21) Whether the product was made or service performed to specifications is a question of:
A) conformance quality.
B) performance quality.
C) reliability quality.
D) value indices.
22) Which of these statements about time performance is best?
A) A supplier with high delivery speed must have high delivery reliability.
B) A customer with a narrow delivery window should have a supplier with high delivery
reliability.
C) A supplier with low delivery reliability must have low delivery speed.
D) A customer with a wide delivery window should have a supplier with low delivery reliability.
23) Lieutenant Columbo donned his raincoat and hopped into his 1959 Peugeot, hot on the trail
of another condescending millionaire murder suspect. The Peugeot always drew stares, not
because it was a rare automobile, but because it was an eyesore. It had one redeeming quality;
every time he sat behind the wheel and turned the key in the ignition, it would start. Thus, the car
scored well on the:
A) mix flexibility scale.
B) changeover flexibility scale.
C) reliability quality scale.
D) delivery reliability scale.
24) We have all experienced the endless wait for repair technicians to show up at our house. If
the cable company would provide an estimate of “Your installer will arrive at your house
between 2 pm and 3 pm on Wednesday,” instead of “Your installer will arrive at your house
between 8 am and 5 pm on Wednesday,” we would be impressed with their service and their:
A) performance quality.
B) delivery speed.
C) delivery reliability.
D) delivery window.
25) The ability to produce a wide range of products or services is:
A) mix flexibility.
B) changeover flexibility.
C) volume flexibility.
D) run flexibility.
26) Which type of flexibility would be the most difficult to achieve for a two-chair barbershop?
A) mix flexibility
B) changeover flexibility
C) volume flexibility
D) run flexibility
27) Mutt’s Amazing Dogs offers a hot dog with mustard and a hot dog with relish and mustard.
The difference between the two (the relish) is achieved by flipping a single lever, which changes
the dispenser from mustard, to a perfectly proportioned mix of relish and mustard. This lever
responds instantly to the feathery touch of Mutt, who has achieved a high level of:
A) mix flexibility.
B) volume flexibility.
C) delivery flexibility.
D) changeover flexibility.
28) Performance dimensions on which customers expect a minimum level of performance are
called:
A) order winners.
B) minimum performers.
C) recommended daily allowances.
D) order qualifiers.
29) Four engineering firms completed the request for proposal to develop something called the
Arpanet, but the firm of Bolt Beranek and Newman demonstrated a camaraderie and tighter team
concept that proved to be the ________ that resulted in their selection to develop a four node
network that became the Internet.
A) order winners
B) minimum performers
C) recommended daily allowances
D) order qualifiers
30) The latex division of Vandelay Industries provided support after the sale that could not be
matched by any of the other players in the latex industry. This unique attribute was responsible
for perhaps 60% of their sales volume and could be described as:
A) a trade-off.
B) a core competency.
C) an order winner.
D) externally neutral.
31) When the operations and supply chain areas are not linked with the overall business strategy,
but instead follow industry practices, the firm is in this stage of alignment.
A) internally neutral
B) externally neutral
C) internally supportive
D) externally supportive
32) Before firms can progress to the fourth stage of alignment, they must:
A) exploit core competencies.
B) develop a new mission statement.
C) develop order winners.
D) abandon order qualifiers.
33) Closing the loop in the area of business strategy means that:
A) core competencies at the functional level feed back into the business strategy.
B) the mission statement is used to develop the business strategy.
C) the business strategy is translated into operations and supply chain actions.
D) other functional strategies, such as those of the marketing and finance functions are aligned
with the operations and supply chain strategy.
34) One way to quantify the overall value of an item or service to a customer is by using a(n)
________.
35) The American-made car I purchased as a starving graduate student was not the sleek, high-
performance machine that full professors park in faculty parking, but it performed admirably.
For the next twenty years I could count on one thing; every morning it would start when I turned
the key. This vehicle had outstanding ________ quality.
36) The ability to produce a wide range of products or services is referred to as ________.
