Exam 1: Operations and Productivity

A local university is considering changes to its class structure in an effort to increase professor productivity. The old schedule had each professor teaching 5 classes per week, with each class meeting an hour per day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Each class contained 20 students. The new schedule has each professor teaching only 3 classes, but each class meets daily (Mon.-Fri.) for an hour. New classes contain 50 students. (a) Calculate the labor productivity for the initial situation (students/hour). (b) Calculate the labor productivity for the schedule change (students/hour). (c) Are there any ethical considerations that should be accounted for? (d) Suppose that each teacher also is required to have 2 hours of Office Hours each day he/she taught class. Is the schedule change a productivity increase?

Identify two operations-related tasks carried out by Hard Rock Café. Match each to its related area of the 10 strategic operations management decisions.

Operations management is applicable:

A business's stakeholders, whose conflicting perspectives cause ethical and social dilemmas, include:

Gibson Valves produces cast bronze valves on an assembly line. If 1200 valves are produced in an 8-hour shift, the productivity of the line is:

Susan has a part-time business producing seasonal plywood yard ornaments for resale at local craft fairs and bazaars. She currently works 8 hours per day to produce 24 ornaments. (a) What is her productivity? (b) She thinks that by redesigning the ornaments and switching from use of a wood glue to a hot-glue gun she can increase her total production to 30 ornaments per day. What is her new productivity? (c) What is her percentage increase in productivity?

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

How do services differ from goods? Identify five ways.

Which is NOT true regarding differences between goods and services?

Which of the following tasks within a manufacturing firm is performed by the operations function?

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

The purchasing function is concerned with:

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

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?

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

Identify the 10 strategic OM decisions.

Operations managers should be well versed in what disciplines in order to make good decisions?

The marketing function is concerned with:

________ means designing green products and packaging that minimize resource use, can be recycled or reused, and are generally environmentally friendly.

Productivity measurement is complicated by: