MGT303 Chapter 11S

Which of the following is/are problem analysis (SPC) tools?

-Scatter diagrams -Fishbone diagrams

From the first step at the top to the last step on the bottom, list the stages of the operations consulting process:

1) Sales proposal and development 2) Analyze problem; design, develop and test alternative solutions 3) Develop systematic performance measures 4) Present final report 5) Implement changes and assure client satisfaction 6) Assemble learnings from the study

Which of the following items would an operations consultant likely reference to understand customer concerns with a company's operational performance?

A customer survey

In what operations consulting tool kit category would one find a balanced scorecard?

Cost impact and payoff analysis

An operations consultant working with a hospital system would most likely work on which one of the following projects?

Patient billing systems

An operations consultant is visiting a company's six manufacturing facilities over a period of two weeks to develop a basic appreciation of each plant's operating environment and personnel. These initial facility visits are typically called?

Plant tours

The ___ project is where the general nature of the problem is well known and the activities necessary to complete it are similar to those performed on other projects.

Procedures

In ___ development, the focus is on analyzing the capabilities of operations in light of the firm's competitive strategy.

Strategy

Which of the following are considered cost impact and payoff analysis tools?

-Balanced Scorecards -Stakeholder Analysis -Decision Trees

Which of the following categories are ways to characterize the operations consulting industry? Check all that apply.

-By size -In-house vs. external -By specialization

Which of the following is/are data analysis and solution development tools used by operations consultants?

-Computer Simulation -Statistical Tools -Bottleneck Analysis

Operations consultant, Danielle Jones, is about to start a service improvement project with Company A. Which of the following problem definition tools are likely available to help her frame the problem(s)?

-Customer surveys -Employee surveys -Issue trees

Which of the following groups are represented in a typical stakeholder analysis?

-Employees -The Community -Suppliers

In services, operations consultants are typically needed in which of the following areas?

-Hospitality -Transportation -Financial

Which of the following is NOT analyzed in a Five Forces Model?

-Personnel strategies -Supplier power -Leadership priorities

For what is a fishbone diagram used?

-To map the key problems -To provide an initial hypothesis

Which of the following situations exemplify when operations consultants are typically needed?

-When a company is about to make a major operations investment decision -When a company believes they are not getting maximum effectiveness from their productive capacity

In an effort to address inventory control issues, a consultant might use which tool in the problem analysis phase of the project?

ABC analysis

Company X is moving production from Facility A to Facility B 60 miles away. They bring on operations consultant, Jon Smith, to help with some of the move-related tasks with no particular areas of focus. How would one best describe Jon's role with Company X?

An extra "pair of hands"

A scorecard that looks at multiple stakeholder performance measures is often called what type of scorecard?

Balanced

Generally, the ___ or ___ consultation role is most effective in operations management consulting projects.

Collaborative, Process

A key feature of the balanced scorecard system is that it is tailored to what senior management and branch-level management can ___.

Control

A consultant believes there is a relationship between the weight of items ordered by Company X and a supplier's on-time delivery performance (measured as percent on-time). The consultant could use which statistical technique to verify this relationship?

Correlation

A decision tree is used where in the operations consulting tool kit flow?

Cost impact and payoff analysis

___ consist of a selection of performance metrics presented in graphical form with color-coding of trend lines, alarms in the form of exclamation marks, and so forth, to show when key indicators are nearing a problem level.

Dashboards

In what operations consulting tool kit category would one use work sampling?

Data gathering

A tool used to assess the risk of plant and equipment purchases is called?

Decision Tree Analysis

___ studies are used by consultants to get an understanding of specific tasks being performed by the workforce.

Diary

A tool an operations consultant might use to gauge employee attitudes toward current management strategies is called a/an _____?

Employee survey

Typical consulting firms are divided into three categories of employees. Match the colloquial terms below with their meanings.

Finders: Partners or senior consultants whose primary function is sales and client relations. Minders: Managers of a consulting firm whose primary function is managing consulting projects. Grinders: Junior consultants whose primary function is to do the work.

___ diagrams are used to structure or map the key problems to be investigated.

Fishbone

To understand the manufacturing/service processes, information and people movements in a company, an operations consultant might review a(n) ___.

Flowchart

___ can be used in both manufacturing and services to track materials, information, and people flows.

Flowcharts

One of the project management techniques a consulting firm could use to plan and monitor an individual project is called a ___ chart.

Gantt, CPM, or PERT

An operations consultant is benchmarking best-in-class service providers to see how his client, Company Z, can improve their service performance. The operations consultant is likely collecting benchmarking data for which problem definition tool?

Gap analysis

During the initial analysis phases, an operations consultant identifies that her client takes twice as long to process orders as industry competitors. This information is likely conveyed in which problem definition tool?

Gap analysis

Which of the following is used to identify the task responsibilities for a project?

Implementation Responsibility Chart

Decision trees are widely used in examining plant and equipment ___ and R&D projects.

Investments

A key use of customer surveys is customer ___ analysis.

Loyalty

Which of the following is an operations consulting opportunity characterized as focusing on "parts"?

Make or buy decisions

Plant tours/audits can be classified as ___ and ___ facility tours/audits.

Manufacturing, Service

___ ___ deals with assisting clients in developing operations strategies and improving processes.

Operations Consulting

Consulting firms are typically organized as ___.

Partnerships

Match the 5Ps of production with their meanings.

Plant: Adding and locating new plants; expanding, contracting, or refocusing existing facilities. People: Quality improvement, setting/revising work standards, learning curve analysis. Parts: Make or buy decisions, vendor selection decisions. Processes: Technology evaluation, process improvement, reengineering. Planning and control systems: Supply chain management, ERP, MRP, shop-floor control, warehousing, distribution.

___ dashboards are designed to provide summary performance updates for specific processes.

Process

An operations consultant is working with a client on helping them reduce customer wait times. The consulting will likely use the statistical analysis associated with _______ theory.

Queuing

In a SWOT analysis used by operations consultants, match the letter with the phrase that best describes the letter's word.

S: Something the company does well W: An area of improvement for the company O: Hidden potential or future goal T: Looming issue for the company

Which of the following is the first stage in the operations consulting process?

Sales and proposal development

Such surveys range from employee ___ surveys to ___ surveys.

Satisfaction, Suggestion

An operations consultant is making random observations of how long it takes an operator to load a stamping press. This consultant is performing what type of data gathering technique?

Work sampling