to the use of the Internet as an essential element of business activity
True
T/F The unit improvement factor for a 60% learning curve at 25 units is 0.0933. The first and second timings of a person doing a job are 10 minutes and 6 minutes, respectively. The learning-adjusted time estimate for the unit number 25 is 0.9330 minutes
True
T/F You time someone completing a single task the first time at 120 minutes, and the second time they do the task it takes 108 minutes. You should use a 90% learning curve to estimate the length of time this worker will take to complete this task in the future
True
T/F: During a recession, efficient firms often have an opportunity to increase market share while maintaining profitability.
True
Which of the following is not a typical phase of product development?
Value engineering
T/F In a multi-factor measure of productivity, the numerator of the ratio would include all resources used or all inputs
False
T/F OSCM is concerned with management of the trickiest parts of the system that produces a good or delivers a service
False
T/F Raising senior management awareness of OSCM as a competitive weapon is not an important issue
False
T/F Sustainability means meeting a firms current needs without excessively compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs
False
You have just timed a person doing a haircut for the first time. It took 50 minutes. What unit improvement factor learning curve would you use if the person took 35 minutes on the second haircut?
70%
You have just timed a person doing a haircut for the first time. It took 50 minutes. What unit improvement factor learning curve would you use if the person took 35 minutes on the second haricut?
70%
You have determined that a 60% learning curve is appropriate for a task. If your initial timing of person performing that task was 35 minutes and if you need the task performed 1,000 times, how many minutes of work will be required?
705.25 minutes
You have just timed a person doing a job a few times. The first time it took the person 25 minutes, the second time it took 20 minutes, and the third time it took 17.55 minutes. Which learning curve unit improvement factor should you use?
80%
With an 80% unit improvement factor learning curve and an initial time of 100 minutes to do a job, at what number of repetitions will the job take less than 50 minutes?
9 repetitions of the job
T/F If a person performing a task has been achieving a 75% learning curve and you know that the task will end after the 80th unit, the last unit produced will take 17.12% as much time as the first unit
False
T/F In a concurrent engineering approach to product design and development, an integration team ensures that various parts of the product are compatible with the needs of the target customer.
False
T/F In a multi-factor measure of productivity the numerator of the ratio would include all resources used or all inputs
False
A company's production process has an 85% learning curve rate. The process has produced 1000 units to date. A process refinement is estimated to allow a future learning curve rate for the identical product of 75%. However, the initial unit made using the new process will take the same amount of time as the very first unit made using the old process. At what point, using the new process, will the production rate exceed the production rate achieved by the old process?
By the 50th unit
System integration and validation are an important step in which variant of the generic product development process?
Complex Systems
Which of these is not a principle of DFMA?
Design unique processes
The general guideline provided in the textbook on improving individual learning based on learning curves include which of the following?
Do one or very few jobs at a time
The general guidelines provided in the textbook on improving individual learning based on learning curves do not include which of the following?
Early removal of workers who do not improve
One of the "package of features" that make up a service is
Facilitating Goods
T/F A bank branch manager position is not an OSCM-type of job
False
T/F A key decision point in the generic development process "Phase 4: Testing and Refinement" is concept approval
False
T/F A learning curve is a line displaying the way unit production time decreases as time passes
False
T/F A learning curve shows the decrease in time required for each successive unit completed
False
T/F A learning curve shows the increase in time required for each successive unit completed
False
T/F Although planning involves determining how the various supply chain processes (sourcing, making, delivering, and returning) will be met, planning itself is not considered a supply chain process
False
T/F An assumption of learning curves is that the time required to complete a unit will decrease at an increasing rate as the cumulative number of units completed increases
False
T/F An assumption of learning curves is that the time required to complete a unit will increase at an increasing rate as the cumulative number of units completed increases
False
T/F Economies of scale and the learning curve have opposite effects on capacity
False
T/F Efficiency means doing the right things to create the most value for the company
False
In a firm, all other things remaining the same, if the material usage per unit of final product decreases to half of the current usage, then the firm will
Increase the multi-factor productivity and double the material productivity
All except one of the following is listed as a managerial consideration or appropriate explanation in using learning curves. Which one is that?
Learning curves are not impacted by the number of indirect labor (such as repair person and supervisor)
Suppose that Job A involves 30% hand assembly (manual work) and 70% machining (machine controlled work), Job B involves 50% hand assembly and 50% machining and Job C involves 70% hand assembly and 30% machining. Comparing the learning percent in each of the three jobs using general guidelines, which of the following is correct?
Learning percent Job A<Learning percent Job B<Learning percent Job C
Which of the following computational methods are used to calculate learning curve statistics?
Logarithms
If all you knew about a production system was that total daily output was 400 units and the total labor necessary to produce the 400 units was 350 hours, what kind of productivity measure could you use to compute productivity?
Partial Measure
If all you knew about a production system was the total daily output 400 units, the total labor used to produce the 400 was 350 hours, and the total materials used were 425 units, what kind of productivity measure could you use to measure productivity?
Partial measure and multi-factor measure
Performance measures discussed for development projects does not include
Percentage sales coming from very old products
Consumer electronics is an example of a product developed in which variant of the generic product development process?
Platform Products
Learning curve percent and the reduction in the time it takes to produce the 1000th unit (in general nth unit) as compared to the time to make the first unit is
Related in an inverse fashion, meaning higher the learning curve percent the lower will be the reduction in time to produce the 1000th unit
What dimension of competitiveness does quality in product design affect?
The cost of ongoing service
T/F A key tool of a quality function deployment team is the house of quality matrix.
True
An assumption of learning curve theory is which of the following?
The reduction in unit time will follow a predictable pattern
T/F "Design for the Environment" is concerned with packaging materials and designs
True
T/F "Product service bundling" refers to a company building services activities into its product offerings for its customers
True
T/F A contract manufacturer is an organization capable of manufacturing and/or producing 2 of the components needed to produce a finished product or device
True
