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The critical path in a project is that sequence of activities that consume the longest amount of time in a project network of activities. SBAR is an acronym for a checklist technique for communicating information about a patient’s condition among […]

The ‘service blueprint” is a classification of services. A financially driven reason for outsourcing is that it can reduce costs through a lower cost structure. Answer:TRUE See Exhibit 16.5. In a price-break model of lot sizing, to find the lowest-cost […]

On an assembly line, a transfer batch can be one unit. Operations consulting deals with assisting clients in developing operations strategies and improving production processes. Answer:TRUE Operations consulting deals with assisting clients in developing operations strategies and improving production processes. […]

A kanban control system uses a signaling device to regulate JIT flows. MRP is most valuable where a number of products are made in batches using the same productive equipment. Answer:TRUE MRP is most valuable in industries where a number […]

About 500 diagnostic-related groups have been developed for Medicare as part of the prospective payment system. A constant arrival rate is more common in productive systems than a variable arrival rate. Answer: FALSE In productive systems, the only arrivals that […]

The objective of the aggregate operations plan is to ensure that the marketing and sales plans are realistic. DFMA stands for design for manufacturing and assembly. Answer: TRUE How does design for manufacturing and assembly (DFMA) work? A principle of […]

One hundred percent inspection is justified when the cost of inspection is low. In designing a production layout a flexible line layout might have the shape of a “U”. Answer: TRUE Within this broad definition, there are important differences among […]

Value stream mapping is used to identify all of the value-adding as well as non-value-adding processes that materials are subjected to within a plant. It is critical that a sustainable strategy meet the needs of shareholders and employees. It is […]

Simple exponential smoothing lags changes in demand. CPM is an abbreviation for critical path method. Answer: TRUE CPM is defined as an abbreviation for critical path method in the text. Choosing how to accommodate customer induced variability in a service […]

In a process sequence where a product flows from process A to process B, process B is called the dependent process. TQM was defined in the textbook as managing the entire organization so that it excels on all dimensions of […]

Green sourcing is only about finding new environmentally friendly technologies and increasing the use of recyclable materials. One of the principles of work center scheduling is that, while certainty of standards, routings, and so forth is not entirely possible in […]

The smaller the capacity cushion, the better. Assembly-line balancing means assigning all necessary tasks to a series of workstations so that each workstation has no more than can be done in the workstation cycle time and so that idle time […]

The problem of keeping demand sufficiently high to keep a large factory busy is a sales issue and not a diseconomy of scale. In a net change MRP system, requirements and schedules are updated whenever a transaction is processed that […]

A SAP system can accommodate items that must be maintained in inventory while simultaneously supporting JIT efforts for other items. Firms in Japan tend to have short-term relationships with their suppliers and customers. Answer: FALSE Firms in Japan have long-term […]

According to the theory of constraints, it is wrong for manufacturers to try to match capacity with demand by attempting to balance capacity across a sequence of processes. Unbalanced capacity is better. A characteristic of a well-designed service system is […]

The Greek letter alpha is associated with consumer’s risk. In designing a production line, a mixed-model line layout is used by JIT manufacturers. Answer: TRUE Mixed-model line layout is used by JIT manufacturers such as Toyota. Kanban means ‘symbol” or […]

Assembly lines are a special case of a project layout. An operations strategy must resist change because of the long-term nature of equipment and personnel investments. Answer: FALSE Because the goals of the larger organization change over time, the operations […]

Among the major trends in health care that relate to OSCM is the increased use of gene therapy. Job design is defined as the function of specifying the work activities of an individual or group in an organizational setting. Answer: […]

Marketing is responsible for fulfilling the service guarantee. Retailer behavior when stocking up during promotion periods (where the prices of goods are reduced) is called backward buying. Answer:FALSE Retailers respond to a price cut by stocking up, a practice the […]

Computing the quantity of each component that goes into a finished product can be done by expanding (or exploding) each item in a product structure file and summing at all levels. The social impact of the triple bottom line concept […]

