exam 1 scma

If an activity whose normal duration is 15 days can be shortened to 10 days for an added cost of $2,000, what is the crash cost per period? A) $400 B) $2,000 C) $10,000 D) $20,000 E) $30,000

A) $400

If an activity whose normal duration is 13 days can be shortened to 10 days for an added cost of $1,500, what is the crash cost per period? A) $500 B) $1,500 C) $750 D) $13,000 E) $15,000

A) $500

Which of the following values of alpha would cause exponential smoothing to respond the SLOWEST to forecast errors? A) 0.10 B) 0.2246 C) 0.50 D) 0.90 E) cannot be determined

A) 0.10

A contractor's project being analyzed by PERT has an estimated time for the critical path of 120 days. The sum of all activity variances is 81; the sum of variances along the critical path is 64. What is the probability that the project will take 130 or more days to complete? A) 0.1057 B) 0.1335 C) 0.8512 D) 0.8943 E) 1.29

A) 0.1057

A foundry produces circular utility access hatches (manhole covers). Currently, 120 covers are produced in a 10-hour shift. If labor productivity can be increased by 20%, it would then be: A) 14.4 covers/hr. B) 24 covers/hr. C) 240 covers/hr. D) 1200 covers/hr. E) 10 covers/hr.

A) 14.4 covers/hr.

Walter Shewhart, in the ________, provided the foundations for ________ in operations management. A) 1920s; statistical sampling B) United Kingdom; mass production C) U.S. Army; logistics D) nineteenth century; interchangeable parts E) 1900s; queuing theory

A) 1920s; statistical sampling

The Dulac Box plant produces 500 cypress packing boxes in two 10-hour shifts. What is the productivity of the plant? A) 25 boxes/hr. B) 50 boxes/hr. C) 5000 boxes/hr. D) 0.04 boxes/hr. E) 250 boxes/hr.

A) 25 boxes/hr

A Six Sigma program has how many defects per million? A) 3.4 B) 34 C) 1000 D) 6 times the standard deviation E) 2700

A) 3.4

If 1 million passengers pass through the St. Louis Airport with checked baggage each month, a successful Six Sigma program for baggage handling would result in how many passengers with misplaced luggage? A) 3.4 B) 6.0 C) 34 D) 2700 E) 6 times the monthly standard deviation of passengers

A) 3.4

An activity on a PERT network has these time estimates: optimistic = 2, most likely = 3, and pessimistic = 8. What is its expected activity time and variance? A) 3.67; 1 B) 3.67; 6 C) 4.33; 1 D) 4.33; 6 E) none of the above

A) 3.67; 1

A combination of effective Gantt chart use and other tactics allowed Delta to cut the average time for a plane layover by what % of the original 60 minute duration? A) 33%, to 40 minutes B) 50%, to 30 minutes C) 20%, to 48 minutes D) 25%, to 45 minutes E) 40%, to 36 minutes

A) 33%, to 40 minutes

Which of the following is the best example of competing on low-cost leadership? A) A firm produces its product with less raw material waste than its competitors do. B) A firm offers more reliable products than its competitors do. C) A firm's products are introduced into the market faster than its competitors' products are. D) A firm's research and development department generates many ideas for new products. E) A firm advertises more than its competitors do.

A) A firm produces its product with less raw material waste than its competitors do.

A quality circle holds a brainstorming session and attempts to identify the factors responsible for flaws in a product. Which tool do you suggest they use to organize their findings? A) Ishikawa diagram B) Pareto chart C) flowchart D) control charts E) activity chart

A) Ishikawa diagram

The Dulac Box plant produces 500 cypress packing boxes in two 10-hour shifts. Due to higher demand, they have decided to operate three 8-hour shifts instead. They are now able to produce 600 boxes per day. What has happened to productivity? A) It has not changed. B) It has increased by 37.5 boxes/hr. C) It has increased by 20%. D) It has decreased by 8.3%. E) It has decreased by 9.1%.

A) It has not changed.

Which of the following statements is most correct? A) KSFs are often necessary, but not sufficient for competitive advantage. B) KSFs are often sufficient, but not necessary for competitive advantage. C) KSFs are neither necessary nor sufficient for competitive advantage. D) KSFs are both necessary and sufficient for competitive advantage. E) None of the above statements is correct.

A) KSFs are often necessary, but not sufficient for competitive advantage.

Match the following steps in Microsoft's development of Windows 8 to their respective WBS level. Step Level Develop Windows 8 Operating System System Testing Compatible with Windows 7 Develop GUI's Module Testing A) Level 1, Level 2, Level 4, Level 3, Level 3 B) Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4, Level 5 C) Level 0, Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, Level 4 D) Level 0, Level 2, Level 2, Level 3, Level 3 E) Level 5, Level 3, Level 4, Level 1, Level 2

A) Level 1, Level 2, Level 4, Level 3, Level 3

A project manager is interested in crashing a project with variable activity times. Which of the following tools should he/she employ? A) PERT B) CPM C) Gantt Chart D) either PERT or CPM E) PERT, CPM, or a Gantt chart are fine.

A) PERT

PDCA, developed by Shewhart, stands for which of the following? A) Plan-Do-Check-Act B) Plan-Develop-Check-Accept C) Problem-Develop Solution-Check-Act D) Problem-Do-Continue-Act E) Prepare-Develop-Create-Assess

A) Plan-Do-Check-Act

Which is NOT true regarding differences between goods and services? A) Tangible goods are generally produced and consumed simultaneously; services are not. B) Most goods are common to many customers; services are often unique to the final customer. C) Services tend to have a more inconsistent product definition than goods. D) Services tend to have higher customer interaction than goods. E) None, i.e., all of the above are true.

A) Tangible goods are generally produced and consumed simultaneously; services are not.

A simple CPM network has three activities, A, B, and C. A is an immediate predecessor of B and of C. B is an immediate predecessor of C. The activity durations are A=4, B=3, C=8. A) The critical path is A-B-C, duration 15. B) The critical path is A-C, duration 12. C) The critical path is A-B-C, duration 13.5 D) The critical path cannot be determined without knowing PERT expected activity times. E) The network has no critical path.

A) The critical path is A-B-C, duration 15.

A simple CPM network has three activities, D, E, and F. D is an immediate predecessor of E and of F. E is an immediate predecessor of F. The activity durations are D=4, E=3, F=8. A) The critical path is D-E-F, duration 15. B) The critical path is D-F, duration 12. C) Slack at D is 3 periods. D) Slack at E is 3 periods. E) Both A and C are true.

A) The critical path is D-E-F, duration 15.

Which of the following statements regarding PERT times is true? A) The optimistic time estimate is an estimate of the minimum time an activity will require. B) The optimistic time estimate is an estimate of the maximum time an activity will require. C) The expected time estimate is calculated as t = (a + 4m + b). D) The pessimistic time estimate is an estimate of the minimum time an activity will require. E) The most likely time estimate is an estimate of the maximum time an activity will require.

A) The optimistic time estimate is an estimate of the minimum time an activity will require.

Which of the following statements is TRUE? A) The person most responsible for initiating the use of interchangeable parts in manufacturing was Eli Whitney. B) The origins of management by exception are generally credited to Frederick W. Taylor. C) The person most responsible for initiating the use of interchangeable parts in manufacturing was Walter Shewhart. D) The origins of the scientific management movement are generally credited to Henry Ford. E) The person most responsible for initiating the use of interchangeable parts in manufacturing was Henry Ford.

A) The person most responsible for initiating the use of interchangeable parts in manufacturing was Eli Whitney.

Which of the following statements regarding "Six Sigma" is TRUE? A) The term has two distinct meanings-one is statistical; the other is a comprehensive quality system. B) Six Sigma means that about 94 percent of a firm's output is free of defects. C) The Six Sigma program was developed by Toyota in the 1970s. D) The Six Sigma program is for manufacturing firms and is not applicable to services. E) Six Sigma certification is granted by the International Standards Organization (ISO).

A) The term has two distinct meanings-one is statistical; the other is a comprehensive quality system.

Which of the following is FALSE regarding control charts? A) Values above the upper control limits imply that the product's quality is exceeding expectations. B) Control charts are built so that new data can be quickly compared to past performance data. C) Control charts graphically present data. D) Control charts plot data over time.

A) Values above the upper control limits imply that the product's quality is exceeding expectations.

A production manager at a pottery factory has noticed that about 70 percent of defects result from impurities in raw materials, 15 percent result from human error, 10 percent from machine malfunctions, and 5 percent from a variety of other causes. This manager is most likely using: A) a Pareto chart. B) a scatter diagram. C) a quality loss function. D) a cause-and-effect diagram. E) a flowchart.

A) a Pareto chart.

Which of the following techniques uses variables such as price and promotional expenditures, which are related to product demand, to predict demand? A) associative models B) exponential smoothing C) weighted moving average D) moving average E) trend projection

A) associative models

A fishbone chart is also known as a: A) cause-and-effect diagram. B) poka-yoke diagram. C) Kaizen diagram. D) Kanban diagram. E) Taguchi diagram.

A) cause-and-effect diagram.

A recent consumer survey conducted for a car dealership indicates that, when buying a car, customers are primarily concerned with the salesperson's ability to explain the car's features, the salesperson's friendliness, and the dealer's honesty. The dealership should be ESPECIALLY concerned with which determinants of service quality? A) communication, courtesy, and credibility B) competence, courtesy, and security C) competence, responsiveness, and reliability D) communication, responsiveness, and reliability E) understanding/knowing customer, responsiveness, and reliability

A) communication, courtesy, and credibility

The goal of inspection is to: A) detect a bad process immediately. B) add value to a product or service. C) correct deficiencies in products. D) correct system deficiencies. E) all of the above

A) detect a bad process immediately.

Regarding the quality of design, production, and distribution of products, an ethical requirement for management is to: A) determine whether any of the organization's stakeholders are being wronged by poor quality products. B) gain ISO 9000 certification for the organization. C) obtain a product safety certificate from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. D) have the organization's legal staff write disclaimers in the product instruction booklets. E) compare the cost of product liability to the external failure cost.

A) determine whether any of the organization's stakeholders are being wronged by poor quality products.

Which of the following has progressed the FURTHEST along its product life cycle? A) drive-through restaurants B) Boeing 787 C) iPods D) 3-D game players E) Xbox 360

A) drive-through restaurants

The fundamental difference between cycles and seasonality is the: A) duration of the repeating patterns. B) magnitude of the variation. C) ability to attribute the pattern to a cause. D) all of the above E) none of the above

A) duration of the repeating patterns.

Quality can improve profitability by reducing costs. Which of the following is not an aspect of reduced costs by quality improvements? A) flexible pricing B) increased productivity C) lower rework and scrap costs D) lower warranty costs E) All of the above are aspects of reduced costs by quality improvements.

A) flexible pricing

The term maquiladora is most synonymous with: A) free trade zones in Mexico. B) Chinese forced labor camps. C) home-based or cottage industry. D) areas that do not meet U.S. standards for workplace safety and pollution. E) tax breaks provided by some South American countries to other South American countries.

A) free trade zones in Mexico.

A code of ethics especially for project managers: A) has been established by the Project Management Institute. B) has been formulated by the Federal government. C) has been formulated by the World Trade Organization. D) is inappropriate, since everyone should use the same guidance on ethical issues. E) does not exist at this time.

A) has been established by the Project Management Institute.

A hospital benchmarked against Ferrari Racing in an effort to: A) improve patient handoff quality. B) increase surgery prep time. C) lengthen surgery duration. D) reduce the number of doctors. E) all of the above

A) improve patient handoff quality

Which of the following OM strategy/issues should a firm with a product in the maturity stage of its life cycle be LEAST concerned with at the present time? A) increase capacity B) long production runs C) standardization D) cost cutting E) fewer rapid product changes

A) increase capacity

Which of the international operations strategies involves low cost reductions and low local responsiveness? A) international strategy B) global strategy C) transnational strategy D) multidomestic strategy E) worldwide strategy

A) international strategy

Which of the international operations strategies uses import/export or licensing of existing products? A) international strategy B) global strategy C) transnational strategy D) multidomestic strategy E) worldwide strategy

A) international strategy

A project organization: A) is effective for companies with multiple large projects. B) is appropriate only in construction firms. C) often fails when the project cuts across organizational lines. D) is most helpful for ongoing projects with no termination date. E) is most helpful when the work contains simple and unrelated tasks.

A) is effective for companies with multiple large projects.

A six-month moving average forecast is generally better than a three-month moving average forecast if demand: A) is rather stable. B) has been changing due to recent promotional efforts. C) follows a downward trend. D) exceeds one million units per year. E) follows an upward trend.

A) is rather stable.

The largest contributor to productivity increases is ________, estimated to be responsible for ________ of the annual increase. A) management; over one-half B) Mr. Deming; one-half C) labor; two-thirds D) capital; 90% E) technology; over one-half

A) management; over one-half

The "four Ms" of cause-and-effect diagrams are: A) material, machinery/equipment, manpower, and methods. B) material, methods, men, and mental attitude. C) named after four quality experts. D) material, management, manpower, and motivation. E) mentality, motivation, management, and manpower.

A) material, machinery/equipment, manpower, and methods.

Which time-series model below assumes that demand in the next period will be equal to the most recent period's demand? A) naïve approach B) moving average approach C) weighted moving average approach D) exponential smoothing approach E) trend projection

A) naïve approach

The phases of project management are: A) planning, scheduling, and controlling. B) planning, programming, and budgeting. C) planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling. D) different for manufacturing projects than for service projects. E) GANTT, CPM, and PERT.

A) planning, scheduling, and controlling

A checklist is a type of: A) poka-yoke. B) kaizen. C) kanban. D) Pareto chart E) flowchart

A) poka-yoke.

Which of the following attributes is most typical of a service? A) production and consumption occur simultaneously B) tangible C) mass production D) consistency E) easy to automate

A) production and consumption occur simultaneously

The two general approaches to forecasting are: A) qualitative and quantitative. B) mathematical and statistical. C) judgmental and qualitative. D) historical and associative. E) judgmental and associative.

A) qualitative and quantitative.

Costs of dissatisfaction, repair costs, and warranty costs are elements of cost in the: A) quality loss function. B) Pareto chart. C) ISO 9000 quality cost calculator. D) process chart. E) Ishikawa diagram.

A) quality loss function

Forecasts are usually classified by time horizon into which three categories? A) short-range, medium-range, and long-range B) finance/accounting, marketing, and operations C) strategic, tactical, and operational D) exponential smoothing, regression, and time series E) departmental, organizational, and industrial

A) short-range, medium-range, and long-range

Stakeholders who are affected by the production and marketing of poor quality products include: A) stockholders, employees, and customers. B) suppliers and creditors, but not distributors. C) only stockholders, creditors, and owners. D) suppliers and distributors, but not customers. E) only stockholders and organizational executives and managers.

A) stockholders, employees, and customers.

Outsourcing is simply an extension of the long-standing practice of: A) subcontracting. B) importing. C) exporting. D) postponement. E) e-procurement.

A) subcontracting

If Brandon Edward were working to develop a forecast using a moving averages approach, but he noticed a detectable trend in the historical data, he should: A) use weights to place more emphasis on recent data. B) use weights to minimize the importance of the trend. C) change to an associative multiple regression approach. D) use a simple moving average. E) change to a qualitative approach.

A) use weights to place more emphasis on recent data.

What two numbers are contained in the daily report to the CEO of Walt Disney Parks & Resorts regarding the six Orlando parks? A) yesterday's forecasted attendance and yesterday's actual attendance B) yesterday's actual attendance and today's forecasted attendance C) yesterday's forecasted attendance and today's forecasted attendance D) yesterday's actual attendance and last year's actual attendance E) yesterday's forecasted attendance and the year-to-date average daily forecast error

A) yesterday's forecasted attendance and yesterday's actual attendance

Which of the following would NOT be an operations function in a commercial bank? A) auditing B) teller scheduling C) maintenance D) collection E) check clearing

A. auditing

Which of the following is the best example of a pure service? A) counseling B) oil change C) heart transplant D) electric Co-Op E) restaurant

A. counseling

All of the following decisions fall within the scope of operations management EXCEPT for: A) creating the company income statement. B) design of goods and services. C) location strategy. D) managing quality. E) human resources and job design.

A. creating the company income statement.

Which of the following tasks within an airline company are related to operations? A) crew scheduling B) international monetary exchange C) sales D) advertising E) accounts payable

A. crew scheduling

The work by ________ regarding how people learn from each other's successes led to the field of cross-functional teamwork.

Armand Feigenbaum

A local project being analyzed by PERT has 42 activities, 13 of which are on the critical path. If the estimated time along the critical path is 105 days with a project variance of 25, what is the probability that the project will be completed in 95 days or less? A) -0.4 B) 0.0228 C) 0.3444 D) 0.9772 E) 4.2

B) 0.0228

A project being analyzed by PERT has 38 activities, 16 of which are on the critical path. If the estimated time along the critical path is 90 days with a project variance of 25, what is the probability that the project will be completed in 88 days or less? A) 0.0228 B) 0.3446 C) 0.6554 D) 0.9772 E) 18

B) 0.3446

A seasonal index for a monthly series is about to be calculated on the basis of three years' accumulation of data. The three previous July values were 110, 150, and 130. The average demand over all months during the three-year time period was 190 . What is the approximate seasonal index for July? A) 0.487 B) 0.684 C) 1.462 D) 2.053 E) cannot be calculated with the information given

B) 0.684

A project whose critical path has an estimated time of 120 days with a variance of 100 has a 20% chance that the project will be completed before which day (rounded to nearest day)? A) 98 B) 112 C) 120 D) 124 E) 220

B) 112

An activity on a PERT network has these time estimates: optimistic = 1, most likely = 2, and pessimistic = 5. What is its expected activity time? A) 2.00 B) 2.33 C) 2.67 D) 4.67 E) 14.00

B) 2.33

John's House of Pancakes uses a weighted moving average method to forecast pancake sales. It assigns a weight of 5 to the previous month's demand, 3 to demand two months ago, and 1 to demand three months ago. If sales amounted to 1000 pancakes in May, 2200 pancakes in June, and 3000 pancakes in July, what should be the forecast for August? A) 2400 B) 2511 C) 2067 D) 3767 E) 1622

B) 2511

The Dulac Box plant works two 8-hour shifts each day. In the past, 500 cypress packing boxes were produced by the end of each day. The use of new technology has enabled them to increase productivity by 30%. Productivity is now approximately: A) 32.5 boxes/hr. B) 40.6 boxes/hr. C) 62.5 boxes/hr. D) 81.25 boxes/hr. E) 300 boxes/hr.

B) 40.6 boxes/hr.

An activity on a PERT network has these time estimates: optimistic = 2, most likely = 5, and pessimistic = 10. What is its expected activity time? A) 5.00 B) 5.33 C) 5.67 D) 10.67 E) 32.00

B) 5.33

A cleaning company uses $10 of chemicals, $40 of labor, and $5 of misc. expenses for each house it cleans. After some quality complaints, the company has decided to increase its use of chemicals by 50%. By what percentage has multifactor productivity fallen? A) 0% B) 8.3% C) 25% D) 50% E) 16.7%

B) 8.3%

Which of the following statements about Bechtel is true? A) Even though Bechtel is over 100 years old, the Kuwaiti oil fields was its first "project." B) Bechtel is the world's premier manager of massive construction and engineering projects. C) Bechtel's competitive advantage is supply chain management. D) While its projects are worldwide, its network of suppliers is largely in the United States E) All of the above are true

B) Bechtel is the world's premier manager of massive construction and engineering projects.

The ________ distribution is used by PERT analysis to calculate expected activity times and variances. A) Normal B) Beta C) Alpha D) Gaussian E) Binomial

B) Beta

Which of the following statements regarding time-cost tradeoffs in CPM networks is false? A) Crashing shortens project duration by assigning more resources to critical tasks. B) Crashing sometimes has the reverse result of lengthening the project duration. C) Crashing must consider the impact of crashing an activity on all paths in the network. D) Activities not on the critical path can become critical after crashing takes place. E) A negative crash cost per period would imply that either crashing is cheaper than not crashing or that the crash time was slower than the normal time.

B) Crashing sometimes has the reverse result of lengthening the project duration.

Which of the following is NOT a step in the forecasting process? A) Determine the use of the forecast. B) Eliminate any assumptions. C) Determine the time horizon of the forecast. D) Select the forecasting model. E) Validate and implement the results.

B) Eliminate any assumptions.

The "Father of Scientific Management" is: A) Henry Ford. B) Frederick W. Taylor. C) W. Edwards Deming. D) Frank Gilbreth. E) just a figure of speech, not a reference to a person.

B) Frederick W. Taylor

The process improvement technique that sorts the vital few from the trivial many is: A) Taguchi analysis. B) Pareto analysis. C) benchmarking. D) Deming analysis. E) Yamaguchi analysis.

B) Pareto analysis.

A simple CPM network has five activities, A, B, C, D, and E. A is an immediate predecessor of C and of D. B is also an immediate predecessor of C and of D. C and D are both immediate predecessors of E. Which of the following statements is true? A) There are two paths in this network. B) There are four paths in this network. C) There are five paths in this network. D) There are 25 paths in this network. E) There are six paths in this network.

B) There are four paths in this network.

Which of the following is true of maquiladoras? A) They discourage foreign businesses from outsourcing. B) They assess tariffs only on the value-added work done. C) They originated in China. D) None of the above E) All of the above

B) They assess tariffs only on the value-added work done.

Total quality management emphasizes: A) the responsibility of the quality control staff to identify and solve all quality-related problems. B) a commitment to quality that goes beyond internal company issues to suppliers and customers. C) a system where strong managers are the only decision makers. D) a process where mostly statisticians get involved. E) ISO 14000 certification.

B) a commitment to quality that goes beyond internal company issues to suppliers and customers.

Which of the following statements best characterizes delivery reliability? A) a company that always delivers on the same day of the week B) a company that always delivers at the promised time C) a company that delivers more frequently than its competitors D) a company that delivers faster than its competitors E) a company that has a computerized delivery scheduling system

B) a company that always delivers at the promised time

"Quality lies in the eyes of the beholder" is: A) an unrealistic definition of quality. B) a user-based definition of quality. C) a manufacturing-based definition of quality. D) a product-based definition of quality. E) the definition of quality proposed by the American Society for Quality.

B) a user-based definition of quality

Short-range forecasts tends to ________ longer-range forecasts. A) be less accurate than B) be more accurate than C) have about the same level of accuracy as D) employ the same methodologies as E) deal with more comprehensive issues than

B) be more accurate than

In a PERT network, non-critical activities that have little slack need to be monitored closely: A) because PERT treats all activities as equally important. B) because near-critical paths could become critical paths with small delays in these activities. C) because slack is undesirable and needs to be eliminated. D) because they are causing the entire project to be delayed. E) because they have a high risk of not being completed.

B) because near-critical paths could become critical paths with small delays in these activities.

A customer service manager at a retail clothing store has collected numerous customer complaints from the forms they fill out on merchandise returns. To analyze trends or patterns in these returns, she has organized these complaints into a small number of sources or factors. This is most closely related to the ________ tool of TQM. A) quality loss function B) cause-and-effect diagram C) scatter diagram D) histogram E) process control chart

B) cause-and-effect diagram

Given the position of the 3D printer in the growth stage of its life cycle, which of the following OM Strategy/Issues should the makers of 3D printers be least concerned with at the current time? A) forecasting B) cost cutting C) increasing capacity D) product and process reliability E) enhancing distribution

B) cost cutting

As compared to long-range forecasts, short-range forecasts: A) are less accurate. B) deal with less comprehensive issues supporting management decisions. C) employ similar methodologies. D) all of the above E) none of the above

B) deal with less comprehensive issues supporting management decisions.

Which of the following nets the largest productivity improvement? A) increase output 15% B) decrease input 15% C) increase both output and input by 5% D) increase output 10%, decrease input 3% E) decrease input 10%, increase output 3%

B) decrease input 15%

According to the authors, which of the following strategic concepts allow firms to achieve their missions? A) productivity, efficiency, and quality leadership B) differentiation, cost leadership, and response C) differentiation, quality leadership, and response D) distinctive competency, cost leadership, and experience E) differentiation, distinctive competency, quality leadership, and capacity

B) differentiation, cost leadership, and response

Which of the following is NOT a typical service attribute? A) intangible product B) easy to store C) customer interaction is high D) simultaneous production and consumption E) difficult to resell

B) easy to store

The three major types of forecasts used by organizations in planning future operations are: A) strategic, tactical, and operational. B) economic, technological, and demand. C) exponential smoothing, Delphi, and regression. D) causal, time-series, and seasonal. E) departmental, organizational, and territorial.

B) economic, technological, and demand.

One of Britain's largest children's hospitals working with Ferrari Racing is an example of: A) internal benchmarking. B) external benchmarking. C) Taguchi concepts. D) employee empowerment. E) corporate responsibility.

B) external benchmarking.

Among the tools of TQM, the tool ordinarily used to aid in understanding the sequence of events through which a product travels is a: A) Pareto chart. B) flowchart. C) check sheet. D) Taguchi map. E) poka-yoke.

B) flowchart

Poka-yoke is the Japanese term for: A) card. B) foolproof. C) continuous improvement. D) fishbone diagram. E) just-in-time production.

B) foolproof.

Porter's Five Forces Model is used to evaluate competition based on which 5 aspects? A) research and development, cost, legal regulations, suppliers, customers B) immediate rivals, potential entrants, customers, suppliers, and substitute products C) potential entrants, customers, suppliers, legal regulations, and cost D) immediate rivals, potential entrants, cost, substitute products, and legal regulations E) cost, legal regulations, advertising effectiveness, potential entrants, and immediate rivals

B) immediate rivals, potential entrants, customers, suppliers, and substitute products

An SWOT analysis determines: A) internal strengths and weaknesses and internal opportunities and threats. B) internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats. C) external strengths and weaknesses and internal opportunities and threats. D) external strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats. E) internal strengths and opportunities and external weaknesses and threats.

B) internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats.

Experience differentiation: A) isolates the consumer from the delivery of a service. B) is an extension of product differentiation in the service sector. C) uses only the consumer's senses of vision and sound. D) keeps consumers from becoming active participants in the service. E) attempts to make the service experience different for every single customer.

B) is an extension of product differentiation in the service sector.

Three commonly used productivity variables are: A) quality, external elements, and precise units of measure. B) labor, capital, and management. C) technology, raw materials, and labor. D) education, diet, and social overhead. E) quality, efficiency, and low cost.

B) labor, capital, and management.

With reference to cultural and ethical issues, the World Trade Organization has: A) eliminated bribery. B) made progress in providing equal protection of intellectual property among nations. C) phased out all trade and tariff barriers between the United States and Mexico. D) eliminated slave labor and child labor. E) played little role in addressing cultural and ethical issues among nations.

B) made progress in providing equal protection of intellectual property among nations.

The factor responsible for the largest portion of productivity increase in the United States is: A) labor. B) management. C) capital. D) All three combined; it is impossible to determine the contribution of individual factors. E) none of these.

B) management.

A project organization that becomes permanent is often referred to as a: A) fixed project organization. B) matrix organization. C) normal organization. D) standard organization. E) permanent project organization.

B) matrix organization.

A forecast with a time horizon of about 3 months to 3 years is typically called a: A) long-range forecast. B) medium-range forecast. C) short-range forecast. D) weather forecast. E) strategic forecast.

B) medium-range forecast.

Which of the following is not present in a time series? A) seasonality B) operational variations C) trend D) cycles E) random variations

B) operational variations

If a sample of parts is measured and the mean of the measurements is outside the control limits, the process is: A) in control, but not capable of producing within the established control limits. B) out of control and the process should be investigated for assignable variation. C) within the established control limits with only natural causes of variation. D) monitored closely to see if the next sample mean will also fall outside the control limits. E) none of the above.

B) out of control and the process should be investigated for assignable variation

A firm can effectively use its operations function to yield competitive advantage through all of the following EXCEPT: A) customization of the product. B) setting equipment utilization goals below the industry average. C) speed of delivery. D) constant innovation of new products. E) maintaining a variety of product options.

B) setting equipment utilization goals below the industry average.

Productivity measurement is complicated by: A) the competition's output. B) the fact that precise units of measure are often unavailable. C) stable quality. D) the workforce size. E) the type of equipment used.

B) the fact that precise units of measure are often unavailable.

Marketing issues such as advertising, image, and promotion are important to quality because: A) they define for consumers the tangible elements of a service. B) the intangible attributes of a product (including any accompanying service) may not be defined by the consumer. C) they educate consumers on how to use the product. D) they make the product seem more valuable than it really is. E) they raise expenses and therefore decrease profitability.

B) the intangible attributes of a product (including any accompanying service) may not be defined by the consumer.

The time an activity will take assuming very unfavorable conditions is: A) the optimistic time. B) the pessimistic time. C) the activity variance. D) the minimum time.

B) the pessimistic time.

The expected activity time in PERT analysis is calculated as: A) the simple average of the optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely times. B) the weighted average of a, m, and b, with m weighted 4 times as heavily as a and b. C) the sum of the optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely times. D) the sum of the optimistic, pessimistic, and most likely times, divided by six. E) the sum of the activity variances, divided by six.

B) the weighted average of a, m, and b, with m weighted 4 times as heavily as a and b.

Three broad categories of definitions of quality are: A) product quality, service quality, and organizational quality. B) user based, manufacturing based, and product based. C) internal, external, and prevention. D) low-cost, response, and differentiation. E) Pareto, Shewhart, and Deming.

B) user based, manufacturing based, and product based.

Which of the following pioneers was NOT making a professional impact during the Scientific Management Era? A) Frank Gilbreth B) W. Edwards Deming C) Henry L. Gantt D) Lillian Gilbreth E) Frederick W. Taylor

B. W. Edwards Deming

Which of the following fosters specialization and worldwide supply chains? A) more expensive transportation B) instant communication C) economies of scope D) managers with a broad knowledge of many things E) high trade tariffs

B. instant communication

13) Which of the following is NOT a strategic operations management decision? A) maintenance B) price C) layout design D) quality E) inventory

B. price

________ selects a demonstrated standard of performance that represents the very best performance for a process or an activity.

Benchmarking

A project being analyzed by PERT has 60 activities, 13 of which are on the critical path. If the estimated time along the critical path is 214 days with a project variance of 100, what is the probability that the project will take 224 days or more to complete? A) near zero B) 0.0126 C) 0.1587 D) 0.8413 E) 2.14

C) 0.1587

Given an actual demand this period of 103, a forecast value for this period of 99, and an alpha of .4, what is the exponential smoothing forecast for next period? A) 94.6 B) 97.4 C) 100.6 D) 101.6 E) 103.0

C) 100.6

A foundry produces circular utility access hatches (manhole covers). If 120 covers are produced in a 10-hour shift, the productivity of the line is: A) 1.2 covers/hr. B) 2 covers/hr. C) 12 covers/hr. D) 1200 covers/hr. E) 120 covers/hr.

C) 12 covers/hr.

Gibson Valves produces cast bronze valves on an assembly line, currently producing 1600 valves per shift. If the production is increased to 2000 valves per shift, labor productivity will increase by: A) 10%. B) 20%. C) 25%. D) 40%. E) 50%.

C) 25%.

Suppose that the last four months of sales were 8, 10, 15, and 9 units, respectively. Suppose further that the last four forecasts were 5, 6, 11, and 12 units, respectively. What is the Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) of these forecasts? A) 2 B) -10 C) 3.5 D) 9 E) 10.5

C) 3.5

Given forecast errors of -1, 4, 8, and -3, what is the mean absolute deviation? A) 2 B) 3 C) 4 D) 8 E) 16

C) 4

Given an actual demand this period of 61, a forecast for this period of 58, and an alpha of 0.3, what would the forecast for the next period be using exponential smoothing? A) 45.5 B) 57.1 C) 58.9 D) 61.0 E) 65.5

C) 58.9

A project whose critical path has an estimated time of 820 days with a variance of 225 has a 20% chance that the project will be completed before which day (rounded to nearest day)? A) 631 B) 689 C) 807 D) 833 E) 1009

C) 807

Which of the following is an example of competing on quick response? A) A firm produces its product with less raw material waste than its competitors do. B) A firm offers more reliable products than its competitors do. C) A firm's products are introduced into the market faster than its competitors' products. D) A firm utilizes its capacity more effectively than its competitors do. E) A firm advertises more than its competitors do.

C) A firm's products are introduced into the market faster than its competitors' products.

Which of the following statements is most accurate? A) Nearly all outsourcing relationships do not last beyond two years. B) Nearly all U.S. firms that outsourced processes to India have backsourced them. C) Approximately half of all outsourcing agreements fail. D) Outsourcing is a relatively risk-free activity. E) More than 90% of outsourcing agreements succeed.

C) Approximately half of all outsourcing agreements fail.

What forecasting systems combine the intelligence of multiple supply chain partners? A) FORE B) MULTISUP C) CPFR D) SUPPLY E) MSCP

C) CPFR

Which of the following uses three types of participants: decision makers, staff personnel, and respondents? A) jury of executive opinion B) sales force composite C) Delphi method D) associative models E) time series

C) Delphi method

Who was the person most responsible for popularizing interchangeable parts in manufacturing? A) Frederick Winslow Taylor B) Henry Ford C) Eli Whitney D) Whitney Houston E) Lillian Gilbreth

C) Eli Whitney

Which of the following statements is true? A) Corporate mission is shaped by functional strategies. B) Corporate strategy is shaped by functional strategies. C) Functional strategies are shaped by corporate strategy. D) External conditions are shaped by corporate mission. E) Functional area missions are merged to become the organizational mission.

C) Functional strategies are shaped by corporate strategy.

Which of the following statements regarding Gantt charts is true? A) Gantt charts give a timeline and precedence relationships for each activity of a project. B) Gantt charts use the four standard spines of Methods, Materials, Manpower, and Machinery. C) Gantt charts are visual devices that show the duration of activities in a project. D) Gantt charts are expensive. E) All of the above are true

C) Gantt charts are visual devices that show the duration of activities in a project.

The project organization works best when which of the following conditions are satisfied? I. Work tasks can be defined with a specific goal and deadline. II. The job is typical and familiar to the existing organization. III. The work contains interrelated tasks requiring specialized skills. IV. The project is temporary but unimportant to long-term organizational success. V. The project cuts across organizational lines. A) I, II, III, IV, V B) None of the above conditions need to be satisfied. C) I, III, V D) I, II, III, V E) I, III, IV, V

C) I, III, V

Which of the following statements about time-series forecasting is true? A) It is always based on the assumption that future demand will be the same as past demand. B) It makes extensive use of the data collected in the qualitative approach. C) It is based on the assumption that the analysis of past demand helps predict future demand. D) Because it accounts for trends, cycles, and seasonal patterns, it is always more powerful than associative forecasting. E) All of the above are true.

C) It is based on the assumption that the analysis of past demand helps predict future demand.

________ expresses the error as a percent of the actual values. A) MAD B) MSE C) MAPE D) FIT E) The smoothing constant

C) MAPE

Which of the following is NOT a limitation of PERT? A) Project activities have to be clearly defined, independent, and stable in their relationships. B) Precedence relationships must be specified and networked together. C) Only one time estimate can be used for each activity. D) Time estimates tend to be subjective and are subject to fudging by managers. E) There is the inherent danger of placing too much emphasis on the critical path.

C) Only one time estimate can be used for each activity.

"Quality Is Free," meaning that the costs of poor quality have been understated, is the work of: A) W. Edwards Deming. B) Joseph M. Juran. C) Philip B. Crosby. D) Crosby, Stills, and Nash. E) Armand Feigenbaum.

C) Philip B. Crosby.

Who introduced the concept of value-chain analysis? A) Ford B) Toyota C) Porter D) Smith E) Gates

C) Porter

Which of the following statements is NOT true? A) Self-promotion is not a substitute for quality products. B) Inferior products harm a firm's profitability and a nation's balance of payments. C) Product liability transfers from the manufacturer to the retailer once the retailer accepts delivery of the product. D) Quality-be it good or bad-will show up in perceptions about a firm's new products, employment practices, and supplier relations. E) Legislation such as the Consumer Product Safety Act sets and enforces product standards by banning products that do not reach those standards.

C) Product liability transfers from the manufacturer to the retailer once the retailer accepts delivery of the product.

Which of the following statements about challenges in operations management is FALSE? A) Job specialization is giving way to empowered employees. B) Local or national focus is giving way to global focus. C) Sustainable production is giving way to a low-cost focus. D) Rapid product development is partly the result of shorter product cycles. E) The goal of mass customization is to produce customized products, whenever and wherever needed.

C) Sustainable production is giving way to a low-cost focus.

Which of the following statements regarding PERT times is true? A) The expected time is an estimate of the time an activity will require if everything goes as planned. B) The optimistic time estimate is an estimate of the maximum time an activity will require. C) The expected time estimate is calculated as t = (a + 4m + b)/6. D) The pessimistic time estimate is an estimate of the minimum time an activity will require. E) The most likely time estimate is an estimate of the maximum time an activity will require.

C) The expected time estimate is calculated as t = (a + 4m + b)/6.

Which of the following activities takes place most immediately once the mission has been developed? A) The firm develops alternative or back-up missions in case the original mission fails. B) The functional areas develop their functional area strategies. C) The functional areas develop their supporting missions. D) The ten OM decision areas are prioritized. E) Operational tactics are developed.

C) The functional areas develop their supporting missions.

Activity R on a CPM network has predecessors M and N, and has successor S. R has duration 5. N's late finish is 18, while M's is 20. S's late start is 14. Which of the following is definitely true? A) R is critical and has zero slack. B) R has no slack but is not critical. C) The set of times cannot all be possible. D) N is a critical activity. E) S is a critical activity.

C) The set of times cannot all be possible.

Which of the following statements about organizational missions is FALSE? A) They reflect a company's purpose. B) They indicate what a company intends to contribute to society. C) They are formulated after strategies are known. D) They define a company's reason for existence. E) They provide guidance for functional area missions.

C) They are formulated after strategies are known.

"Making it right the first time" is: A) an unrealistic definition of quality. B) a user-based definition of quality. C) a manufacturing-based definition of quality. D) a product-based definition of quality. E) the definition of quality proposed by the American Society for Quality

C) a manufacturing-based definition of quality.

Gradual upward or downward movement of data over time is called: A) seasonality. B) a cycle. C) a trend. D) exponential variation. E) random variation.

C) a trend.

Henry Ford is noted for his contributions to: A) material requirements planning. B) statistical quality control. C) assembly line operations. D) scientific management. E) time and motion studies.

C) assembly line operations.

The process of identifying other organizations that are best at some facet of your operations and then modeling your organization after them is known as: A) continuous improvement. B) employee empowerment. C) benchmarking. D) copycatting. E) patent infringement.

C) benchmarking.

The beta distribution is used in project management to: A) determine which activity should be crashed. B) calculate the probability that a project will be completed within its budget. C) calculate expected activity times. D) calculate slack for activities on the critical path. E) none of the above

C) calculate expected activity times.

PDCA is most often applied with regard to which aspect of TQM? A) Six Sigma B) employee empowerment C) continuous improvement D) benchmarking E) JIT

C) continuous improvement

Which of the determinants of service quality involves having the customer's best interests at heart? A) access B) courtesy C) credibility D) responsiveness E) tangibles

C) credibility

Building high-morale organizations and building communication networks that include employees are both elements of: A) ISO 9000 certification. B) Six Sigma certification. C) employee empowerment. D) Taguchi methods. E) the tools of TQM.

C) employee empowerment.

A fundamental distinction between trend projection and linear regression is that: A) trend projection uses least squares while linear regression does not. B) only linear regression can have a negative slope. C) in trend projection the independent variable is time; in linear regression the independent variable need not be time, but can be any variable with explanatory power. D) trend projection can be a function of several variables, while linear regression can only be a function of one variable. E) trend projection uses two smoothing constants, not just one.

C) in trend projection the independent variable is time; in linear regression the independent variable need not be time, but can be any variable with explanatory power.

For a given product demand, the time-series trend equation is 53 - 4x. The negative sign on the slope of the equation: A) is a mathematical impossibility. B) is an indication that the forecast is biased, with forecast values lower than actual values. C) is an indication that product demand is declining. D) implies that the coefficient of determination will also be negative. E) implies that the cumulative error will be negative.

C) is an indication that product demand is declining.

Yamaha manufactures which set of products with complementary demands to address seasonal variations? A) golf clubs and skis B) swimming suits and winter jackets C) jet skis and snowmobiles D) pianos and guitars E) ice skates and water skis

C) jet skis and snowmobiles

The forecasting technique that pools the opinions of a group of experts or managers is known as: A) the expert judgment model. B) multiple regression. C) jury of executive opinion. D) market survey. E) management coefficients.

C) jury of executive opinion.

Forecasts used for new product planning, capital expenditures, facility location or expansion, and R&D typically utilize a: A) short-range time horizon. B) medium-range time horizon. C) long-range time horizon. D) naive method, because there is no data history. E) trend extrapolation.

C) long-range time horizon.

Which productivity variable has the greatest potential to increase productivity? A) labor B) globalization C) management D) capital E) energy

C) management

Standardization is an appropriate strategy in which stage of the product life cycle? A) introduction B) growth C) maturity D) decline E) retirement

C) maturity

The primary purpose of the mean absolute deviation (MAD) in forecasting is to: A) estimate the trend line. B) eliminate forecast errors. C) measure forecast accuracy. D) seasonally adjust the forecast. E) remove random variations.

C) measure forecast accuracy.

Pareto charts are used to: A) identify inspection points in a process. B) outline production schedules. C) organize errors, problems, or defects. D) show material flow.

C) organize errors, problems, or defects

Which of the following is NOT performed by Microsoft Project? A) drawing the project AON network B) identifying the critical path C) providing PERT probability calculations D) tracking the progress of the project E) creating the project Gantt chart

C) providing PERT probability calculations

Which of the following did the authors NOT suggest as a reason for globalizing operations? A) reduce costs B) improve the supply chain C) pursue stockholder approval ratings D) understand markets E) attract and retain global talent

C) pursue stockholder approval ratings

Which of the following does NOT represent a valid reason for globalizing operations? A) reduce costs B) improve the supply chain C) reduce responsiveness D) attract and retain global talent E) understand markets

C) reduce responsiveness

The service sector has lower productivity improvements than the manufacturing sector because: A) the service sector uses less skilled labor than manufacturing. B) the quality of output is lower in services than manufacturing. C) services usually are labor-intensive. D) service sector productivity is hard to measure. E) the service sector is often easy to mechanize and automate.

C) services usually are labor-intensive.

What theory implies that you should allow another firm to perform work activities for your company if that company can do it more productively than you can? A) theory of competitive advantage B) theory of core competencies C) theory of comparative advantage D) theory of outsourcing E) theory of offshoring

C) theory of comparative advantage

Which of the international operations strategies involves high cost reductions and high local responsiveness? A) international strategy B) global strategy C) transnational strategy D) multidomestic strategy E) worldwide strategy

C) transnational strategy

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of exponential smoothing? A) smoothes random variations in the data B) uses an easily altered weighting scheme C) weights each historical value equally D) has minimal data storage requirements E) uses the previous period's forecast

C) weights each historical value equally

Gibson Valves produces cast bronze valves on an assembly line, currently producing 1600 valves each 8-hour shift. If the productivity is increased by 10%, it would then be: A) 180 valves/hr. B) 200 valves/hr. C) 220 valves/hr. D) 880 valves/hr. E) 1760 valves/hr.

