Exam 10: Operations Management, Productivity, and Quality

Of the following products/services, which is the most tangible? Child care A restaurant meal Car repair Clothing Dental work

Explain how material requirements planning (MRP) works in the production department.

Lucy rides the bus to work every day. This is an example of a high-contact service process.

A clothing manufacturer that sets up an area for making different kinds of pockets, another area for sleeves, and another for collars, is using the ________ layout. product fixed-position process customer cellular

If the total resources needed to create a given amount of a product decreases, productivity has decreased and quality has increased. not changed. decreased. increased. cannot determine from information provided.

Toys for Pops is a small business that focuses on indoor and outdoor games intended for an adult male clientele. It stocks a range of fantasy action figures and models, low-impact athletic accessories such as Frisbees and croquet sets, and a wide range of video games. The business has grown to the point that a larger location is needed. Recently, a location has come up for rent at a nearby strip mall at a favorable rate. The facility would provide the business with much needed shelf space and more room for employees behind the counter. However, the strip mall is in an area that has also seen a rapid increase in petty crime. The CEO feels that the advantages of the new location support the decision to relocate. Which of the following, if true, would weaken the CEO's position? The iffy reputation of the area in which the strip mall is located would make the business's current employees uneasy about their safety at work, which would lead to increased turnover in staff. The lower cost of living in the new neighborhood would make it easier to hire employees willing to accept lower salaries. Video games sales, after several years of increases, have reached a plateau and are unlikely to show further growth in the next few years. The strip mall has no other current vacancies. The current staff has been stable for several years and is well versed in details of video games and other specialty items.

When Hewlett-Packard simplified its contracts and reduced them from 20 pages to 2 pages, it was engaging in quality/cost studies. statistical process control. getting closer to the customer. value-added analysis. benchmarking.

Stardust 'n' Clay is a manufacturer and mass marketer of personal care products and nutritional supplements. The company plans to launch a line of organic beauty products that are made entirely from mineral pigments and organic plant extracts. These products, though expensive to process, offer much higher margins than the company's current lines of beauty products. The market for organic beauty products is relatively untapped, with just a handful of players. Which of the following, if true, would weaken the argument for developing organic beauty products? Few companies have obtained patents for their organic product innovations. Competitors in this segment are quick to copy any new product innovation and mimic product design. Organic offerings have a shorter shelf-life compared to synthetic products. Customers need to be educated about the relative benefits offered by organic products. Financial analysis shows that it would take the company 1.5 years to recover its initial investment.

When your favorite restaurant prepares your favorite meal, they are creating form utility. price utility. time utility. place utility. ownership utility.

What is competitive product analysis?

Which of the following transformation techniques mechanically alters the basic shape or form of the product? Chemical process Quality process Fabrication process Assembly process Transport process

What is an option for companies that want to have a capacity to meet peak demand? Plan for peak demand by having, for example, all cash registers open 3 days before Christmas Use a qualitative forecast to determine average demand Attempt to meet most, but not all, peak demands Plan for normal demand Lower prices of the products that are being produced

This transformation process alters the basic composition of raw materials and is used in industries like aluminum, steel, fertilizer, petroleum, and paint. It is the chemical process. fabrication process. transport process. clerical process. assembly process.

When Motorola wanted to reduce the time between receipt and delivery of a customer's order for cellular phones, it studied Domino's Pizza procedures for delivery cycles. This is an example of quality/cost studies. benchmarking. quality reliability analysis. performance quality analysis. competitive product analysis.

The supply chain typically excludes customers. retailers. suppliers. distributors. investors.

Benchmarking is the process of finding, analyzing, and applying the best practices of other companies to their own operations.

Low-contact systems generally provide somewhat lower quality service than high-contact systems.

The most important factor in location planning for high-contact businesses is ___________, but for low-contact business the most important factor in location planning is ____________. availability of labor; proximity to customers proximity to customers; community living conditions community living conditions; transportation costs transportation costs; proximity to resource supplies proximity to customers; proximity to resource supplies

By making a product available for consumers to use, ________ is created. price utility place utility ownership utility time utility form utility

If an Air Canada flight from Toronto to Calgary has 20 empty seats, this illustrates the unique service characteristic of intangibility. unstorability. demand. customization. oversupply.