The main purpose of the aggregate production plan is to specify the optimal combination of workforce level and inventory on hand. Inventory turn is a better measure than the total value of inventory for comparative purposes because it is a […]

One way to categorize a process is to determine whether it is a multiple-stage or a single-stage process. In production scheduling, the process of determining which job to start first on some machine or in some work center is known […]

The demand on a hospital’s emergency medical services is considered an uncontrollable arrival pattern of the calling population. The -chart is only useful for sampling that deals with continuous variables. Answer: FALSE Note that -charts record the results of attributes, […]

One of the seven principles or rules for reengineering is to organize around outcomes, not tasks. The job of operations and supply chain strategy is to deliver the most feature-rich, highest quality product at the lowest price within specified parameters […]

A process batch should be no larger than the transfer batch. The point at which the scale economy curve and the learning curve intersect is called the capacity optimum. Answer: FALSE Capacity optimum is a meaningless term not referenced in […]

In finite loading, no consideration is given directly to whether there is sufficient capacity at the resources required to complete the work, nor is the actual sequence of the work as done by each resource in the work center considered. […]

In a process sequence where a product flows from process A to process B, process A is called the mother process. A -chart has upper and lower control limits expressed as lines on the chart. As long as the sample […]

Applying lean concepts in manufacturing balances increases in cost with quality improvement. The objective of a mixed-model line layout is to meet the demand for a variety of products and avoid building high inventories. Answer: TRUE The mixed-model line objective […]

Applying lean concepts to logistics is difficult unless either the manufacturer or the customer owns the logistics activities. Firms facing cyclical demand fluctuations would be wise to introduce complementary products whose cycles are the same as their current products. Answer:FALSE […]

Raising senior management awareness of OSCM as a competitive weapon is not an important issue. The time-phased plan specifying how many and when the firm plans to build each end item is called the materials requirements plan (MRP.) Answer:FALSE The […]

A strength of ERP systems is that it is not necessary to have consistent definitions across all functional areas. One of the basic purposes of inventory analysis in manufacturing and stock keeping services is to specify when items should be […]

The economic order quantity (EOQ) lot-sizing technique produces or acquires exactly the amount of product that is needed each time period with none carried over into future periods. Wall Street analysts are not particularly concerned with how efficient companies are […]

There are two types of loops in causal loop analysis: reinforcing loops and feedback loops. The supply chain processes mentioned in the textbook are planning, sourcing, delivering, and returning. Answer: FALSE Operations and supply chain processes can be conveniently categorized’¦as […]

One of the daily, delicate balancing acts that logistics managers have to perform involves the trade-off between customer satisfaction and cost to serve. A firm’s business practices toward its labor force pertain mainly to the economic aspect of the triple […]

Delivering is not considered in supply chain analysis when outside carriers are contracted to move products to customers. The aggregate operations planning variable “production rate” refers to the number of units completed per unit of time. Answer:TRUE Production rate refers […]

Within a sustainability framework, the economic dimension of the triple bottom line concept goes beyond just profit for the firm but also provides lasting economic benefit to society. Variation that is inherent in a production process itself is called common […]

From an operations standpoint, one of the goals of the firm under the theory of constraints is to increase throughput while simultaneously reducing inventory and reducing operating expense. Process selection refers to the strategic decision of selecting which kind of […]

A manufacturing cell layout is similar to the workcenter and assembly-line layouts. Decoupling points are steps in the process where waiting takes place, either before or after the procedure is performed. Answer:TRUE Decoupling points are steps in the process where […]

Lean production makes implementing green strategies in manufacturing processes more difficult. A tracking signal (TS) can be calculated using the arithmetic sum of forecast deviations divided by the MAD. Answer:TRUE A tracking signal can be calculated using the arithmetic sum […]

