Exam 16: Operations Management: Putting It All Together

Anne Miles owns a small business that produces gourmet candies that are popular with local households during the holiday party season-from Halloween through New Years.Although it is only mid-September,Anne's storage pantries are beginning to fill with boxes of her special candies.Given the nature of her business,the most likely explanation for Anne's large inventory of sweets is which of the following?

Just-in-time production is a production system that emphasizes the production of goods to meet actual current demand,thus minimizing the need to hold inventories of finished goods and work-in-process at each stage of the supply chain.

Computer-aided engineering (CAE)software enables users to test,analyze,and optimize their designs.

Tata Motors is India's newest manufacturer of the "People's Car." This new,small car boasts an affordable price tag of about $2500.The firm is keeping costs down by eliminating large assembly-line manufacturing sites and high transportation costs.Workers prepare "kits" that are shipped to final retail destinations.The kits are assembled by trained technicians at the retail level.This is an example of which of the following?

Manufacturers hold raw materials,components,and parts.These are referred to as which of the following?

Activities that aren't on a critical path may add value,but they don't actually have to be performed in order to complete the project.

Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM)is software that enables users to test,analyze,and optimize their designs.This type of software frequently allows engineers to catch design flaws before production.

Computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM)is a combination of software that is used to design output and send instructions to automated equipment to perform the steps needed to produce this output.

What type of firm usually holds large inventories of finished goods and basic supplies that the business needs?

Explain the challenges lean production maintains in the service industry.Describe how WestJet Airlines has applied lean techniques to eliminate waste from its operations.

Workers in job shops,using job shop processes,must be more versatile than workers in flow shops.

Efficiency refers to the goal of using resources to create the greatest value.

As a general location factor,which of the following is one of the reasons firms seek overseas sites for manufacturing?

Operations managers attempt to use effective and efficient methods to produce the right goods and services in the right quantities and distribute them to the right customers at the right time.

In a critical path network,those activities that aren't on the critical path typically have some slack,meaning that a delay in their completion is unlikely to create a delay in the completion of the overall project-as long as the delay isn't too great.

The critical path in a project is the sequence of activities expected to take the longest to complete.Any delay in an activity on the critical path is likely to create a delay in completing the project.

Discuss the role of operations management in business.

The supply chain involves the flow of materials and physical goods through all the organizations involved in the production and distribution of a product,as well as the services,financial resources,and information that may be involved with the process.

Six Sigma shares some characteristics with TQM,such as an organization-wide focus on quality and a long-term commitment to continuous quality improvement.

Jeff Meier is an operations manager with Lean&Green.He has spent the last hour closely studying a value stream map of his company's production process.Jeff is probably interested in identifying sources of waste that can be eliminated.