A quality characteristic has a manufacturing specification (in cm) of 200 ± 05.
Historical data indicate that if the quality characteristic takes on values larger than 0.25
cm or smaller than 0.15 cm, the product fails and a cost of $75 is incurred. Given the
Taguchi loss function that was computed and actual process performance of this quality
characteristic of 0.135, what is the economic loss per part?
a. More than $50 but less than or equal to $100
Answer:
According to the Theory of Constraints, _____ is the amount of money generated per
time period through actual sales.
a. throughput
b. nonbottleneck (NBN) work activity
c. nonphysical constraint
d. utilization
Answer:
A medical equipment testing and calibration service is depicted in Figure 1. The
customer usually brings the equipment to the service center. The service process
requires service technicians to perform three process steps #1 to #3. Each technician is
cross-trained so they can perform any of the three steps. The inspector does Step # 4
alone. After step #4, two parallel work activities are performed. That is, a shipping clerk
packs the work (step 7) while a billing clerk prepares the invoice (step 5)
simultaneously, and the customer is contacted by phone for pick-up (step 6). The
average throughput is 3 equipment units per hour.
Figure 1 Flow chart of the medical equipment testing and calibration service
process
The table below shows the work content of the process steps, activity times in minutes
per unit, shared and non-shared work activities, and the type of resource required. There
are 3 service technicians on duty: 1 inspector, 1 billing clerk, and 1 shipping clerk.
The labor utilization rate (%) for the billing clerk is _____.
a. 25%
b. 50%
c. 75%
d. 100%
Answer:
The lowest resource utilization is usually found in a(n) _____ process.
a. job shop
b. flow shop
c. continuous flow
d. assembly line
Answer:
Which of the following activities is NOT included in the general management process
in businesses?
a. Accounting and information system
b. Purchasing and installation
c. Marketing
d. Human resource management
Answer:
The Service-Profit Chain model focuses on _____.
a. employees
b. costs
c. volume flexibility
d. equipment utilization
Answer:
The Academic Company mixes and bottles a high-energy beverage in various container
types and sizes for college students. The aggregate forecast for the next four quarters (1
year) in thousands of gallons is as follows:
Table 1
Academic’s management makes the following assumptions:
Each employee works 550 standard hours of regular time each quarter.
On average, it takes 27 hours to produce and package 1 unit (1,000 gallons).
Regular-time labor costs $6.00/hour; overtime labor costs $9.00/hour.
Inventory-holding cost is approximately $4.50/unit (1,000 gallons) per quarter based
upon the ending inventory per quarter.
Because of extremely hot weather, there is no beginning inventory available to start
Quarter 1.
Management wants a constant work force (no hiring or firing).
Managers have also decided to always round up the number of employees needed to
the next whole integer, i.e., 37.2 yields 38 employees.
______________________________________________________________________
________
Using the data in Table 1,if management decides on a chase strategy, with production in
the last quarter of 600 units and a rate change cost of $3.00/1000 gallons, determine the
yearly cost of rate change (hiring and firing).
a. $2,550
b. $1,950
c. $7,800
d. $3,900
Answer:
A project has three parallel paths. A-B-C has a length of 25 days. A-D-C has a length of
15 days. Finally, A-E-C has a length of 20 days. Which one of the following statements
is TRUE?
a. A-D-C is the critical path.
b. A-B-C has the most slack.
c. The expected duration of this project is 25 days.
d. The expected duration of this project is 25 + 15 + 20 = 60 days.
Answer:
A firm that specializes in certain types of goods-producing activities, such as
customized design, manufacturing, assembly, and packaging, and works for end users is
called a _____.
a. third-party logistics provider
b. contract manufacturer
c. distribution center
d. vendor-managed inventory supplier
Answer:
All of the following are components of the GAP model EXCEPT:
a. the difference between the customer’s expectations and perceptions.
b. the discrepancy between delighting or pleasing customers and total customer service
and satisfaction.
c. the discrepancy between management’s perceptions of what features constitute a
target level of quality and the task of translating these perceptions into executable
specifications.
d. the discrepancy between quality specifications documented in operating and training
manuals and plans and their implementation.
Answer:
As time-on-hold waiting decreases, customer satisfaction rating increases. This is an
example of _____.
a. productivity index
b. interlinking
c. value of a loyal customer
d. flexibility
Answer:
Which of the following jobs requires the most service management skills and
knowledge?
a. Airplane mechanic
b. Usher at sports stadium
c. Restaurant cook
d. Airline Flight attendant
Answer:
In the value chain model, efficiency, cost, and cycle time are related to _____.
a. management processes
b. inputs
c. value-creation processes
d. outputs and outcomes
Answer:
Consider the project network and data shown below:
Answer:
Which of the following is NOT part of the general approach to time study?
a. Define and evaluate each task and activity.
b. Measure and record the time needed to perform each activity over a number of
cycles.
c. Randomly observe work over a period of time to obtain a distribution of activities.
d. Determine the allowance factor for the work activity.