LTPD in acceptance sampling stands for lot tolerance for parts defective. Process velocity is the ratio of the total throughput time to the value added time. Answer: TRUE Process velocity (also known as throughput ratio) is the ratio of the […]

The customer service dashboard reports hospital scores on issues such as meal quality, mortality rate, and percentage of transfusions having adverse reactions. A good forecaster is one who develops special skills and experience at one forecasting technique and is capable […]

Activity-system maps show how a company’s strategy is delivered through a set of tailored activities. Aggregate sales and operations planning occur in a company about every 3 to 18 months. Answer:FALSE Typically, sales and operations planning occurs on a monthly […]

An event unit package is a subdivision of a project. A key use of a customer survey used in the operations consulting phase of problem definition is customer loyalty analysis. Answer:TRUE A key use of customer surveys is customer loyalty […]

In a price-break model of lot sizing, the lowest cost quantity is always feasible. A rate fence is a logical justification for different prices for what is essentially the same service. Answer:TRUE One issue is that pricing structures must appear […]

Shop-floor control (or production activity control) can involve reviewing the status and controlling the progress of orders as they are being worked on. An important opportunity in green sourcing is waste reduction opportunities. Answer:TRUE Green sourcing can also help drive […]

The aggregate operations plan differs in virtually every aspect in service organizations as contrasted with manufacturing organizations. Benchmarking refers to the practice of comparing the production metrics of one firm with the production metrics of another. Answer: TRUE Comparing the […]

Poka-yoke is roughly translated from Japanese as “avoid mistakes.” Fundamental to any quality program is the determination of quality specifications and the costs of achieving (or not achieving) those specifications. Answer: TRUE Fundamental to any quality program is the determination […]

One of the major benefits of DFMA is that products are designed that customers will want. An explicit service is readily observable by the senses. Answer: TRUE Explicit services are defined as the benefits that are readily observable by the […]

A capacity cushion is the amount of capacity less than expected demand. Inventory is defined as the stock of any item or resource used in an organization. Answer:TRUE Inventory is the stock of any item or resource used in an […]

A process can be effective without being efficient. The standard fixed-time-period model assumes that inventory is never counted but determined by EOQ measures. Answer:FALSE Fixed-time-period models generate order quantities that vary from period to period, depending on the usage rates. […]

The synchronous manufacturing approach uses backward scheduling. Attributes are those quality characteristics that are classified as either conforming or not conforming to specification. Answer: TRUE Attributes are quality characteristics that are classified as either conforming or not conforming to specification. […]

The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award represents the U.S. government’s endorsement of quality as an essential part of successful business strategy. The weighted moving average forecasting model uses a weighting scheme to modify the effects of individual data points. This […]

Theoretically, all schedules are feasible when finite loading is used. While small business organizations can seek to achieve the Baldrige National Quality Award, hospitals cannot. Answer: FALSE Up to 18 awards total may be given annually in these categories: manufacturing, […]

Having animation capabilities to graphically display product flows through a production system is not considered a desirable feature of simulation software systems. Service guarantees can be used at the service design stage to focus the firm’s delivery system on the […]

Two common measures to evaluate supply chain efficiency are the inventory turnover and weeks-of-supply ratios. In forecasting, RSFE stands for “running sum of forecast errors.” Answer:TRUE RSFE stands for “running sum of forecast errors.” Utilization of a production process is […]

The fact that organizations are flattening is one of the reasons that project management is important. A system that “backward schedules” is designed to determine and report the earliest date an order can be completed. Answer:FALSE Backward scheduling starts from […]

In a decision tree, the only time probabilities are applied to a decision node is when the decision is being made by someone else such as you customer or your competitor. Health care operations management may be defined as the […]

A manufacturing cell groups identical machines together to work on products having similar shapes and processing requirements. The optimal stocking decision in inventory management, when using marginal analysis, occurs at the point where the benefits derived from carrying the next […]

The main purpose of concurrent engineering is to improve product quality. An example of a positive business climate that might influence a facility location decision is increasing governmental costs and increasing property taxes. Answer:FALSE Increasing governmental costs and increasing taxes […]

