C215 Glossary: Reid & Sanders Operations Management

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards based on the Reid & Sanders Operations Management glossary, covering Competencies 1 through 6.

Operations management, $7e$

The source material by Reid & Sanders covering quality management, capacity planning, and other operations competencies.

Conformance to specifications

How well a product or service meets the targets and tolerances determined by its designers.

Fitness for use

A definition of quality that evaluates how well the product performs for its intended use.

Value for price paid

Quality defined in terms of product or service usefulness for the price paid.

Support services

Quality defined in terms of the support provided after the product or service is purchased.

Psychological criteria

A subjective definition that focuses on the judgmental evaluation of what constitutes product or service quality or excellence.

Prevention costs

Costs incurred in the process of preventing poor quality from occurring.

Appraisal costs

Costs incurred in the process of uncovering defects.

Internal failure costs

Costs associated with discovering poor product quality before the product reaches the customer.

External failure costs

Costs associated with quality problems that occur at the customer site.

Total quality management (TQM)

Philosophy that seeks to improve quality by eliminating causes of product defects and by making quality the responsibility of everyone in the organization.

Robust design

A design that results in a product that can perform over a wide range of conditions.

Taguchi loss function

Costs of quality increase as a quadratic function as conformance values move away from the target.

Continuous improvement

A philosophy of never-ending improvement.

Kaizen

A Japanese term that describes the notion of a company continually striving to be better through learning and problem solving.

Plan–do–study–act (PDSA) cycle

A diagram that describes the activities that need to be performed to incorporate continuous improvement into the operation.

Benchmarking

The process of studying the practices of companies considered “best-in-class” and comparing your company’s performance against theirs.

Quality circle

A team of volunteer production employees and their supervisors who meet regularly to solve quality problems.

Cause-and-effect diagram

A chart that identifies potential causes of particular quality problems.

Flowchart

A schematic of the sequence of steps involved in an operation or process.

Checklist

A list of common defects and the number of observed occurrences of these defects.

Control charts

Charts used to evaluate whether a process is operating within set expectations.

Scatter diagrams

Graphs that show how two variables are related to each other.

Pareto analysis

A technique used to identify quality problems based on their degree of importance.

Histogram

A chart that shows the frequency distribution of observed values of a variable.

Quality function deployment (QFD)

A tool used to translate the preferences of the customer into specific technical requirements.

Reliability

The probability that a product, service, or part will perform as intended.

Quality at the source

The belief that it is best to uncover the source of quality problems and eliminate it.

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award

An award given annually to companies that demonstrate quality excellence and establish best practice standards in industry.

Deming Prize

A Japanese award given to companies to recognize efforts in quality improvement.

ISO $9000$

A set of international quality standards and a certification demonstrating that companies have met all the standards specified.

ISO $26000$

A set of international standards developed to help organizations evaluate and address their social responsibility.

ISO $14000$

A set of international standards and a certification focusing on a company’s environmental responsibility.

Customer-defined quality

The meaning of quality as defined by the customer.

Statistical quality control (SQC)

The general category of statistical tools used to evaluate organizational quality.

Descriptive statistics

Statistics used to describe quality characteristics and relationships.

Statistical process control (SPC)

A statistical tool that involves inspecting a random sample of the output from a process and deciding whether the process is producing products within a predetermined range.

Acceptance sampling

The process of randomly inspecting a sample of goods and deciding whether to accept the entire lot based on the results.

Common causes of variation

Random causes that cannot be identified.

Assignable causes of variation

Causes that can be identified and eliminated.

Mean (average)

A statistic that measures the central tendency of a set of data.

Range

The difference between the largest and smallest observations in a set of data.

Standard deviation

A statistic that measures the amount of data dispersion around the mean.

Out-of-control

The situation in which a plot of data falls outside preset control limits.

Variable

A product characteristic that can be measured and has a continuum of values, such as height, weight, or volume.

Attribute

A product characteristic that has a discrete value and can be counted.

Process capability

The ability of a production process to meet or exceed preset specifications.

Product specifications

Preset ranges of acceptable quality characteristics.

