OPMA Ch. 6 Practice Questions

An example of an assemble-to-order firm is Dell Computer.

True

Assembling-to-order means moving the customer order decoupling point from finished goods to components.

True

Little's law can be thought of as a relationship between units and time.

True

One methodology used to evaluate equipment investment decisions where the investment entails an initial investment, fixed costs, and variable costs is Break-Even Analysis.

True

One trade-off illustrated by the product-process matrix is between flexibility and cost.

True

Process selection refers to the strategic decision of selecting which kind of production processes to use to produce a product or provide a service.

True

The essential issue in satisfying customers in the make-to-stock environment is to balance the level of finished inventory against the level of service to the customer.

True

The first step in balancing an assembly line is to specify the precedence relationships among tasks to be performed on the line.

True

The focus in the make-to-stock environment is on providing finished goods where and when the customers want them.

True

Give an example of a project layout. ______________________

A construction project like a building, a ship, a bridge or a highway

Which of the following basic types of process structures is one which equipment or work processes are arranged according to the progressive steps by which the product is made?

Assembly line

The placement of which of the following is not determined by production process organization decisions?

Emergency exits

Which of the following is not considered a major work flow structure?

Fabrication

A continuous process indicates production of discrete parts moving from workstation to workstation at a controlled rate.

False - Similar to an assembly line in that production follows a predetermined sequence of steps, but the flow is continuous such as with liquids, rather than discrete.

Workcenter layouts allocate dissimilar machines into cells to work on products that have dissimilar processing requirements.

False - Sometimes referred to as a job shop, is where similar equipment or functions are grouped together.

According to Little's Law, which of the following ratios is used to find throughput rate?

Inventory/Flow time

Which of the following is NOT a basic type of process structure?

Product-process matrix

When balancing an assembly line, which of the following is not a way to reduce the longest task time below the required workstation cycle time?

Speed up the assembly line transfer mechanism

A difference between project and continuous flow categories of process flow structures is which two of the following?

The size and bulk of the product

According to Little's law, which of the following can be used to estimate work-in-process inventory?

Throughput Rate x Flow Time

A project layout is characterized by a high degree of task ordering.

True

One difference between an assembly line process flow and a continuous process flow is that on the assembly line the flow is discrete rather than continuous.

True

Which of the following basic types of process structures is one which similar equipment or functions are grouped together?

Workcenter

Which of the following is a basic type of process structure?

Workcenter

Which of the following is not a step in developing a manufacturing cell layout?

Disposing of left-over machinery and outsourcing ungrouped processes

Break-Even Analysis can only be used in production equipment decision making when dealing solely with fixed costs, no variable costs.

False - Most suitable when processes and equipment entail a large initial investment and fixed cost, and when variable costs are reasonably proportional to the number of units produced.

If the sum of the task times required to produce a product is 80 minutes and the cycle time for the same product is 15 minutes, the theoretical minimum number of workstations is 8 using the assembly-line balancing procedure.

False - 80 minutes/15 minutes = 5.3, round up to 6.

A general purpose machine is less capable than a special purpose machine in certain tasks but can perform a broader variety of tasks.

True

A high-level map or diagram of a supply chain process can be useful to understand how material flows and where inventory is held.

True

A project layout is characterized by a relatively low number of production units in comparison with process and product layout formats.

True

If the sum of the task times required to produce a product is 45 minutes and the cycle time for the same product is 10 minutes. Thus, the theoretical minimum number of workstations is 5 using the assembly-line balancing procedure.

True - 45 minutes/10 minutes = 4.5, round up to 5.

The formula (Inventory = Throughput rate × Flow time.) is known as what?

Little's Law

The efficiency of an assembly-line is found by a ratio of the sum of all task times divided by the cycle time.

False

A make-to-order firm will work with the customer to design the product, and then make it from purchased materials, parts, and components.

False - Firms that make the customer's product from RAW materials, parts, and components are make-to-order firms.

A process map shows the physical location of the various processes within a supply chain.

False - Make-to-Stock Process Map.

Process selection refers to the strategic decision of choosing the volume of output to produce in a manufacturing facility depending upon the way that facility produces.

False - Refers to the strategic decision of selecting which kind of production processes to use to produce a product or provide a service.

The closer the customer is to the customer order decoupling point the longer it takes the customer to receive the product.

False - The closer this point is to the customer, the QUICKER the customer can be served.

The time needed to respond to a customer's order is called the customer response time.

False - The time needed to respond to a customer order is called the lead time.

Break-Even Analysis can be used to help decide whether to perform a task with a special purpose machine or with a general purpose machine.

True

Engineer-to-order firms will work with the customer to design the product, and then make it from purchased materials, parts, and components.

True

For the purposes of assembly-line balancing, the required workstation cycle time is found by dividing production time per day by the required units of output per day.

True

In assembly-line balancing the theoretical minimum number of workstations is found by a ratio of the sum of all task times divided by the cycle time.

True

In designing a production layout a flexible line layout might have the shape of a "U".

True

In designing a production line mixed-model line balancing might be used by JIT manufacturers.

True

The assembly-line balancing procedure determines the precedence relationships of manufacturing tasks.

False - This is called the precedence relationship, which specifies the order in which tasks must be performed in the assembly process.

The objective of mixed-model line balancing is to meet the demand for a variety of products and avoid building high inventories.

True

The product-process matrix shows the relationship between process structures and product volume and variety characteristics.

True

The term "assembly line" refers to progressive assembly linked by some material handling device.

True

The volume requirements for the product are one determinant of the choice of which process structure to select.

True