Answer:
Describe how the following criteria are applied to a decision problem in which the
payoff is cost.
a. Minimin
b. Minimax
c. Minimax regret
Answer:
An operations manager is expected to perform several key activities EXCEPT:
a. coordinating the acquisition of materials, supplies, and services.
b. determining when resources should be assigned to work.
c. managing cash flow and strategic investments.
d. making use of technology to improve productivity.
Answer:
You are responsible for managing a project with the following activities (times are
given in weeks):
Which of the following activities has the largest amount of slack?
a. Activity A
b. Activity B
c. Activity C
d. Activity D
Answer:
An administrator in a comprehensive hospital believes certain departments are
overstaffed and others are understaffed. In many departments, a patient’s arrival is quite
variable and the time required to treat that patient is also quite variable. In fact, the
administrator does not believe there is a mathematical relationship between arrivals and
treatment time.
Like most hospitals, this one has kept extensive records for each patient. It uses this
data for a simulation to determine proper staffing levels for its various departments. The
administrator decides to test the procedure with data from the Maternity Center. The
following table represents the best probability forecast of Maternity Center arrivals.
Historic data also indicates that 90% of Maternity Center arrivals are admitted and 10%
are sent home due to false labor. The following table represents the historic frequency
distribution for the time a patient spends in the labor room.
The administrator now believes the use of past data is an excellent indicator of future
conditions.
a. Determine the third patient’s arrival time given the following random numbers: 12,
77, 53, 07, 01, 34, 76, 20, 19, and 85. The simulation starts at 8:00 a.m. with the first
arrival coming after 8:00 a.m.
b. Determine the eighth patient’s arrival time given the following random numbers: 12,
77, 53, 07, 01, 34, 76, 20, 19, and 85. The simulation starts at 8:00 a.m. with the first
arrival coming after 8:00 a.m.
c. 90% of Maternity Center patients are admitted to the hospital and 10% are sent home
(see the table below). Given this information, determine the number of patients
admitted using the following random numbers: 89, 50, 03, 52, 79, 38, 24, 61, 28, and
27.
d. Determine when the third patient will leave the labor room using the following
random numbers: 97, 49, 13, 41, 82, 38, 16, 82, 13, and 22 for labor room stays.
e. Determine when the eighth patient will leave the labor room using the following
random numbers: 97, 49, 13, 41, 82, 38, 16, 82, 13, and 22 for labor room stays.
f. Determine the average time a woman spends in the labor room using the following
random numbers: 97, 49, 13, 41, 82, 38, 16, 82, 13, and 22 for labor room stays.
Answer:
Valentine’s Day is the best day of the year for selling roses at River Road Florist.
Dozens of roses sold on Valentine’s Day over six years are as follows:
a. What is the forecast for Valentine’s Day in 2011 using a three-period moving
average?
b. What is the forecast for Valentine’s Day in 2011 using a five-period moving average?
c. What is the mean absolute deviation (MAD) for years 2008-2010 using a three-period
moving average?
d. What is the tracking signal for years 2008-2010 using a three-period moving
average?
Answer:
In the House of Quality, the interrelationship between any pair of technical features is
found in the:
a. voice of the customer.
b. relationship matrix.
c. roof.
d. basement.
Answer:
Which of the following statements about goods and services is FALSE?
a. Service encounters can be between a customer and a service provider.
b. Demand for physical goods is more difficult to predict than demand for services.
c. Services cannot be stored as physical inventory for future sale.
d. Normally, patents do not protect services.
Answer:
Root cause analysis uses all of the following tools and approaches EXCEPT:
a. The concept of zero defects
b. The Seven Quality Control (QC)Tools
c. The 5-Why Technique
d. The Pareto diagrams
Answer:
Given that 20 samples are taken in a control chart initiative, the probability that 5
consecutive samples are below the center line in an R- or x-bar chart is _____.
a. 0.02500
b. 0.03125
Answer:
Which of the following is true of project scheduling using the critical path method?
a. Activity crash time is greater than normal time.
b. Crash cost per time period is assumed to be non-linear.
c. Gantt charts are built using activity ES, EF, LS, and LF times.
d. Gantt charts assume a beta probability distribution.
