Chapter 02 – Competitiveness, Strategy, and Productivity
45. Which of the following is not a key step toward improving productivity?
46. For an organization to grow its market share, it must:
Chapter 02 – Competitiveness, Strategy, and Productivity
47. The ratio of good output to quantity of raw material input is called
48. The fundamental purpose for the existence of any organization is described by its:
Chapter 02 – Competitiveness, Strategy, and Productivity
49. A productivity increase in one operation that doesn’t improve overall productivity of the
business isn’t
50. Value added can be calculated by:
Chapter 02 – Competitiveness, Strategy, and Productivity
51. Which of the following is true?
52. Core competencies in organizations generally relate to:
Chapter 02 – Competitiveness, Strategy, and Productivity
53. Which of the following is considered to be a cause of poor U.S. global competitiveness?
54. Which of the following is not typically considered a cure for poor competitiveness?
Chapter 02 – Competitiveness, Strategy, and Productivity
55. Time-based approaches of business organizations focus on reducing the time to
accomplish certain necessary activities. Time reductions seldom apply to:
56. The external elements of SWOT analysis are:
Chapter 02 – Competitiveness, Strategy, and Productivity
57. 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 labor productivity of this operation?
58. Which of the following is not a reason for poor performance of our organization in the
marketplace?
Chapter 02 – Competitiveness, Strategy, and Productivity
59. The manager of a carpet store is trying to determine the best installation crew size. He has
tried various crew sizes with the results shown below. Based on productivity, what crew size
do you recommend?
60. Which of the following is not a key factor of competitiveness?
Chapter 02 – Competitiveness, Strategy, and Productivity
61. Gourmet Pretzels bakes soft pretzels on an assembly line. It currently bakes 800 pretzels
each 8-hour shift. If the production is increased to 1,200 pretzels each shift, then productivity
will have increased by:
62. The weekly output of a fabrication process is shown below together with data for labor
and material inputs. Standard selling price is $125 per unit. Overhead is charged weekly at the
rate of $1,500 plus .5 times direct labor cost. Assume a 40-hour week and an hourly wage of
$16. Material cost is $10 per foot. What is the average multifactor productivity?
Chapter 02 – Competitiveness, Strategy, and Productivity
63. The Balanced Scorecard is a useful tool for helping managers translate their strategy into
action in the following areas:
64. A firm pursuing a strategy based on customization and variety will tend to structure and
manage its supply chain to accommodate more _____________ than a firm pursuing a
strategy based on low-cost and high-volume.
Chapter 02 – Competitiveness, Strategy, and Productivity
65. Unique attributes of firms that give them a competitive edge are called ______________.
66. Years ago in the overnight delivery business, providing package tracking capability gave
some firms a competitive advantage. Now, all firms must offer this capability simply to be in
this line of business. This is an example of ______________ becoming ____________ over
time.
Chapter 02 – Competitiveness, Strategy, and Productivity
67. For firms competing in worldwide markets, conducting __________________ is more
complex, since what works in one country or region might not work in another.
68. Increasing the service offered to the customer makes it more difficult to compete on the
basis of ______.
Chapter 02 – Competitiveness, Strategy, and Productivity
69. ___________ is generally used to facilitate an organization strategy that emphasizes low
cost.
70. Which of the following factors would tend to reduce productivity?
Chapter 02 – Competitiveness, Strategy, and Productivity
71. Suppose a country’s productivity last year was 84. If this country’s productivity growth
rate of 5% is to be maintained, this means that this year’s productivity will have to be
_______.
Chapter 02 – Competitiveness, Strategy, and Productivity
72. The weekly output of a production process is shown below, together with data for labor
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 labor cost. Assume a 40-hour week
and an hourly wage of $16. Material cost is $10 per running foot. What is the average multi-
factor productivity for this process?
Chapter 02 – Competitiveness, Strategy, and Productivity
73. 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. Labor 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 labor cost. Finished units sell for $31 each.
What increase in productivity is associated with the process improvement?