Deck 2: Competitiveness, Strategic Planning, and Productivity

Question 1

Tactics are short-term projects to accomplish a specific objective,assigned to an individual,with a deadline and the resources needed identified.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Time-based strategies focus on reducing the time required to accomplish certain activities,such as new product development or delivery to the customer.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Productivity is defined as the ratio of output to input.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Organizational strategy must be determined without considering the realities of functional area strengths and weaknesses.

Question 5

Vertical integration refers to the ownership of a major part or the whole of the supply chain.

Question 6

Making trade-offs among competitive priorities should be avoided in developing operations strategies.

Question 7

The variety of models and options available to customers is an example of key purchasing criteria that establishes the basis of competition.

Question 8

The purchasing criteria of quality and timeliness of delivery are order winners for all companies.

Question 9

It is important that an organization has a clear and simple mission/vision/values statement.

Question 10

In the 1990's Japanese manufacturing companies tended to shift their strategic orientation away from continuous improvement towards strategies based on low labour costs.

Question 11

Strategic planning includes both determining long-term plans and implementing them through allocation of resources and action plans.

Question 12

Formulating an operations strategy requires focusing solely on the operations function,leaving the concerns of other functions and the status of external markets to broader organizational strategic planning.

Question 13

A characteristic that was once an order winner may become an order qualifier,and vice versa.

Question 14

In large manufacturing organizations,the operations function tends to adopt a passive role in strategic planning,relying on the functional areas of marketing and finance to establish the strategic direction of the organization.

Question 15

A mission statement should provide a guide for the formulation of strategies for the organization.

Question 16

Matching a competitor on quality or price is usually sufficient to gain market share.

Question 17

If you think of goals as destinations,then tactics are the roadmaps for reaching the destinations.

Question 18

Order qualifiers are those characteristics of an organization's goods or services that cause them to be perceived as better than the competition.

Question 19

The hierarchy of planning and decision-making is:
mission/vision,goals,strategies,tactics,and action plans.

Question 20

Typically a manufacturing firm would not consider Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)software as part of the organizations operations strategy.

Question 21

Of the following,which aspect of strategic planning involves medium or short-term projects to accomplish specific objectives?

A) Goals and objectives
B) Functional strategies
C) Action plans
D) Forecasts
E) Mission/vision statements

Question 22

Which of the following is not one of the competitive priorities organizations emphasize as the basis of competing with one-another?

A) Cost
B) Quality
C) Product duplication
D) Flexibility
E) Delivery reliability

Question 23

Which of the following are major decision-making categories for operations policies and action plans?
I)Facility
II)Capacity
III)Process types and technology
IV)Human Resources

A) I and II only
B) I, II, and III only
C) III and IV only
D) II, III, and IV only
E) I, II, III, and IV

Question 24

Which of the following is not a key purchasing criterion?

A) Price
B) Variety
C) Quality
D) Customer service
E) Vendor relations

Question 25

Labour productivity is an example of a total productivity measure.

Question 26

Tracking productivity measures over time enables managers to judge organizational performance and to decide where improvements are needed.

Question 27

Service productivity is easier to measure than manufacturing productivity because it is more labour intensive.

Question 28

Computer automation will always result in increased productivity.

Question 29

Variability of the output of services makes it more difficult to measure service productivity.

Question 30

Which of the following are steps for formulating an operations strategy?
I)Link the organizational goals to the operations strategy.
II)Define the mission and values of the organization.
III)Conduct an audit to determine the strengths/weaknesses of the current operations strategy.
IV)Assess the degree of focus at each plant.

A) I and II only
B) I, II, and III only
C) I, III, and IV only
D) II, III, and IV only
E) I, II, III, and IV

Question 31

Product variety is an example of:

A) a generic operations strategy.
B) operations infrastructure.
C) a process type.
D) a dimension of flexibility.
E) a key purchasing criteria.

Question 32

Labour costs are included as one of the inputs in all productivity measures.

Question 33

Labour productivity is one example of a multifactor productivity measurement.

Question 34

Characteristics that customers perceive as minimum standards of acceptability are called:

A) order winners.
B) order qualifiers.
C) core competencies.
D) distinctive competencies.
E) minimum attributes.

Question 35

Productivity is directly related to competitiveness.

Question 36

The shared beliefs of an organizations stakeholders are its:

A) policies.
B) vision.
C) strategy.
D) mission.
E) values.

Question 37

The generic operations strategy that emphasizes capital-intensive methods to achieve higher labour productivity and lower unit costs is referred to as _____________.

A) low labour cost strategy
B) scale-based strategy
C) focused factories strategy
D) outsourcing
E) flexible factories strategy

Question 38

Strategies have a(n)__________ impact on the general direction and basic character of a company.

A) long-term.
B) medium-term.
C) short-term.
D) insignificant.
E) tactical.

Question 39

Workers are the main determinant of productivity.

Question 40

Even though labour cost as a proportion of total cost has been decreasing in manufacturing companies,labour productivity is still the main measure being used to gauge the performance of individuals and plants.

Question 41

Which of the following is not a factor that affects productivity?

A) Use of computers in an office.
B) Design of the workspace.
C) Use of Internet and e-mail.
D) Standardizing work process.
E) Analysis of competitors.

Question 42

A company has introduced a process improvement that reduces processing time for each unit,so that output is increased by 25% with less material,but one additional worker required.Under the old process,five workers could produce 60 units per hour.Labour costs are $12/hour,and material input was previously $16/unit.For the new process,material is now $10/unit.Overhead is charged at 1.6 times direct labour cost.Finished units sell for $31 each.What increase in productivity is associated with the process improvement?

Question 43

A measure of productivity which reflects a combination of some or all of the resources used to obtain a certain output is:

A) labour productivity.
B) machine productivity.
C) multifactor productivity.
D) materials productivity.
E) overhead productivity.

Question 44

The weekly output of a production process is shown below,together with data for labour and material inputs.The standard inventory value of the output is $125 per unit.Overhead is charged weekly at the rate of $1500 plus .5 times direct labour cost.Assume a 40-hour week and an hourly wage of $16.Material cost is $10 per running foot.Compute the average multifactor productivity for this process.

Question 45

Productivity is expressed as:

A) output plus input.
B) output minus input.
C) output times input.
D) output divided by input.
E) input divided by output.

Question 46

Time-Based strategies do not focus on:

A) the time to deliver a product.
B) maintaining quality.
C) planning time.
D) production design time.
E) changeover time.

Question 47

Which of these factors affects productivity?

A) Methods and management
B) Capital equipment
C) Technology
D) Labour
E) All of the choices are true.

Question 48

The weekly output of a fabrication process is shown below together with data for labour and material inputs.Standard selling price is $125 per unit.Overhead is charged weekly at the rate of $1,500 plus .5 times direct labour cost.Assume a 40-hour week and an hourly wage of $16.Material cost is $10 per linear foot.What is the average multifactor productivity?

A) 1.463
B) 1.456
C) 1.431
D) 1.422
E) None of the choices are correct.

Question 49

Radical process redesign based on process re-orientation,breaking down functional silos and integrating operations into customer-focused processes are tactics associated with what generic operations strategy?

A) Low labour cost strategy
B) Scale-based strategy
C) Focused factories strategy
D) Business process reengineering
E) Flexible factories strategy

Question 50

Which of the following is not a general factor that affects productivity?

A) Methods and management
B) Equipment and technology
C) Competitors
D) Labour

Question 51

Which of the following are not true of productivity measures?

A) Labour productivity is mainly used for manufacturing and not used for services.
B) Productivity measures can track performance over time.
C) Labour productivity is used in labour wage negotiations.
D) Productivity measures can be used to measure the performance of an organization or an entire country.
E) All of the choices are true.

Question 52

In an assembly operation at a furniture factory,six employees assembled an average of 450 standard dining chairs per 5-day week.What is the labour productivity of this operation?

A) 90 chairs/worker/day
B) 20 chairs/worker/day
C) 15 chairs/worker/day
D) 75 chairs/worker/day
E) None of the choices are correct.

Question 53

Canvalves Company produces cast bronze valves on an assembly line.It currently produces 800 valves each 8-hour shift.If the production is increased to 1,200 valves each shift,the productivity increases by:

A) 50%
B) 33%
C) 25%
D) 67%
E) none of the choices are correct.

Question 54

The manager of a carpet store is trying to determine optimal installation crew size.He has tried various crew sizes with the results shown below.Compute the average labour productivity for each crew size.Which crew size do you recommend?