C. 220 valves/hr.

Which of the following is one of the 10 strategic operations management decisions? A) depreciation policy for tax returns B) advertising C) process and capacity design D) pricing E) debt/equity ratio

C. process and capacity design

What is a global network of organizations and activities that supply a firm with goods and services? A) supply tree B) provider network C) supply chain D) vendor network E) vendor tree

C. supply chain

An operations manager is NOT likely to be involved in: A) the design of goods and services to satisfy customers' wants and needs. B) the quality of goods and services to satisfy customers' wants and needs. C) the identification of customers' wants and needs. D) work scheduling to meet the due dates promised to customers. E) maintenance schedules.

C. the identification of customers' wants and needs.

________ diagrams use a schematic technique to discover possible locations of quality problems.

Cause-and-effect, or Fishbone or Ishikawa

Henry Ford and ________ are credited with the development of the moving assembly line.

Charles Sorensen

________ are graphical presentations of data over time that show upper and lower control limits for processes we want to control.

Control charts

________ is decreasing activity time in a network to reduce time on the critical path so total completion time is reduced.

Crashing

Contract requirements state that a project must be completed within 180 working days, or it will incur penalties for late completion. Analysis of the activity network reveals an estimated project time of 145 working days with a project variance of 400. What is the probability that the project will be completed before the late-payment deadline? A) 0.0401 B) 0.4599 C) 0.8056 D) 0.9599 E) near 1.0000, or almost certain

D) 0.9599

Which of the following smoothing constants would make an exponential smoothing forecast equivalent to a naive forecast? A) 0 B) 1 divided by the number of periods C) 0.5 D) 1.0 E) cannot be determined

D) 1.0

Demand for a certain product is forecast to be 800 units per month, averaged over all 12 months of the year. The product follows a seasonal pattern, for which the January monthly index is 1.25. What is the seasonally-adjusted sales forecast for January? A) 640 units B) 798.75 units C) 801.25 units D) 1000 units E) 83.33 units

D) 1000 units

Illiteracy and poor diets have been known to cost countries up to what percent of their productivity? A) 2% B) 5% C) 10% D) 20% E) 50%

D) 20%

Gibson Valves produces cast bronze valves on an assembly line. If 1600 valves are produced in an 8-hour shift, the productivity of the line is: A) 2 valves/hr. B) 40 valves/hr. C) 80 valves/hr. D) 200 valves/hr. E) 1600 valves/hr.

D) 200 valves/hr.

A cleaning company uses 10 lbs each of chemicals A, B and C for each house it cleans. After some quality complaints, the company has decided to increase its use of chemical A by an additional 10 lbs for each house. By what % has productivity (houses per pound of chemical) fallen? A) 0% B) 10% C) 15% D) 25% E) 33%

D) 25%

A Three Sigma program has how many defects per million? A) 34 B) 3 C) 3 times the standard deviation D) 2700 E) 1500

D) 2700

Which of the following has made the LEAST progress along its product life cycle? A) drive-through restaurants B) Boeing 787 C) iPods D) 3-D game players E) Xbox 360

D) 3-D game players

A time-series trend equation is 25.3 + 2.1x. What is your forecast for period 7? A) 23.2 B) 25.3 C) 27.4 D) 40.0 E) 179.2

D) 40.0

Companies with the highest levels of quality are how many times more productive than their competitors with the lowest quality levels? A) 2 B) 3 C) 4 D) 5 E) None of the above because quality has no impact on productivity (units/labor hr.).

D) 5

Which of the following is an example of competing on the basis of differentiation? A) A firm manufactures its product with less raw material waste than its competitors do. B) A firm's products are introduced into the market faster than its competitors' products are. C) A firm's distribution network routinely delivers its product on time. D) A firm offers more reliable products than its competitors do. E) A firm advertises more than its competitors do.

D) A firm offers more reliable products than its competitors do.

Which of the following statements regarding CPM is true? A) The critical path is the shortest of all paths through the network. B) The critical path is that set of activities that has positive slack. C) Some networks have no critical path. D) All activities on the critical path have their LS equal to the maximum EF of all immediate predecessors. E) All activities on the critical path have their ES equal to their LF.

D) All activities on the critical path have their LS equal to the maximum EF of all immediate predecessors.

If two variables were perfectly correlated, what would the coefficient of correlation r equal? A) 0 B) -1 C) 1 D) B or C E) none of the above

D) B or C

Which of the following is a similarity between goods and services? A) mass production B) consistency C) automation D) Both have quality standards. E) Both can usually be kept in inventory.

D) Both have quality standards.

Which of these statements regarding time-cost tradeoffs in CPM networks is true? A) Crashing is not possible unless there are multiple critical paths. B) Crashing a project often reduces the length of long-duration, but noncritical, activities. C) Activities not on the critical path can never be on the critical path, even after crashing. D) Crashing shortens the project duration by assigning more resources to one or more of the critical tasks. E) The crash time always exceeds the normal time.

D) Crashing shortens the project duration by assigning more resources to one or more of the critical tasks.

Activity D on a CPM network has predecessors B and C, and has successor F. D has duration 6. B's earliest finish is 18, while C's is 20. F's late start is 26. Which of the following is definitely true? A) B is a critical activity. B) C is completed before B. C) D has no slack but is not critical. D) D is critical, and has zero slack. E) F is critical, and has zero slack.

D) D is critical, and has zero slack.

Which of the following statements comparing exponential smoothing to the weighted moving average technique is TRUE? A) Exponential smoothing is more easily used in combination with the Delphi method. B) More emphasis can be placed on recent values using the weighted moving average. C) Exponential smoothing is considerably more difficult to implement on a computer. D) Exponential smoothing typically requires less record keeping of past data. E) Exponential smoothing allows one to develop forecasts for multiple periods, whereas the weighted moving average technique does not.

D) Exponential smoothing typically requires less record keeping of past data.

Which is NOT true regarding differences between goods and services? A) Services are generally produced and consumed simultaneously; tangible goods are not. B) Services tend to be more knowledge-based than goods. C) Services tend to have a more inconsistent product definition than goods. D) Goods tend to have higher customer interaction than services. E) Reselling is unusual in services; goods often have some residual value.

D) Goods tend to have higher customer interaction than services.

Which of the following are among the 10 strategic operations management decisions? I. design of goods and services II. managing quality III. layout strategy IV. marketing V. pricing of goods and services

D) I, II, III

Which of the following statements regarding CPM networks is true? A) There can be multiple critical paths on the same project, all with different durations. B) The early finish of an activity is the latest early start of all preceding activities. C) The late start of an activity is its late finish plus its duration. D) If a specific project has multiple critical paths, all of them will have the same duration. E) None of the above are true.

D) If a specific project has multiple critical paths, all of them will have the same duration

The acronym MNC stands for A) Mexican National Committee (for international trade) B) Maquiladora Negates Competition C) Maytag-Nestlé Corporation D) Multinational Corporation E) Maritime Navigation Company

D) Multinational Corporation

Which of the following statements regarding critical paths is true? A) The shortest of all paths through the network is the critical path. B) Some activities on the critical path may have slack. C) Every network has only one critical path. D) On a specific project, there can be multiple critical paths, all with exactly the same duration. E) The duration of the critical path is the average duration of all paths in the project network.

D) On a specific project, there can be multiple critical paths, all with exactly the same duration.

Which of the following statements regarding PERT analysis is true? A) Each activity has two estimates of its duration. B) Project variance is the sum of all activity variances. C) Project standard deviation is the sum of all critical activity standard deviations. D) Only critical activities contribute to the project variance. E) The most likely time is equivalent to the expected activity time.

D) Only critical activities contribute to the project variance.

A manager tells her production employees, "It's no longer good enough that your work falls anywhere within the specification limits. I need your work to be as close to the target value as possible." Her thinking is reflective of: A) internal benchmarking. B) Six Sigma. C) ISO 9000. D) Taguchi concepts. E) process control charts.

D) Taguchi concepts.

Suppose that a firm has historically been achieving "Three Sigma" quality. If the firm later changes its quality management practices such that it begins to achieve "Six Sigma" quality, which of the following phenomena will result? A) The average number of defects will be cut in half. B) The specification limits will be moved twice as far from the mean. C) The average number of defects will be cut by 99.9997%. D) The average number of defects will be cut by 99.87%. E) The average number of defects will be cut by 99.73%.

D) The average number of defects will be cut by 99.87%.

Which of the following statements regarding Arnold Palmer Hospital is FALSE? A) The hospital uses a wide range of quality management techniques. B) The culture of quality at the hospital includes employees at all levels. C) The hospital scores very highly in national studies of patient satisfaction. D) The hospital's high quality is measured by low readmission rates, not patient satisfaction. E) The design of patient rooms, even wall colors, reflects the hospital's culture of quality.

D) The hospital's high quality is measured by low readmission rates, not patient satisfaction.

Which of the following statements concerning CPM activities is false? A) The early finish of an activity is the early start of that activity plus its duration. B) The late finish is the earliest of the late start times of all successor activities. C) The late start of an activity is its late finish less its duration. D) The late finish of an activity is the earliest late start of all preceding activities. E) The early start of an activity is the latest early finish of all preceding activities.

D) The late finish of an activity is the earliest late start of all preceding activities.

Who among the following is associated with contributions to quality control in operations management? A) Charles Babbage B) Henry Ford C) Frank Gilbreth D) W. Edwards Deming E) Henri Fayol

D) W. Edwards Deming

"The employee cannot produce products that on average exceed the quality of what the process is capable of producing" expresses a basic philosophy in the writings of: A) Vilfredo Pareto. B) Armand Feigenbaum. C) Joseph M. Juran. D) W. Edwards Deming. E) Philip B. Crosby.

D) W. Edwards Deming.

In his book, Safe Patients, Smart Hospitals, Dr. Peter Pronovost emphasizes the use of what tool to reduce catheter infections? A) a Pareto chart B) a flowchart C) a cause-and-effect diagram D) a checklist E) a statistical process control chart

D) a checklist

To become ISO 9000 certified, organizations must: A) document quality procedures. B) have an onsite assessment. C) have an ongoing series of audits of their products or service. D) all of the above E) none of the above

D) all of the above

Response-based competitive advantage can be: A) flexible response. B) reliable response. C) quick response. D) all of the above. E) none of the above.

D) all of the above.

Which of the following is LEAST likely to be a low-cost leadership competitive advantage? A) low overhead B) effective capacity use C) inventory management D) broad product line E) mass production

D) broad product line

Which of the following is NOT one of the phases of project management? A) planning B) scheduling C) controlling D) budgeting E) All of the above are project management phases.

D) budgeting

Which of the following most requires long-range forecasting (as opposed to short-range or medium-range forecasting) for its planning purposes? A) job scheduling B) production levels C) cash budgeting D) capital expenditures E) purchasing

D) capital expenditures

A successful TQM program incorporates all EXCEPT which of the following? A) continuous improvement B) employee involvement C) benchmarking D) centralized decision-making authority E) JIT

D) centralized decision-making authority

The degree or strength of a relationship between two variables is shown by the: A) alpha. B) mean. C) mean absolute deviation. D) coefficient of correlation. E) cumulative error.

D) coefficient of correlation.