Answer:
Assume the specifications for a television remote control part (in inches) are 5.00 ±
0.10, and the Taguchi loss function is estimated to be L(x) = 5,500 (x – T)2. Determine
the estimated loss per part if the quality characteristic (i.e., actual process performance)
under study takes on a value of 91 inches.
a. More than $30 but less than or equal to $50
Answer:
A Taiwan electronics company exports personal computers (PCs) to the U.S. Their PC
sales (in thousands) over the past five years are given below in Table 6.
Table 6
The simple regression intercept (a) and the slope (b) for the data in Table 6 is:
a. Y = 2.4 + 3.4X.
b. Y = 2.8 + 4.4X.
c. Y = 2.8 + 5.4X.
d. Y = 2.4 + 4.4X.
Answer:
Rose is in charge of the advertising program for Proctor & Gamble’s new laundry
detergent. She has defined the advertising program as a project with the following
characteristics. The goal is to complete the project on time and within budget, or she
may not have this job next yearthe pressure is on!
Draw the project network in the space below if you want. BLANK SPACES
Which activity should one crash to complete the project two weeks earlier than the
original project completion time to minimize total crash costs?
a. Activity G by 1 week
b. Activity G by 1 week and activity D by 1 week
c. Activity D by 2 weeks
d. Activity D by 1 week and activity F by 1 week
Answer:
The primary output of a materials requirements planning (MRP) system is a
time-phased report that gives all of the following EXCEPT:
a. the facilities managers a detailed schedule for acquiring additional factory space.
b. the accounting and financial functions production information that drives cash flow,
budgets, and financial needs.
c. the production managers a detailed schedule for manufacturing the product and
controlling manufacturing inventories.
d. the purchasing department a schedule for obtaining raw material and purchased
items.
Answer:
Consider the project network and data shown below:
a. Determine the critical path and the project completion time.
b. Determine the crash cost per week for all activities
c. Which activities need to be crashed to reduce the project’s completion time by 4
weeks? How much does this cost?
Answer:
Identify the statement about goods and services that is NOT true?
a. Services that do not involve significant interaction with customers can be managed
much the same as goods in a factory.
b. A service is any primary or complementary activity that does not directly produce a
physical product.
c. Some very significant differences exist between goods and services that create
different demands on the operations function.
d. Designing and managing operations in a goods-producing firm is quite similar to that
in a service-providing organization.
Answer:
What are the components of a materials requirements planning (MRP) record?
Answer:
The success of the entire value chain depends on how it is designed and managed.
Answer:
Service recovery is the process of correcting a service upset and satisfying a customer.
Answer:
Aggregate planning and disaggregation methods in goods-producing industries involve
fewer levels of planning than service-providing organizations, because service
organizations deal with more than just materials.
Answer:
Flow-blocking and lack-of-work delays can be reduced by assigning an appropriate
level of capacity at each workstation.
Answer:
The three issues that are at the core of operations management are efficiency, cost, and
quality. Efficiency (a measure of how well resources are used in creating outputs), the
cost of operations, and the quality of the goods and services that create customer
satisfaction all contribute to profitability and ultimately the long-run success of a
company.
Define a good and a service. What is the difference between a durable and nondurable
good? Give an example of each.
Answer:
Job enlargement approaches give workers more variety of work, but not necessarily
more responsibility.
Answer:
An order fulfillment process normally operates three shifts a day, five days per week.
Under normal conditions, 460 orders can be processed per shift. What is the weekly
capacity?
Answer:
With good management, all variability of output from any goods- or service-producing
process can be eliminated.
Answer:
In a process layout technique, improvement is done on a current solution by exchanging
two or three departments at a time to determine if total materials handling costs have
been reduced.
Answer:
What are the four steps involved in staff scheduling that attempt to match available
personnel with the needs of the organization?
Answer:
A reverse logistics is used to:
a. send unused parts back to the suppliers.
b. ship products from suppliers to customers.
c. collect and send unusable or discarded products back from the customer to the
producer or suppliers.
d. provide flow of information from customers to the producer.
Answer:
Goods-producing and service-providing organizations both benefit from understanding
the value of a loyal customer performance relationship.
Answer:
In general, discuss how to interpret control charts.
Answer:
Assembly-line balancing problems involving many distinct products (mixed-model line
balancing) are generally easier to solve than single-model balancing problems because
there are more alternatives available to assign tasks to workstations.
Answer:
In-process quality control is typically performed by the employees who run the
processes.
Answer:
Delivery reliability is measured by perfect order fulfillment.
Answer:
Employee satisfaction and employee turnover are examples of flexibility measures at an
organizational level.
Answer: