Deck 2: Operations Strategy and Competitiveness

Question 1

Decisions regarding which of the following are not part of the production process infrastructure?

A) organization of workers
B) facilities
C) worker pay
D) quality control measures
E) management policies

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What are the two key components of the operations strategy of Federal Express?

A) they own their own fleet of tractor trailers, and they use a sophisticated bar code technology
B) they own their own fleet of tractor trailers, and they have a large warehouse in every state
C) they own their own fleet of airplanes, and they have a large warehouse in every state
D) they use a sophisticated bar code technology, and they have a large warehouse in every state
E) they own their own fleet of airplanes, and they use a sophisticated bar code technology

Answer 2

E

Question 3

Decisions regarding which of the following are not part of the production process structure?

A) management policies
B) facilities
C) robots
D) flow of goods and services through the facility
E) flexible manufacturing system (FMS) machines

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which of the following competitive priorities typically requires the use of more general-purpose equipment?

A) technology
B) cost
C) quality
D) flexibility
E) time

Question 5

During the 1970s and 1980s, firms from which country provided the most serious competitive threat to U.S. companies?

A) Germany
B) Canada
C) Mexico
D) Japan
E) United Kingdom

Question 6

What are the three primary types of technology?

A) product technology, process technology, and information technology
B) product technology, process technology, and environmental technology
C) product technology, process technology, and safety technology
D) information technology, environmental technology, and safety technology
E) environmental technology, information technology, and process technology

Question 7

Which of the following is not considered one of the four broad categories of competitive priorities?

A) technology
B) cost
C) quality
D) flexibility
E) time

Question 8

.Environmental scanning would not provide information on:

A) sources of highly trained workers
B) the firm's internal inefficient distribution system
C) opportunities and threats
D) changes in information technology
E) changes in global competition

Question 9

What term describes the process of obtaining goods or services from an outside provider?

A) outproviding
B) transferization
C) outsourcing
D) subsourcing
E) supersourcing

Question 10

Which of the following would not be considered a core competency that a company might have?

A) a highly trained workforce
B) an inefficient distribution system
C) skills in attracting and raising capital
D) use of information technology
E) quality control techniques

Question 11

Order winners and qualifiers:

A) are consistent between manufacturing and service organizations
B) only matter when responding to formal competitive bid requests
C) remain constant over time
D) change over time
E) only apply to quasi-manufacturing firms

Question 12

The process of monitoring the external environment is called what?

A) environmental examination
B) environmental inspection
C) environmental scrutiny
D) environmental perusal
E) environmental scanning

Question 13

Which of the following is not typically considered to be a core competency?

A) workforce
B) mission
C) market understanding
D) technology
E) facilities

Question 14

Operational efficiency is:

A) driving the business strategy
B) ensuring the right tasks are performed
C) decreasing the firm's input requirements
D) increasing the firm's output
E) performing operations tasks well

Question 15

Once a business strategy has been developed:

A) service prices are established
B) competition must be identified
C) an operations strategy must be formulated
D) contracting with external sources must begin
E) insourcing will be conducted

Question 16

When making competitive priority decisions the firm:

A) must select the correct supply chain
B) must ensure the PWP is correctly established
C) must focus on the one competitive priority at the exclusion of all others
D) must make trade-off decisions
E) must isolate the competing internal departments

Question 17

Highly-skilled hourly workers would be most needed by companies employing which of the following competitive priorities?

A) location
B) cost
C) flexibility
D) development speed
E) time

Question 18

How does Federal Express maintain its ability to compete on time during peak demand periods?

A) it subcontracts overload to other firms
B) it purchases more planes
C) overtime
D) it uses a very flexible part-time workforce
E) it purchases more vans

Question 19

Empire West displays what by specializing in making a wide variety of products?

A) outsourcing
B) SCM
C) quality
D) flexibility
E) efficiency

Question 20

Teflon is an example of what?

A) process technology
B) information technology
C) environmental technology
D) safety technology
E) product technology

Question 21

If inputs increase by 10% and outputs increase by 5%, what is the percentage change in productivity?

A) 4.545% decrease
B) 4.545% increase
C) 4.762% increase
D) 4.762% decrease
E) 50.000% increase

Question 22

Suppose that on Monday the cost of inputs sums to $1000, and the value of outputs sums to $4000. For which of the following values on Tuesday would productivity increase?

A) inputs = $1100, outputs = $4000
B) inputs = $1100, outputs = $4200
C) inputs = $850, outputs = $3600
D) inputs = $1000, outputs = $3900
E) inputs = $2000, outputs = $8000

Question 23

Which of the following is a valid type of "productivity measure"?

A) multi-output productivity measure
B) partial productivity measure
C) multi-part productivity measure
D) multi-component productivity measure
E) imperfect productivity measure

Question 24

Consider a pizza parlor. Which of the following would not be a valid productivity measure?

A) pizzas produced / number of workers used
B) pizzas produced / number of ovens
C) pizzas produced / cost of workers and ingredients
D) pizzas produced / cost of all inputs used
E) labor hours / pizzas produced

Question 25

If inputs increase by 6% and outputs increase by 24%, what is the percentage productivity increase?

A) 400.00%
B) 16.98%
C) 0.25%
D) 4.00%
E) 18.00%

Question 26

Computer-aided manufacturing is an example of what?

A) process technology
B) information technology
C) environmental technology
D) safety technology
E) product technology

Question 27

Suppose that on Wednesday the cost of inputs summed to $4000, and the value of outputs summed to $10,000. For which of the following values on Thursday will productivity stay the same?

A) inputs = $2000, outputs = $5000
B) inputs = $5000, outputs = $10,000
C) inputs = $4000, outputs = $8000
D) inputs = $10,000, outputs = $4000
E) inputs = $12,000, outputs = $40,000

Question 28

An airline has determined that its baggage handlers handle 12,000 bags when 3 baggage handlers are on shift. What is the baggage handler productivity?

A) 4,000 bags/shift
B) 4,000 bags/handler
C) 14,000 bags/shift
D) 12,000 bags/shift
E) 2,000 bags/handler

Question 29

Suppose that a plant has a total productivity measure of 0.85. What can we conclude?

A) the plant is not earning profits
B) nothing
C) the plant should lay off workers
D) the plant is highly automated
E) the daily productivity is excellent

Question 30

Which type of technology has had the greatest impact on business?

A) process technology
B) information technology
C) environmental technology
D) safety technology
E) product technology

Question 31

If inputs increase by 30% and outputs increase by 15%, what is the percentage change in productivity?

A) 50.00% decrease
B) 88.46% increase
C) 88.46% decrease
D) 11.54% increase
E) 11.54% decrease

Question 32

Suppose that in week 1 a company produced 1000 units using 60 labor hours. For which of the following values in week 2 would labor productivity decrease?

A) units = 2000, hours = 120
B) units = 1500, hours = 95
C) units = 1000, hours = 58
D) units = 500, hours = 30
E) units = 2000, hours = 100

Question 33

If Joe's Diner serves 150 meals in one day using 3 kitchen staff, what is the kitchen staff daily productivity?

A) 40 meals/staff
B) 45 meals/staff
C) 50 meals/staff
D) 55 meals/staff
E) 60 meals/staff

Question 34

Technology should be acquired because:

A) the new technology is fun
B) the new technology keeps the employees happy
C) the new technology doesn't cost very much
D) the new technology always improves productivity
E) the new technology supports the company's chosen competitive priorities

Question 35

If inputs increase by 10% and outputs increase by 4%, what is the percentage productivity increase?

A) 5.45%
B) 250.00%
C) - 5.45%
D) 5.77%
E) - 5.77%

Question 36

If inputs increase by 30% and outputs decrease by 15%, what is the percentage change in productivity?

A) 100% decrease
B) 11.54% increase
C) 34.62% decrease
D) 15% increase
E) 15% decrease

Question 37

Suppose that a plant has a daily productivity of 0.85 parts per employee? What can we conclude?

A) the plant must be very labor-intensive
B) the plant is not earning profits
C) the plant must be highly automated
D) the plant should lay off workers
E) nothing

Question 38

Suppose that a plant has a daily productivity of 200 parts per employee? What can we conclude?

A) the daily productivity is excellent
B) the plant can hire more workers and still earn profits
C) the plant is not earning profits
D) the plant must be highly automated
E) nothing

Question 39

When does productivity increase?

A) inputs increase while outputs remain the same
B) inputs decrease while outputs remain the same
C) outputs decrease while inputs remain the same
D) inputs and outputs increase proportionally
E) none of the above

Question 40

Suppose that last month the cost of inputs summed to $100,000, and the value of outputs summed to $800,000. For which of the following values this month would productivity increase?

A) inputs = $110,000, outputs = $800,000
B) inputs = $50,000, outputs = $400,000
C) inputs = $200,000, outputs = $1,600,000
D) inputs = $100,000, outputs = $820,000
E) inputs = $300,000, outputs = $1,600,000

Question 41

A manager has just replaced three workers with a machine that is cheaper to operate than the cost of the three replaced workers. Output is expected to remain the same. Which of the following is true?