Franz Colruyt has achieved low-cost leadership through: A) effective use of voice mail. B) plastic, not paper, shopping bags. C) background music that subtly encourages shoppers to buy more. D) converting factories, garages, and theaters into retail outlets. E) exclusive use of the Euro.

D) converting factories, garages, and theaters into retail outlets.

GE's recall of 3.1 million dishwashers cost the company more in repairs than the value of the actual dishwashers. This is an example of which quality principle? A) PDCA B) internal failure costs C) appraisal costs D) cost of poor quality is underestimated E) prevention costs

D) cost of poor quality is underestimated

Productivity can be improved by: A) increasing inputs while holding outputs steady. B) decreasing outputs while holding inputs steady. C) increasing inputs and outputs in the same proportion. D) decreasing inputs while holding outputs steady. E) none of the above.

D) decreasing inputs while holding outputs steady.

Which of the following services is LEAST likely to be unique, i.e., customized to a particular individual's needs? A) dental care B) hairdressing C) legal services D) elementary education E) computer consulting

D) elementary education

Which time-series model uses BOTH past forecasts and past demand data to generate a new forecast? A) naïve B) moving average C) weighted moving average D) exponential smoothing E) trend projection

D) exponential smoothing

Which of the four major categories of quality costs is particularly hard to quantify? A) prevention costs B) appraisal costs C) internal failure costs D) external failure costs E) None is hard to quantify.

D) external failure costs

Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner: A) is assembled in Washington, D.C. B) uses engines from Japan. C) has its fuselage sections built in Australia. D) has increased efficiency from new engine technology. E) results from a partnership of about a dozen companies.

D) has increased efficiency from new engine technology.

When sample measurements falls inside the control limits, it means that: A) each unit manufactured is good enough to sell. B) the process limits cannot be determined statistically. C) the process output exceeds the requirements. D) if there is no other pattern in the samples, the process is in control. E) the process output does not fulfill the requirements.

D) if there is no other pattern in the samples, the process is in control.

Which of the following is NOT among the ethical and social challenges facing operations managers? A) honoring stakeholder commitments B) training, retaining, and motivating employees C) efficiently developing and producing safe high-quality green products D) increasing executive pay E) providing a safe workplace

D) increasing executive pay

Which of the following is not part of value-chain analysis? A) product research B) quality management C) supply chain management D) marketing E) human resources

D) marketing

A network has been crashed to the point where all activities are critical. Additional crashing: A) is unnecessary. B) is impossible. C) is prohibitively expensive. D) may require crashing multiple tasks simultaneously. E) can be done, but all critical tasks must be reduced in duration. D) may require crashing multiple tasks simultaneously.

D) may require crashing multiple tasks simultaneously.

Which of the international operations strategies uses the existing domestic model globally? A) international strategy B) global strategy C) transnational strategy D) multidomestic strategy E) worldwide strategy

D) multidomestic strategy

The total of all outputs produced by the transformation process divided by the total of the inputs is: A) utilization. B) greater in manufacturing than in services. C) defined only for manufacturing firms. D) multifactor productivity. E) single-factor productivity.

D) multifactor productivity.

Eli Whitney, in the ________, provided the foundations for ________ in operations management. A) 1920s; statistical sampling B) United Kingdom; mass production C) U.S. Army; logistics D) nineteenth century; interchangeable parts E) 1890s; queuing theory

D) nineteenth century; interchangeable parts

What is the practice of transferring a firm's activities that have traditionally been internal to external suppliers? A) nearshoring B) farshoring C) offshoring D) outsourcing E) backsourcing

D) outsourcing

Which of the following is not an advantage of outsourcing? A) cost savings B) gaining outside expertise C) improving operations and service D) outsourcing core competencies E) accessing outside technology

D) outsourcing core competencies

The purpose of NAFTA is to: A) substitute cheap labor in Mexico for expensive labor in the United States. B) curb illegal immigration from Mexico to the United States. C) phase out all trade and tariff barriers between North America and South America. D) phase out all trade and tariff barriers between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. E) provide fair and equitable tariff rates for trade between the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

D) phase out all trade and tariff barriers between the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

According to the manufacturing-based definition of quality: A) quality is the degree of excellence at an acceptable price and the control of variability at an acceptable cost. B) quality depends on how well the product fits patterns of consumer preferences. C) even though quality cannot be defined, you know what it is. D) quality is the degree to which a specific product conforms to standards. E) quality lies in the eyes of the beholder.

D) quality is the degree to which a specific product conforms to standards.

In time series, which of the following cannot be predicted? A) large increases in demand B) cycles C) seasonal fluctuations D) random variations E) large decreases in demand

D) random variations

Which of the determinants of service quality involves performing the service right the first time? A) access B) courtesy C) credibility D) reliability E) responsiveness

D) reliability

A quality loss function includes all of the following costs EXCEPT: A) the cost of scrap and repair. B) the cost of customer dissatisfaction. C) inspection, warranty, and service costs. D) sales costs. E) costs to society.

D) sales costs.

Increasing the number of periods in a moving average will accomplish greater smoothing, but at the expense of: A) manager understanding. B) accuracy. C) stability. D) sensitivity to real changes in the data. E) All of the above are diminished when the number of periods increases.

D) sensitivity to real changes in the data.

Based on his 14 Points, Deming is a strong proponent of: A) inspection at the end of the production process. B) an increase in numerical quotas to boost productivity. C) looking for the cheapest supplier. D) training and knowledge. E) all of the above.

D) training and knowledge.

WBS stands for which of the following project management tools? A) work break schedule B) work breakdown status C) work breakdown schedule D) work breakdown structure E) work break status

D) work breakdown structure

The service sector makes up approximately what percentage of all jobs in the United States? A) 12% B) 40% C) 66% D) 86% E) 94%

D. 86%

Which of the following is NOT an element of the management process? A) controlling B) leading C) planning D) pricing E) staffing

D. Pricing

The marketing function's main concern is with: A) producing goods or providing services. B) procuring materials, supplies, and equipment. C) building and maintaining a positive image. D) generating the demand for the organization's products or services. E) securing monetary resources.

D. generating the demand for the organization's products or services.

Which of the following are the primary functions of all organizations? A) production/operations, marketing, and human resources B) marketing, human resources, and finance/accounting C) sales, quality control, and production/operations D) marketing, production/operations, and finance/accounting E) research and development, finance/accounting, and purchasing

D. marketing, production/operations, and finance/accounting

Which of the following is NOT one of the 10 strategic operations management decisions? A) layout strategy B) maintenance C) process and capacity design D) mass customization E) supply chain management

D. mass customization

What are the five elements in the management process? A) plan, direct, update, lead, and supervise B) accounting, finance, marketing, operations, and management C) organize, plan, control, staff, and manage D) plan, organize, staff, lead, and control E) plan, lead, organize, manage, and control

D. plan, organize, staff, lead, and control

An operations task performed at Hard Rock Café is: A) borrowing funds to build a new restaurant. B) advertising changes in the restaurant menu. C) calculating restaurant profit and loss. D) preparing employee schedules. E) all of the above.

D. preparing employee schedules

Walter Shewhart is listed among the important people of operations management because of his contributions to: A) assembly line production. B) measuring productivity in the service sector. C) just-in-time inventory methods. D) statistical quality control. E) information technology.

D. statistical quality control

Operations management is applicable: A) mostly to the service sector. B) to services exclusively. C) mostly to the manufacturing sector. D) to all firms, whether manufacturing or service. E) to the manufacturing sector exclusively.

D. to all firms, whether manufacturing or service

A PERT project has 45 activities, 19 of which are on the critical path. The estimated time for the critical path is 120 days. The sum of all activity variances is 64, while the sum of variances along the critical path is 36. What is the probability that the project can be completed between days 108 and 120? A) -2.00 B) 0.0227 C) 0.1058 D) 0.4773 E) 0.9773

E) 0.9773

Analysis of a PERT problem shows the estimated time for the critical path to be 108 days with a variance of 64. There is a .90 probability that the project will be completed before approximately day: A) 98. B) 108. C) 109. D) 115. E) 118.

E) 118

Suppose that the demand in period 1 was 7 units and the demand in period 2 was 9 units. Assume that the forecast for period 1 was for 5 units. If the firm uses exponential smoothing with an alpha value of .20, what should be the forecast for period 3? (Round answers to two decimal places.) A) 9.00 B) 3.72 C) 9.48 D) 5.00 E) 6.12

E) 6.12

A successful quality strategy features which of the following elements? A) an organizational culture that fosters quality B) an understanding of the principles of quality C) engaging employees in the necessary activities to implement quality D) A and C E) A, B, and C

E) A, B, and C

Which of the following best describes experience differentiation? A) immerses consumers in the delivery of a service B) uses people's five senses to enhance the service C) complements physical elements with visual and sound elements D) consumers may become active participants in the product or service E) All of the above are elements of experience differentiation.

E) All of the above are elements of experience differentiation.

Techniques for building employee empowerment include: A) building communication networks that include employees. B) developing open, supportive supervisors. C) moving responsibility from both managers and staff to production employees. D) building high-morale organizations. E) All of the above are techniques for employee empowerment.

E) All of the above are techniques for employee empowerment.

The difference between AON and AOA networks is that: A) AOA networks sometimes require dummy activities. B) nodes consume no resources or time in AOA networks. C) both are acceptable in practice; however, Microsoft Project uses AON. D) nodes designate activities in AON, while arrows designate activities in AOA. E) All of the above are true.

E) All of the above are true.

Which of the following statements regarding Bechtel is true? A) Its competitive advantage is project management. B) Bechtel was the construction contractor for the Hoover Dam. C) While helping to rebuild Iraq, Bechtel's crews had to travel under armed escort. D) Bechtel's procurement program is global in nature. E) All of the above are true.

E) All of the above are true.

Which of the following influences layout design? A) inventory requirements B) capacity needs C) personnel levels D) technology E) All of the above influence layout decisions.

E) All of the above influence layout decisions.

Productivity tends to be more difficult to improve in the service sector because the work is: A) often difficult to automate. B) typically labor-intensive. C) frequently processed individually. D) often an intellectual task performed by professionals. E) All of the above make service productivity more difficult.

E) All of the above make service productivity more difficult.

Which of the following projects were completed by Bechtel? A) Hoover Dam B) Boston Central Artery/Tunnel C) Rebuilding Kuwait after Iraq's invasion in 1990 D) Rebuilding Iraq after the U.S. invasion, starting in 2003 E) All of the above were Bechtel projects

E) All of the above were Bechtel projects

What is a set of quality standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization? A) Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award B) Deming Prize C) ISO 14000 D) IOS 2009 E) ISO 9000

E) ISO 9000

Current challenges in operations management include all of the following EXCEPT: A) just-in-time performance. B) rapid product development. C) mass customization. D) empowered employees. E) None of the above are exceptions, i.e., all are current challenges.

E) None of the above are exceptions, i.e., all are current challenges.

Members of quality circles are: A) paid according to their contribution to quality. B) external consultants designed to provide training in the use of quality tools. C) always machine operators. D) all trained to be facilitators. E) None of the above; all of the statements are false.

E) None of the above; all of the statements are false.