Preventive maintenance is emphasized in lean production to ensure that flows are not interrupted by downtime or malfunctioning equipment. An opportunity flow diagram is used to separate the value-added from the non-value-added steps in a process. Answer: TRUE Opportunity flow […]

MRP stands for Material Requirements Planning. The ecodesign approach focuses exclusively on the design and commercial launch phases of the product’s life cycle. Answer: FALSE The whole life cycle of the product or service is considered. An example of assignable […]

The “dollar days” inventory measurement may be used to focus management’s attention on where inventory is located. Florence Nightingale is credited with the development of the bar chart. Answer:FALSE She is credited as being the developer of the pie chart. […]

Experience and trial and error are the simplest ways to choose weights for the weighted moving average forecasting model. Group technology includes the set of psychological tests and training exercises given to group workers to ensure a high level of […]

The textbook underscores the importance of scheduling with the phrase “workflow equals cash flow, and scheduling lies at the heart of the process.” The customer arrivals in a queuing system come almost exclusively from infinite populations. Answer: FALSE Arrivals at […]

The value for “z” used in quality control charts is based on the degree of confidence you want to have in the resulting UCL and LCL values. An example of an assemble-to-order firm is Dell Computer. Answer: TRUE In the […]

The goal of JIT production is to drive all inventory queues lower. OSCM is concerned with management of the trickiest parts of the system that produces a good or delivers a service. Answer: FALSE OSCM is concerned with the management […]

The ‘sawtooth effect,” named after turn-around artist Al “Chainsaw” Dunlap, is the severe reduction of inventory and service levels that occurs when a firm has gone through a hostile takeover. Accounts receivable is the amount owed the firm by its […]

Productivity in a production process can be measured by the ratio of output to input. An effective job of operations consulting results in an alignment between strategy and process dimensions in a way that enhances the business performance of the […]

W. Edwards Deming states that the correct cost for a well-run quality management program should be under 0.5 percent of sales. Highest-profit customer first is a queue discipline discussed in the textbook. Answer: TRUE Reservations first, emergencies first, highest-profit customer […]

A central premise of exponential smoothing is that more recent data are less indicative of the future than data from the distant past. There are no differences in strategic and tactical forecasting. A forecast is a mathematical projection, and its […]

You should visualize inventory as stacks of money sitting on forklifts, on shelves, and in trucks and planes while in transit. According to the economic aspect of the triple bottom line concept, the firm is required to compensate shareholders by […]

In balancing an assembly line, workstation cycle time has to be less than the time between successive units coming off the end of the line. The unit improvement factor for a 60 percent learning curve at 25 units is 0.0933. […]

Process control is concerned with monitoring quality after the product or service has been produced. JIT requires a stable production level. When compared to synchronous manufacturing, this is viewed as a negative aspect of JIT. Answer:TRUE Comparing JIT to synchronous […]

While spreadsheets can be somewhat useful for a variety of simulation problems, they can be confusing and are vulnerable to several drawbacks, including weak routines for random-number selection. One goal of having a core competency is to do something better […]

The optimal strategy for innovative products is to use an efficient supply chain. The fixed-order-quantity inventory model is more appropriate for important items such as critical repair parts because there is closer monitoring and, therefore, quicker response to a potential […]

In services, once the aggregate staffing level is determined, the focus is on short-term workforce and customer scheduling. Because the world is becoming more highly interconnected, the proximity of an important supplier’s plants is not crucial in supporting lean production […]

A key decision point in the generic development process during “Phase 1: Concept Development” is project approval. Multiple regression analysis uses several regression models to generate a forecast. Answer:FALSE Multiple regression analysis is where a number of variables are considered, […]

The central idea of supply chain management is to apply a total system approach to managing the flow of information, materials, and services from raw material suppliers through factories and warehouses to the end customer. A typical ERP system has […]