A) labor productivity will decrease
B) machine productivity will increase
C) multifactor productivity will decrease
D) multifactor productivity will increase
E) the value of output will decrease

Question 42

Suppose that in year 1 a company produced $100 Million worth of outputs while inputs totaled $50 Million. For which of the following values in year 2 would productivity decrease?

A) outputs = $90 Million, inputs = $50 Million
B) outputs = $400 Million, inputs = $200 Million
C) outputs = $250 Million, inputs = $100 Million
D) outputs = $50 Million, inputs = $25 Million
E) outputs = $60 Million, inputs = $25 Million

Question 43

Johnny employs five painters. He collected the following data from last week.

Which painter was least productive last week?

A) Julius
B) Margaret
C) Dave
D) Suzy
E) Fawn

Question 44

Vericol, Inc. manufactures drugs using workers and automated machines. The firm has decided to replace two workers with a new machine, while the output per day is not expected to change. Which of the following cannot be true?

A) labor productivity will increase
B) machine productivity will decrease
C) labor productivity will decrease
D) multifactor productivity will increase
E) multifactor productivity will decrease

Question 45

A firm produces 100 units using 800 labor hours. What is its labor productivity?

A) 0.125 units/hour
B) 8 units/hour
C) 100 units/hour
D) 800 units/hour
E) -0.125 units/hour

Question 46

A machine shop produces metal frames on two different machines. The average daily production on machine 1 is 300 frames, and the average daily production on machine 2 is 180 frames. What is the daily machine productivity?

A) 480 frames/machine
B) 330 frames/machine
C) 240 frames/machine
D) 160 frames/machine
E) 300 frames/machine

Question 47

Suppose that weekly output is worth $1000, and labor and materials costs are $300 and $200, respectively. What is the multifactor productivity ratio?

A) 1000
B) 8
C) 2
D) 3
E) 0.5

Question 48

A firm produces 500 units per day using five workers on a five-hour shift. On average, 15% of the units produced are defective and must be scrapped. What is the labor productivity for non-defective units?

A) 17 units/hour
B) 3 units/hour
C) 20 units/hour
D) 85 units/hour
E) 15 units/hour

Question 49

A firm uses five plants to produce its products. Output value and total input cost for last week are provided below.

Which plant was least productive last week?

A) plant 1
B) plant 2
C) plant 3
D) plant 4
E) plant 5

Question 50

A machine shop produces metal brackets on two different machines. Machine 1 can produce a bracket every 10 minutes. Machine 2 can produce a bracket every 4 minutes. What is the average productivity per machine?

A) 4.3 brackets/hour
B) 8.6 brackets/hour
C) 10.5 brackets/hour
D) 21.0 brackets/hour
E) 7.0 brackets/hour

Question 51

A bakery uses five ovens to bake muffins. Yesterday's data are provided below.

Which oven was the most productive?

A) Oven 1
B) Oven 2
C) Oven 3
D) Oven 4
E) Oven 5

Question 52

A bakery bakes bread in two different ovens. Oven 1 can bake a loaf every 30 minutes. Oven 2 can bake a loaf every 15 minutes. What is the average productivity per oven?

A) 6.00 loaves/hour
B) 3.00 loaves/hour
C) 2.67 loaves/hour
D) 1.33 loaves/hour
E) 0.38 loaves/hour

Question 53

A firm uses five plants to produce its products. Each final product has a value of $100. The following table provides last week's output, labor hours used (at $15 per hour), and materials cost per unit.

Which plant was most productive last week?

A) Plant 1
B) Plant 2
C) Plant 3
D) Plant 4
E) Plant 5

Question 54

The state government utilizes five workers to stamp license plates. Last month's data are provided below.

Which worker was the least productive?

A) Pete
B) Tommy
C) Laura
D) Julie
E) Susan

Question 55

Suppose that on Thursday a company produced 80 units using 160 labor hours. For which of the following values on Friday would daily labor productivity increase?

A) units = 70, hours = 160
B) units = 80, hours = 180
C) units = 240, hours = 500
D) units = 160, hours = 300
E) units = 40, hours = 100

Question 56

Suppose that in January a company produced 5000 units using 1000 labor hours. For which of the following values in February would labor productivity decrease?

A) units = 5000, hours = 900
B) units = 10,000, hours = 1500
C) units = 10,000, hours = 2000
D) units = 2500, hours = 500
E) units = 5000, hours = 1100

Question 57

Suppose that output is worth $400, and labor and materials costs are $200 and $100, respectively. What is the materials productivity?