Which of the following is NOT one of the major categories of costs associated with quality? A) prevention costs B) appraisal costs C) internal failure costs D) external failure costs E) None of the above; they are all major categories of costs associated with quality.

E) None of the above; they are all major categories of costs associated with quality.

The main difference between PERT and CPM is that: A) PERT is more accurate than CPM. B) PERT assumes that activity durations are known. C) PERT ignores activity costs. D) CPM assumes activity durations can vary. E) PERT employs three time estimates for each activity.

E) PERT employs three time estimates for each activity.

What was the name of the construction project to rebuild the Pentagon after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001? A) Project Panther B) Project Pit Bull C) Project Python D) Project Piranha E) Project Phoenix

E) Project Phoenix

Which of the following is NOT true when explaining why productivity tends to be lower in the service sector than in the manufacturing sector? A) Services are typically labor-intensive. B) Services are often difficult to evaluate for quality. C) Services are often an intellectual task performed by professionals. D) Services are difficult to automate. E) Service operations are typically capital intensive.

E) Service operations are typically capital intensive.

Arnold Palmer Hospital uses which of the following quality management techniques? A) Pareto charts B) flowcharts C) benchmarking D) just-in-time E) The hospital uses all of the above techniques.

E) The hospital uses all of the above techniques.

Which of the following is TRUE regarding the two smoothing constants of the Forecast Including Trend (FIT) model? A) One constant is positive, while the other is negative. B) They are called MAD and cumulative error. C) Alpha is always smaller than beta. D) One constant smoothes the regression intercept, whereas the other smoothes the regression slope. E) Their values are determined independently.

E) Their values are determined independently.

Time-series data may exhibit which of the following behaviors? A) trend B) random variations C) seasonality D) cycles E) They may exhibit all of the above.

E) They may exhibit all of the above.

A strategy is a(n): A) set of opportunities in the marketplace. B) broad statement of purpose. C) simulation used to test various product line options. D) plan for cost reduction. E) action plan to achieve the mission.

E) action plan to achieve the mission.

Which of the following is not a typical inspection point? A) upon receipt of goods from your supplier B) when production or service is complete C) before the product is shipped to the customer D) at the supplier's plant while the supplier is producing E) after a costly process

E) after a costly process

A business's stakeholders, whose conflicting perspectives cause ethical and social dilemmas, include: A) lenders. B) suppliers. C) owners. D) employees. E) all of the above.

E) all of the above

Before establishing and implementing strategy, a resources view would ensure that which of the following resources are available? A) financial B) physical C) human D) technological E) all of the above

E) all of the above

Porter's Five Forces Model contains which of the following? A) immediate rivals B) potential entrants C) customers D) suppliers E) all of the above

E) all of the above

The control of projects involves close monitoring of which of the following? A) resources B) costs C) quality D) budgets E) all of the above

E) all of the above

Value-chain analysis can be used to determine if a business is adding unique value in which of the following areas? A) product research B) human resources C) process innovation D) quality management E) all of the above

E) all of the above

Which of the following represents a reason for globalizing operations? A) to improve the supply chain B) to improve operations C) to expand a product's life cycle D) to attract and retain global talent E) all of the above

E) all of the above

Which of the following statements regarding the Dreamliner 787 is true? A) Boeing has found partners in over a dozen countries. B) The new aircraft incorporates a wide range of aerospace technologies. C) The new aircraft uses engines from not one, but two manufacturers. D) Boeing will add only 20 to 30 percent of the aircraft's value. E) All of the above are true.

E) all of the above are true

Cost cutting in international operations can take place because of: A) lower taxes and tariffs. B) lower wage scales. C) lower indirect costs. D) less stringent regulations. E) all of the above.

E) all of the above.

Ethical issues that may arise in projects large and small include: A) gifts from contractors. B) exaggerated expense reports. C) compromised quality standards to meet bonuses or avoid penalties related to schedules. D) pressure to mask delays with false status reports. E) all of the above.

E) all of the above.

Multinational organizations can shop from country to country and cut costs through: A) lower wage scales. B) lower indirect costs. C) less stringent regulations. D) lower taxes and tariffs. E) all of the above.

E) all of the above.

A small metal shop operates 10 hours each day, producing 100 parts/hour. If productivity were increased 20%, how many hours would the plant have to work to produce 1000 parts? A) less than 2 hours B) between 9 and 10 hours C) between 2 and 6 hours D) between 6 and 8 hours E) between 8 and 9 hours

E) between 8 and 9 hours

The ability of an organization to produce goods or services that have some uniqueness in their characteristics is: A) mass production. B) time-based competition. C) competing on productivity. D) competing on quality. E) competing on differentiation.

E) competing on differentiation.

The philosophy of zero defects is: A) the result of Deming's research. B) unrealistic. C) prohibitively costly. D) an ultimate goal; in practice, 1 to 2% defects is acceptable. E) consistent with the commitment to continuous improvement.

E) consistent with the commitment to continuous improvement.

Kaizen is a Japanese term meaning: A) a foolproof mechanism. B) just-in-time (JIT). C) a fishbone diagram. D) setting standards. E) continuous improvement.

E) continuous improvement.

Outsourcing manufacturing is also known as: A) license manufacturing. B) sublease manufacturing. C) concurrent manufacturing. D) hollow manufacturing. E) contract manufacturing.

E) contract manufacturing.

) The ability of an organization to produce services that, by utilizing the consumer's five senses, have some uniqueness in their characteristics is: A) sensory response. B) time-based competition. C) differentiation. D) flexible response. E) experience differentiation.

E) experience differentiation.

A forecast based on the previous forecast plus a percentage of the forecast error is a(n): A) qualitative forecast. B) naive forecast. C) moving average forecast. D) weighted moving average forecast. E) exponential smoothing forecast.

E) exponential smoothing forecast.

Which of the following environmental factors has not contributed to Microsoft's changing strategy? A) Google B) security issues C) faster processors D) the Internet E) global warming

E) global warming

One use of short-range forecasts is to determine: A) planning for new products. B) capital expenditures. C) research and development plans. D) facility location. E) job assignments.

E) job assignments.

All of the following costs are likely to decrease as a result of better quality EXCEPT: A) customer dissatisfaction costs. B) inspection costs. C) scrap costs. D) warranty and service costs. E) maintenance costs.

E) maintenance costs.

Which of the following is not a type of qualitative forecasting? A) jury of executive opinion B) sales force composite C) market survey D) Delphi method E) moving average

E) moving average

The beta distribution is used in project management to: A) calculate slack on activities not on the critical path. B) calculate the probability that a project will be completed within its budget. C) calculate pessimistic and optimistic activity times. D) determine which activity should be crashed. E) none of the above

E) none of the above

A good description of source inspection is inspecting: A) materials upon delivery by the supplier. B) the goods at the production facility before they reach the customer. C) the design specifications. D) goods at the supplier's plant. E) one's own work.

E) one's own work.

Advantages of outsourcing do NOT include: A) cost savings. B) gaining outside expertise. C) maintaining a focus on core competencies. D) accessing outside technology. E) potential creation of future competition.

E) potential creation of future competition.

Cost minimization is an appropriate strategy in which stage of the product life cycle? A) introduction B) growth C) adolescence D) decline E) retirement

E) retirement

What refers to training and empowering frontline workers to solve a problem immediately? A) just-in-time B) poka-yoke C) benchmarking D) kaizen E) service recovery

E) service recovery

What term is given to those individuals with a vested interest in an organization, including customers, distributors, suppliers, owners, lenders, employees, and community members? A) alumni B) investors C) investors D) stockholders E) stakeholders

E) stakeholders

Caterpillar and Texas Instruments are two firms that have benefited from the use of: A) the multidomestic strategy option. B) the international strategy option. C) the transnational strategy option. D) the maquiladora system in Europe. E) the global strategy option.

E) the global strategy option.

Reasons to study operations management include: A) studying how people organize themselves for productive enterprise. B) knowing how goods and services are consumed. C) understanding what human resource managers do. D) learning about a costly part of the enterprise. E) A and D

E. A and D

At Hard Rock Café, tasks that reflect operations or operations management include: A) designing efficient layouts. B) providing meals. C) receiving ingredients. D) preparing effective employee schedules. E) all of the above.

E. all of the above

Reasons to study operations management include learning about: A) how people organize themselves for productive enterprise. B) how goods and services are produced. C) what operations managers do. D) a costly part of the enterprise. E) all of the above.

E. all of the above

The 10 strategic operations management decisions include: A) layout strategy. B) maintenance. C) process and capacity design. D) managing quality. E) all of the above

E. all of the above

The field of operations management is shaped by advances in which of the following fields? A) chemistry and physics B) industrial engineering and management science C) biology and anatomy D) information technology E) all of the above

E. all of the above

________ forecasts address the business cycle by predicting inflation rates, money supplies, housing starts, and other planning indicators.

Economic

Identify up to four phenomena that foster specialization and worldwide supply chains.

(1) a more technologically oriented society (2) specialized expert knowledge (3) instant communication (4) cheaper transportation

________ is the operations management challenge that moves more decision making to the individual worker

Empowered employees

"Considers inventory ordering and holding decisions" is within the strategic operations management decision area of managing quality.

False

A knowledge society is one that has migrated from work based on knowledge to one based on manual work.

False

A naïve forecast for September sales of a product would be equal to the forecast for August

False

A product will always be in the same stage of its product life cycle regardless of the country.

False

A project organization works best for an organization when the project resides in only one of its functional areas.

False

An improvement in quality must necessarily increase costs.

False

An organization's strategy is the purpose or rationale for its existence.

False

Because Hard Rock Cafés are themed restaurants, operations managers focus their layout design efforts on attractiveness while paying little attention to efficiency.

False

Benchmarking requires the comparison of your firm to other organizations; it is not appropriate to benchmark by comparing one of your divisions to another of your divisions.

False

Conforming to standards is the focus of the product-based definition of quality.

False

Core competencies are good candidates for outsourcing.

False

Customer interaction is often high for manufacturing processes, but low for services.

False

Deming's writings on quality tend to focus on the customer and on fitness for use, unlike Juran's work that is oriented toward meeting specifications.

False

Firms using the global strategy can be thought of as "world companies."

False

Forecasts of individual products tend to be more accurate than forecasts of product families.

False

Henry Ford is known as the Father of Scientific Management.

False

In a regression equation where y-hat is demand and x is advertising, a coefficient of determination (R2) of .70 means that 70% of the variance in advertising is explained by demand.

False

In order to have a career in operations management, one must have a degree in statistics or quantitative methods.

False

In trend projection, a negative regression slope is mathematically impossible.

False

Key success factors and core competencies are synonyms.

False

Low-cost leadership is the ability to distinguish the offerings of the organization in a way that the customer perceives as adding value.

False

Managers at Arnold Palmer Hospital take quality so seriously that the hospital typically is a national leader in several quality areas-so that continuous improvement is no longer necessary.

False

Manufacturing now constitutes the largest economic sector in postindustrial societies.

False

Mean squared error and exponential smoothing are two measures of the overall error of a forecasting model.

False

NAFTA seeks to phase out all trade and tariff barriers between the United States and Asia.