Ideally, in waiting line or queuing analysis, we want to balance the cost of service capacity with the cost of waiting. Infrastructure decisions within operations strategy include the selection of the logic associated with the planning and control systems Answer: […]

The increasing complexity of modern operations management has made simple cut-and-try charting and graphical methods formerly used to develop aggregate operations plans impractical and obsolete. Backordering costs incurred in producing a given product type in a given time period are […]

Scheduling hourly work times using the “first-hour principle” ensures that no excess labor will be used during the work shift. A project layout is characterized by a relatively low number of production units in comparison with process and product layout […]

Work-center layouts allocate dissimilar machines into cells to work on products that have dissimilar processing requirements. Fixed-order-quantity inventory models are “event triggered.” Answer:TRUE The basic distinction is that fixed-order-quantity models are “event triggered” and fixed-time-period models are “time triggered.” MRP […]

The activity direct costs associated with a project might include giving workers overtime to complete a project in less than the expected time. In practice, achieving a perfectly balanced plant is usually both impossible and undesirable. Answer: TRUE In practice, […]

Cross-docking is a practice used in the international shipping industry that facilitates port utilization. The operations plan should not be updated but should be followed precisely until the longest-term planning horizon has passed. Answer:FALSE Typically, sales and operations planning occurs […]

A financially driven reason for outsourcing is that it can turn fixed costs into variable costs. In inventory models, high holding costs tend to favor low inventory levels and frequent replenishment. Answer:TRUE The broad category of holding (or carrying) costs […]

Decomposition of a time series means identifying and separating the time series data into its components. A tellers’ window in a bank is an example of a single-channel, multiphase queuing system. Answer: FALSE Multichannel, single phase. Tellers’ windows in a […]

MRP stands for manufacturing requirements planning. One of the drivers of the direct-to-store (direct distribution) approach is the decrease in trucking industry regulation. Answer:FALSE What accounts for the emergence of the direct-to-store model? Global sourcing and the upstream migration of […]

Regardless of the computer language chosen for a simulation model, too much data from a simulation can be dysfunctional to problem solving. Facility location analysis considers the competitive imperative of locating near the appropriate labor pool to take advantage of […]

Value analysis/value engineering has as its objective to increase product quality and reduce costs. “Projected available balance” is a term referring to unsold finished goods inventory. Answer:FALSE Projected available balance is the amount of inventory (not just unsold finished goods) […]

The aggregate operations plan is developed from the master schedule and the strategic capacity plan. Having a lot of interstage storage of materials is considered a good layout design for a manufacturing plant. Answer: FALSE Marks of a good layout […]

Overemphasis on purchase price frequently results in failure to address other significant costs. Time fences are periods of time having some specified level of opportunity for the customer to make changes. Answer:TRUE Management defines time fences as periods of time […]

According to the theory of constraints, the term “productivity” is defined as all those actions that bring a company closer to its goals. Subcontracting is viewed as a risky strategy because the firm may lose control of product design and […]

Regression is a functional relationship between two or more correlated variables, where one variable is used to predict another. One methodology used to evaluate equipment investment decisions where the investment entails an initial investment, fixed costs, and variable costs is […]

The term “assembly line” refers to progressive assembly linked by some material handling device. A time series is defined in the text as chronologically ordered data that may contain one or more components of demand variation: trend, seasonal, cyclical, autocorrelation, […]

One of the competitive dimensions that form the competitive position of a company when planning its strategies is cost. In a forecasting model using simple moving average, the shorter the time span used for calculating the moving average, the closer […]

In a CPM analysis, if you subtract the late finish from the early finish, the result is the activity’s slack time. A restriction in using linear regression is that it assumes that past data and future projections fall on or […]

The ‘sawtooth effect” is named after the jagged shape of the graph of inventory levels over time. Because ecodesigned products are innovative and have better environmental performance, they can be of a slightly lesser quality than the market standard. Answer: […]