A) 2.00
B) 1.33
C) 0.25
D) 0.75
E) 4.00

Question 58

Each day a firm produces 50 products worth $40 each. Raw materials cost per unit are $12. The firm uses 4 workers on an eight-hour shift earning $10 per hour each. What is the multifactor productivity ratio?

A) 1.82
B) 0.77
C) 3.16
D) 0.12
E) 2.17

Question 59

If the telecommunication company sold $10,000,000 of internet service using $50,000 of labor, $25,000 of leased bandwidth, $45,000 service fees, and $80,000 or replacement parts, what is the telecommunication multifactor productivity?

A) 35
B) 40
C) 45
D) 50
E) 55

Question 60

A firm produces handbags using three workers. On Tuesday, Jane completed 60 bags in 6 hours, Ron completed 50 bags in 7 hours, and Mary completed 80 bags in 5 hours. What was the overall productivity of the firm?

A) 7.92 bags/hour
B) 11.05 bags/hour
C) 10.00 bags/hour
D) 10.56 bags/hour
E) 61.67 bags/hour

Question 61

Last month a plant produced 1200 units using 150 labor hours. This month it produced 1500 units using 300 labor hours. What is the percent productivity decrease?

A) 37.50%
B) 60.00%
C) 100.00%
D) 300.00%
E) 200.00%

Question 62

Companies that compete on cost generally also allow a lot of product customization.

Question 63

Firms that focus on quality as their primary competitive priority usually implement either product design quality or process quality, but not both.

Question 64

Which of the following has used the Internet to conduct a fashion show in order to boost sales?

A) The Gap
B) Eddie Bauer
C) Fruit of the Loom
D) Victoria's Secret
E) Sears

Question 65

Suppose that a plant manager is only evaluated based on the partial productivity measure: output/(number of employees). If she replaces 10% of the workforce with robots (one robot per replaced worker), and output remains the same, what will be the percent change in this measure of productivity?

Question 66

On Tuesday George produced 100 units in 8 hours. On Wednesday he produced 120 units in 10 hours. What was his percent productivity change?

A) ?0.50%
B) ?4.17%
C) 4.17%
D) ?4.00%
E) 4.00%

Question 67

Productivity is essentially:

A) something to fill out managers' reports
B) measure of resource effectiveness
C) a scorecard of how efficiently resources are used
D) a balance scorecard metric
E) the current business fad

Question 68

To provide speed of delivery, Federal Express invested in a sophisticated bar code technology.

Question 69

An operations strategy covers a relatively short time horizon, whereas a business strategy covers a relatively long time horizon.

Question 70

Victoria's Secret has used the Internet to conduct a fashion show in order to boost sales.

Question 71

Last month Stacy sold 10 houses while working 20 days. This month she sold the same number of houses in 22 days. What is her percent productivity change?

A) 10.00%
B) ? 9.09%
C) 9.09%
D) ?10.00%
E) ? 4.55%

Question 72

A company used to produce 300 units every day, but 20% of the units were defective. After installing a new process, the defect rate has been reduced to 5%, while output has remained the same. What is the percent increase in productivity due to installing the new process?

A) 15.79%
B) 0.00%
C) 15.00%
D) 18.75%
E) ?75.00%

Question 73

Operations Strategy is developed before the business strategy so the company knows what it will be producing before establishing a long range business strategy.

Question 74

A company used to produce 500 units every 2 days, but 10% of the units were defective. After installing a new process, defects have been eliminated while output has remained the same. What is the percent increase in productivity due to installing the new process?

A) 10.00%
B) 25.00%
C) 11.11%
D) 0.00%
E) 5.56%

Question 75

Which of the following is not described in the chapter as one of the major environmental trends that firms should monitor?

A) marketplace trends
B) global climate trends
C) economic trends
D) political trends
E) social trends

Question 76

Market research represents a type of environmental scanning.

Question 77

Yesterday, John produced 100 units in 8 hours. Today he produced the same amount in 6 hours. What is his percent productivity change?

A) 33.33%
B) 0.00%
C) 25.55%
D) ?25.00%
E) 4.67%

Question 78

Last week Jason painted 11 houses in 4 days. This week he painted 14 houses in 5 days. What was his percent productivity increase?

A) 1.82%
B) 1.79%
C) 27.27%
D) 25.00%
E) 5.00%

Question 79

To provide dependability of delivery, Federal Express acquired its own fleet of airplanes.

Question 80

Last month a plant produced 10,000 units using 2000 labor hours. This month it produced 12,000 units using 3000 labor hours. What is the percent productivity decrease?

A) 200%
B) 100%
C) 50%
D) 25%
E) 20%