Archives: Quiz

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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: […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]