Exam 16: Operations Management: Putting It All Together

Which of the following is a project management tool illustrating relationships among all activities involved in completing a project, thus enabling managers to identify activities that are most likely to delay the project's completion?

Supply chains focus exclusively on coordinating the flow of materials and physical goods. The corresponding flows of information, financial resources, and other services are coordinated by enterprise planning systems that are separate from the supply chain.

Effectiveness means producing products and services that create value by providing customers with goods and services that offer a better relationship between price and perceived benefits.

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.

In the terminology of the critical path method, what is a critical path?

When the vice president of operations for McDonald's looks for a new franchise location, what might he or she consider first?

Ambience refers to factors such as décor, background music, lighting, noise levels, and even scents.

Which of the following is a set of activities or steps that combine inputs to create a good or service?

How is efficiency different from effectiveness?

Describe just-in-time production and its impact on overall production.

Just-in-time production may leave producers vulnerable to supply disruptions.

Efficiency means producing a product or service at the lowest cost.

Which of the following managers are most likely to use the critical path method?

Paolo Brothers Inc. has been awarded a contract to build the new middle school for a local school district. Jim Paolo, a project manager for the company, has put together a list of activities necessary to complete the project, the time it will take to complete each activity, and each activity's immediate predecessors. Which of the following could this information be used to construct?

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.

Selya and Reece are business partners in a small manufacturing firm that makes customized and ergonomically sound office furniture. Selya feels it is important to work directly with customers to design high-quality desks and chairs that precisely meet their needs. Reece is more concerned with finding ways to keep the company's costs as low as possible. In this partnership what is Selya most concerned with?

Vertical integration is the arranging for other organizations to perform supply chain functions that were previously performed internally.

Goods must be consumed when they are produced.

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

Ralph and Dave are business partners in a small manufacturing firm that makes special types of containers for fragile products. Ralph is mainly concerned with product development and works directly with customers to design high-quality containers that meet their specific needs. Dave is more concerned with finding ways to produce the company's products at the lowest possible cost. In this partnership, Ralph is more concerned with effectiveness while Dave is more concerned with efficiency.