False

Of the several determinants of service quality, access is the one that relates to keeping customers informed in language they can understand.

False

Outsourcing is the practice of moving a business process to a foreign country but retaining control of it.

False

PERT, but not CPM, has the ability to consider the precedence relationships in a project.

False

Productivity is the total value of all inputs to the transformation process divided by the total value of the outputs produced.

False

Quality is mostly the business of the quality control staff, not ordinary employees.

False

Regression lines graphically depict "cause-and-effect" relationships.

False

SWOT analysis is a method of determining external strengths and weaknesses and internal opportunities and threats.

False

Shewhart's contributions to operations management came during the Scientific Management Era.

False

Shortening the project's duration by deleting unnecessary activities is called "project crashing."

False

Source inspection is inferior to inspection before costly operations.

False

The Japanese use the term poka-yoke to refer to continuous improvement.

False

The PERT pessimistic time estimate is an estimate of the minimum time an activity will require.

False

The critical path can be determined by use of either the "forward pass" or the "backward pass."

False

The fundamental difference between PERT and CPM is that PERT uses the beta distribution for crashing projects while CPM uses cost estimates.

False

The larger the number of periods in the simple moving average forecasting method, the greater the method's responsiveness to changes in demand.

False

The larger the standard error of the estimate, the more accurate the forecasting model.

False

The multidomestic OM strategy maximizes local responsiveness while achieving a significant cost advantage.

False

The quality loss function indicates that costs related to poor quality are low as long as the product is within acceptable specification limits.

False

The shortest of all paths through the network is the critical path.

False

The standard deviation of project duration is the average of the standard deviation of all activities on the critical path.

False

The term renewal has been created to describe the return of business activity to the originating country.

False

The theory of competitive advantage implies that you should allow another firm to perform work activities for your company if that company can do it more productively than you can.

False

Work breakdown structure is a useful tool in project management because it addresses the timing of individual work elements.

False

________ costs result from production of defective parts or services before delivery to the customer.

Internal failure

________ is the Japanese word for the ongoing process of unending improvement.

Kaizen

________ are areas located along the United States-Mexico border in which factories receive preferential tariff treatment.

Maquiladoras

________ is the ability of the organization to be flexible enough to cater to the individual whims of consumers.

Mass customization

14) ________ is the stage in product life cycle at which it is a poor time to change quality.

Maturity

________ is the total of all outputs produced by the transformation process divided by the total of the inputs.

Multifactor productivity

________ is a free trade agreement among Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

NAFTA—North American Free Trade Agreement

________ is the set of activities that creates value in the form of goods and services by transforming inputs into outputs

Operations Management

________ is the practice of transferring a firm's activities that have traditionally been internal to external suppliers.

Outsourcing

________ forecasts employ one or more mathematical models that rely on historical data and/or associative variables to forecast demand.

Quantitative

________ is a forecasting technique based upon salespersons' estimates of expected sales

Sales force composite

________ is the amount of time an individual activity in a network can be delayed without delaying the entire project.

Slack time

________ is doing the job properly with the operator ensuring that this is so.

Source inspection

A(n) ________ is a global network of organizations and activities that supply a firm with goods and services.

Supply Chain

________ forecasts are concerned with rates of technological progress, which can result in the birth of exciting new products, requiring new plants and equipment.

Technological

________ forecasts use a series of past data points to make a forecast.

Time-series

________ is a time-series forecasting method that fits a trend line to a series of historical data points and then projects the line into the future for forecasts.

Trend projection

A cause-and-effect diagram helps identify the sources of a problem.

True

A checklist is a type of poka-yoke to help ensure consistency and completeness in carrying out a task

True

A multinational corporation is a firm with extensive international business involvement.

True

A naïve forecast for September sales of a product would be equal to the sales in August.

True

A time-series model uses a series of past data points to make the forecast.

True

A trend projection equation with a slope of 0.78 means that there is a 0.78 unit rise in Y per period.

True

All organizations, including service firms such as banks and hospitals, have a production function.

True

Although the number of people employed in manufacturing in the United States has decreased since 1950, each person is now producing almost 20 times more than in 1950.

True

An accounting firm that provides tax services for a company would be considered to be part of that company's supply chain.

True

An example of a "hidden" production function is the transfer of funds between accounts at a bank.

True

Boeing's development of the 787 Dreamliner is an example of a company obtaining a competitive advantage through product differentiation/innovation.

True

Competition in the 21st century is no longer between companies; it is between supply chains.

True

Continuous improvement is based on the philosophy that any aspect of an operation can be improved.

True

Cycles and random variations are both components of time series.

True

Demand for individual products can be driven by product life cycles.

True

Demand forecasts serve as inputs to financial, marketing, and personnel planning.

True

Ethical and social dilemmas arise because stakeholders of a business have conflicting perspectives.

True

Ethical issues that can arise in projects include gifts from contractors, pressure to mask delays with false status reports, and pressure to compromise project quality to meet bonuses or avoid penalties related to schedules.

True

Every network has at least one critical path

True

Experience differentiation is an extension of product differentiation, accomplished by using people's five senses to create an experience rather than simply providing a service.

True

Forecasts may be influenced by a product's position in its life cycle.

True

Gantt charts give a timeline for each of a project's activities, but they do not adequately illustrate the interrelationships between the activities and the resources.

True

Improved quality can increase profitability via allowing flexible pricing.

True

In PERT analysis, the identification of the critical path can be incorrect if a noncritical activity takes substantially more than its expected time.

True

In project management, crashing an activity must consider the impact on all paths in the network.

True

In trend projection, the trend component is the slope of the regression equation.

True

Internal failure costs are associated with scrap, rework, and downtime.

True

Kaizen is similar to TQM in that both are focused on continuous improvement.

True

Key success factors are those activities that are key to achieving competitive advantage.

True

Line employees need the knowledge of TQM tools.

True

Linear-regression analysis is a straight-line mathematical model to describe the functional relationships between independent and dependent variables.

True

Most forecasting techniques assume that there is some underlying stability in the system.

True

NAFTA seeks to phase out all trade and tariff barriers among Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

True

One advantage of exponential smoothing is the limited amount of record keeping involved.

True

One of the ways that just-in-time (or JIT) influences quality is that by reducing inventory, bad quality is exposed.

True

One phase of a large project is scheduling.

True

One reason for global operations is to gain improvements in the supply chain.

True

One reason to globalize is to learn to improve operations.

True

One reason to study operations management is to learn how people organize themselves for productive enterprise.

True

One responsibility of a project manager is to make sure that the project meets its quality goals.

True

Operations management is the set of activities that creates value in the form of goods and services by transforming inputs into outputs.

True

Outsourcing is the practice of transferring a firm's activities that have traditionally been internal to external suppliers.

True

Pareto charts are a graphical way of identifying the few critical items from the many less important ones.

True

Philip Crosby is credited with both of these quality catch-phrases: "quality is free" and "zero defects."

True

Production processes are being dispersed to take advantage of national differences in labor costs

True

Productivity is generally more difficult to improve in the service sector than in the manufacturing sector.

True

Project managers have their own code of ethics, established by the Project Management Institute.

True

Quality circles empower employees to improve productivity by finding solutions to work-related problems in their work area.

True

Seasonal indices adjust raw data for patterns that repeat at regular time intervals.

True

Security is the determinant of service quality that means freedom from danger, risk, or doubt.

True

Slack is the amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the entire project.

True

Some of the operations-related activities of Hard Rock Café include designing meals and analyzing them for ingredient cost and labor requirements.

True

TQM is important because each of the ten decisions made by operations managers deals with some aspect of identifying and meeting customer expectations.

True

The ES of an activity that has only one predecessor is simply the EF of that predecessor.

True

The World Trade Organization has helped to significantly reduce tariffs around the world.

True

The World Trade Organization helps provide governments and industries around the world with protection from firms that engage in unethical conduct.

True

The definition of quality adopted by The American Society for Quality is a customer-oriented (i.e., user based) definition.

True

The operations manager performs the management activities of planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling of the OM function.

True

The phrase Six Sigma has two meanings. One is statistical, referring to an extremely high process, product, or service capability; the other is a comprehensive system for achieving and sustaining business success.

True

The quarterly "make meeting" of Lexus dealers is an example of a sales force composite forecast.

True

The sales force composite forecasting method relies on salespersons' estimates of expected sales.

True

The theory of comparative advantage implies that you should allow another firm to perform work activities for your company if that company can do it more productively than you can.

True

To attract and retain global talent, and to expand a product's life cycle, are both reasons to globalize.

True

The ________ distribution is appropriate for calculating expected activity times and activity variances in PERT networks.

beta

A(n) ________ is a type of poka-yoke that lists the steps needed to ensure consistency and completeness in a task.

checklist

The ________ measures the strength of the relationship between two variables.

coefficient of correlation

The creation of a unique advantage over competitors is called a(n) ________.

competitive advantage

Arnold Palmer Hospital uses ________ to seek new ways to reduce readmission rates.

continuous improvement

Outsourcing manufacturing is also known as ________.

contract manufacturing

The ________ is the computed longest time path(s) through a network.

critical path

The fundamental purpose of an organization's mission statement is to: A) create a good human relations climate in the organization. B) define the organization's purpose in society. C) define the operational structure of the organization. D) generate good public relations for the organization. E) define the functional areas required by the organization.

define the organization's purpose in society.

Enlarging employee jobs so that the added responsibility and authority is moved to the lowest level possible in the organization is called ________.

employee empowerment

The smoothing constant is a weighting factor used in ________.

exponential smoothing

Marketing, production/operations, and ________ are the three functions that all organizations must perform to create goods and services.

finance/accounting

The ________ strategy utilizes a standardized product across countries.

global

The ________ strategy uses exports and licenses to penetrate globally.

international

Simple ________ forecasts only work well if we can assume that market demands will stay fairly steady over time.

moving average

A(n) ________ is a firm that has extensive involvement in international business, owning or controlling facilities in more than one country.

multinational corporation (MNC)

The ________ strategy uses subsidiaries, franchises, or joint ventures with substantial independence.

mutidomestic

A(n) ________ is an organization formed to ensure that programs (projects) receive the proper management and attention.

project organization

When a tangible component is not included in a service, such as with counseling, it is called a(n) ________.

pure service

A group of employees that meet on a regular basis with a facilitator to solve work-related problems in their work area is a(n) ________.

quality circle

Not only customers, but stockholders, suppliers, and others, are among the ________ whose values must be protected in making ethical decisions concerning the quality of products.

stakeholders

The ________ is how an organization expects to achieve its missions and goals.

strategy

Outsourcing is an extension of the long-standing practice of ________ production activities.

subcontracting

Competition in the 21st century is no longer between companies; it is between ________.

supply chains

An organization that has worked to achieve global uniformity in cultural and ethical issues such as bribery, child labor, and environmental regulations is ________.

the World Trade Organization

Starbucks stopped requiring signatures on credit-card purchases under $25 in an attempt to reduce ________.

transaction time (or service time)

The ________ strategy describes a condition in which material, people, and ideas cross or transgress national boundaries.

transnational