Process capability index

An index used to measure process capability.

Six Sigma quality

A high level of quality associated with approximately $3.4$ defective parts per million.

Manufacturability

The ease with which a product can be made.

Product design

The process of defining all of the product’s characteristics.

Service design

The process of establishing all characteristics of the service, including physical, sensual, and psychological benefits.

Reverse engineering

The process of disassembling a product to analyze its design features.

Break-even analysis

A technique used to compute the amount of goods a company would need to sell to cover its costs.

Design for manufacture (DFM)

A series of guidelines to follow in order to produce a product easily and profitably.

Product life cycle

A series of stages that products pass through in their lifetime, characterized by changing product demands over time.

Concurrent engineering

An approach that brings together multifunction teams in the early phase of product design to simultaneously design the product and the process.

Remanufacturing

The concept of using components of old products in the production of new ones.

Intermittent operations

Processes used to produce a variety of products with different processing requirements in lower volumes.

Repetitive operations

Processes used to produce one or a few standardized products in high volume.

Project process

A type of process used to make a one-at-a-time product exactly to customer specifications.

Batch process

A type of process used to produce a small quantity of products in groups or batches based on customer orders.

Line process

A type of process used to produce a large volume of a standardized product.

Continuous process

A type of process that operates continually to produce a high volume of a fully standardized product.

Process flow analysis

A technique used for evaluating a process in terms of the sequence of steps from inputs to outputs with the goal of improving its design.

Process flowchart

A chart showing the sequence of steps in producing the product or service.

Bottleneck

The longest task in the process.

Make-to-stock strategy

Produces standard products and services for immediate sale or delivery.

Assemble-to-order strategy

Produces standard components that can be combined to customer specifications.

Make-to-order strategy

Produces products to customer specifications after an order has been received.

Process performance metrics

Measurements of different process characteristics that tell how a process is performing.

Throughput time

Average amount of time it takes a product to move through the system.

Process velocity

Ratio of throughput time to value-added time; a measure of wasted time in the system.

Productivity

Ratio of outputs over inputs; a measure of how well a company uses its resources.

Utilization

Ratio of time a resource is used to time it is available for use.

Efficiency

Ratio of actual output to standard output; measures performance relative to a standard.

Automation

Using machinery to perform work without human operators.

Service package

A grouping of physical, sensual, and psychological benefits that are purchased together as part of the service.

Capacity

The maximum output rate that can be achieved by a facility.

Capacity planning

The process of establishing the output rate that can be achieved by a facility.

Design capacity

The maximum output rate that can be achieved by a facility under ideal conditions.

Effective capacity

The maximum output rate that can be sustained under normal conditions.

Capacity utilization

Percentage measure of how well available capacity is being used.

Best operating level

The volume of output that results in the lowest average unit cost.

Economies of scale

A condition in which the average cost of a unit produced is reduced as the amount of output is increased.

Capacity cushion

Additional capacity added to regular capacity requirements to provide greater flexibility.

Decision tree

Modeling tool used to evaluate independent decisions that must be made in sequence.

Location analysis

Techniques for determining location decisions.

Proximity to Sources of Supply

Requirement to locate close to natural resources, common in farming, forestry, or mining.

Proximity to Customers

Requirement to locate near the market, critical for service firms to provide convenient access.

Proximity to Source of Labor

Consideration of the supply of qualified labor, especially in labor-intensive businesses.

Community Considerations

Factors of local acceptance, tax revenues, and potential negative impacts like pollution, noise, and traffic.

Site Considerations

Factors including utility costs, taxes, zoning restrictions, soil conditions, and climate.

Quality-of-Life Issues

Factors such as climate, lifestyle, schools, and crime rate used in location decisions and recruitment.

Globalization

The process of locating facilities around the world.

Factor rating

A procedure used to evaluate multiple alternative locations based on selected factors.

Load–distance model

A procedure for evaluating location alternatives based on distance.

Rectilinear distance

The shortest distance between two points measured using only north–south and east–west movements.

Center of Gravity Approach

A model used to find locations that yield the lowest load–distance score by starting at the target area's center of gravity.