37) A major retailer wants to sell items as cheaply as possible while maintaining an attractive
and enjoyable shopping atmosphere. Spending too much on ambience will raise prices and drive
away shoppers but spending too little will drive shoppers away also. Clearly, the retailer is faced
with a(n) ________.
38) Superior performance on a(n) ________ will not, by itself, give a company a competitive
advantage.
39) At the ________ stage of alignment, the business strategy seeks to exploit core competencies
found within the operations and supply areas.
40) The operations and supply chain strategy wasn’t aligned with the business strategy nor the
mission, so management could only hope to minimize the damage the operations function
caused. This ________ stage was targeted for improvement next year.
41) Before firms can think about progressing to the fourth stage of alignment (________), they
must develop ________ within the operations and supply chain areas.
22
42) What are the three primary objectives of an operations and supply chain strategy?
43) Modelo, S.A., is considering three providers of automated visual inspection systems for their
packaging needs. A team of manufacturing engineers, production managers, and process
engineers has developed the following list of criteria and assigned them ratings on a scale of 1
(completely unimportant) to 5 (critical). This team has also rated the candidate products on each
of these dimensions using a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). Which provider should they choose
and what caveats, if any, should go with their recommendation?
Dimension
Importance
Provider A
Provider B
Provider C
4 megapixels
5
4
5
5
Minimal fringing
3
4
3
2
15 fps VGA movie mode
4
4
4
1
Minimal shutter lag
2
2
5
5
Works in dim light
1
2
3
4
Water resistant
5
5
2
1
44) Electra wants to purchase a laptop for use in her MBA program so she can work on
assignments and surf the web while the professor drones on endlessly. After consulting with her
colleagues, she chooses the dimensions of cost, weight, processor speed, and touchscreen
capability as critical to her long term success and amusement. She evaluates four different
laptops and rates their performance on each criterion on a scale from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent).
She is struggling with her assessment of the importance of the Cost criterion. As an avid lottery
player, she is pretty sure that tonight’s drawing will result in at least a two number match on the
ticket she bought on the way to class and it could mean a three-number match. Given her
uncertainty, she would like to choose the laptop that performs the best overall across the entire
spectrum of possibilities of the outcome of tonight’s lottery. Which would you recommend?
Dimension
Importance
Sir Face
Toybook
Air
Knockoff
High Priced
Weight
3
4
4
3
5
Speed
5
4
4
4
3
Cost
??
2
4
5
1
Touchscreen
1
5
2
3
3
45) Describe the four generic performance dimensions of operations and supply chain activities.
46) What are the differences between performance, conformance, and reliability dimensions of
quality?
47) A university is evaluating options for an enterprise information system to replace their
antiquated systems. The CIO has developed the following criteria:
At a minimum, the system (or system provider) must be capable of:
Technical support available 24/7
Have successfully installed and maintained systems in universities of similar size.
Beyond this, systems will be evaluated according to initial cost, annual maintenance and support
costs, and ease of use.
The three companies that are vying for the university’s business supplied the following
information about their performance on these criteria.
Criterion
A
B
C
Tech support 24/7
24/7
24/7
8-5 M-F
Installed base
3 installations
7 installations
1 installation
Initial cost
$2.3 million
$1.9 million
$1.25 million
Annual cost
$100K
$125K
$75K
Ease of use
20 hours training
20 hours training
40 hours training
Create and analyze a graph showing each competitor’s performance with regards to order
winners and order qualifiers. Which firm should get the business and why? If you were
consulting with the three potential system providers, what advice would you give each one?
48) Discuss the different types of flexibility that a producer can exhibit. Use any company
mentioned in the chapter and provide an example of each.
49) Provide a specific example of an order winner that has evolved into an order qualifier. Then
provide a specific example of an order qualifier that has remained an order qualifier for many
years and remains one to this day. Which situation do you think is more natural, the eventual
conversion from winner to qualifier or the static status of “once an order winner, always an order
winner”? Justify your conclusions.
50) Describe the four stages of operations and supply chain alignment with business strategy.