Supply Chain Mid Term

_____ is considered to be more challenging for _____ due to the higher variation in input.

Quality assurance; services

Which of the following is not an element of supply chain management?

operations

Two widely used metrics of variation are the __________blank and the __________blank.

mean; standard deviation

Which of the following most involves coordinating the activities among all the elements of the business including its suppliers and distributors?

supply chain management

Service operations require additional inventory because of the unpredictability of consumer demand.

False

If one organization is better able than most to respond to changes in demands or opportunities, we say that organization exhibits higher

agility.

The word "technology" is used only to refer to "information technology."

false

Goods-producing organizations are not involved in service activities.

False

A systems approach means that we concentrate on efficiency within a subsystem and thereby assure overall efficiency.

False

As an abstraction of reality, a model is a simplified version of a real phenomenon.

True

Often, the collective success or failure of companies' operations functions will impact the ability of a nation to compete with other nations.

True

Which of the following would not generally be classified under the heading of transformation?

Staffing

Buying goods or services instead of producing or providing them in-house is called

outsourcing

Which of the following is not a benefit of using models in decision making?

They force the decision maker to take into account qualitative issues such as personalities and emotions.

"Value added" by definition is always a positive number since "added" implies increases.

False

Which of the following is essential to consider with respect to managing a process to meet demand?

capacity

Modern firms increasingly rely on other firms to supply goods and services instead of doing these tasks themselves. This increased level of __________blank is leading to increased emphasis on __________blank management.

outsourcing; supply chain

People who work in the field of operations should have skills that include both knowledge and people skills.

true

Managing the supply chain has become more important as a result of firms increasing their levels of

outsourcing

Taking a systems viewpoint with regard to operations in today's environment increasingly leads decision makers to consider __________blank in response to the __________blank.

sustainability; threat of global warming

Among Ford's many contributions was the introduction of mass production, using the concepts of interchangeable parts and division of labor.

True

The operations manager has primary responsibility for making operations system design decisions, such as system capacity and location of facilities.

False

Managers should most often rely on quantitative techniques for important decisions since quantitative approaches result in more accurate decisions.

False

Marketing personnel and product designers must work closely with operations to successfully develop and produce new products because operations personnel can best judge how __________blank new product designs will be.

manufacturable

The greater the degree of customer involvement, the more challenging the design and management of operations.

true

A systems approach emphasizes interrelationships among subsystems, but its main theme is that the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts.

True

Operations and sales are the two __________blank functions in businesses

line

Many operations management decisions can be described as trade-offs.

True

Knowledge skills usually don't include

communication skills.

Which of the following statements about variation is false?

Any variation makes a production process less productive

Marketing depends on operations for information regarding

lead time.

Which of the following is not a characteristic of service operations?

easy measurement of productivity

Operations, marketing, and finance function independently of each other in most organizations.

False

Measurement of productivity in service is more straightforward than in manufacturing since it is not necessary to take into account the cost of materials.

False

The use of models will guarantee the best possible decisions.

False

Forecasts can be made more accurate by: (choose all that apply)

Using a shorter time horizon

Aggregating to product families or locations

Using multiple sources of information
Gathering data closer to the customer

Many demand planners will make several forecasts under different scenarios and then apply their business judgement to make a recommendation that is somewhere in between

True

The best forecast tools:

Are easy to use.

Forecasts can be made more accurate by: (choose all that apply)

Using a shorter time horizon.

Aggregating to product families or locations.

Using multiple sources of information.

Gathering data closer to the customer.

Many demand planners will make several forecasts under different scenarios and then apply their business judgement to make a recommendation that is somewhere in between.

True

The best forecast tools:

Are easy to use.

The greek letter α (“alpha”) in the exponential smoothing formula can be any value between -10 and 10.

False

“Ft” stands for which thing?

Forecast for period t

Exponential smoothing takes which of the following things into account (choose all that apply)?

The demand from the previous period

The forecast from the previous period

A smoothing constant
The error in forecast from the previous period

Setting α(alpha) equal to 1 results in which outcome?

A highly reactive forecast

Robust design describes a product that will perform satisfactorily so long as it is used in a very narrow range of conditions.

False

A buyer makes most of their purchasing decisions based on what two considerations?

cost and quality

Standardization can at times lead to serious difficulties and competitive struggles, particularly when systems are running under different conditions.

False

A house of quality is achieved when no department in a single location has more than 15 percent rejects.

False

Which of the following is the primary objective of product and service design?

customer satisfaction

In the area of product and service design, the acronym CAD refers to

computer-aided design.

Research and development (R&D) refers to organized efforts that are directed toward increasing scientific knowledge and product (or process) innovation.

True

Which of the following is least likely to result in product innovations that have near-term commercial application?

basic research

Elements of the service process in which there is no contact with the customer are referred to as

back-of-the-house.

Many U.S. manufacturers are now shifting their focus from products to both product and process improvements.

True

One step that is not part of service blueprinting is

eliminate boundaries for the service and decide on the level of interaction needed.

Which of the following is an example of a postponement tactic?

delayed differentiation

Which of these pairs of functions would tend to be affected most dramatically by a product or service redesign?

Marketing and Operations

A software company is weighing whether to release a new version of its software as scheduled. The company can go ahead and release the version as scheduled and correct flaws with subsequent patches or upgrades, or it can wait until the new version is reasonably bug-free. Choosing to delay release until the bugs can be worked out is an example of

vaporware

Mobile phones have evolved from devices intended to place and receive phone calls into handheld multimedia communications devices, but in the eyes of some customers these new features make the phones less desirable. This is an example of

creeping featurism.

Concurrent engineering means that at least two engineers are involved in product design at the same time.

False

__________blank and __________blank is the essence of business organizations.

Products; services

Concurrent engineering brings people concerned with manufacturing into the design phase earlier than in the "over-the-wall" approach.

True

Design for production takes into account the capabilities of the organization to produce or deliver a given product or service

True

Excitement characteristics are categories in the __________blank model

Kano

__________blank assessment is the assessment of the environmental impact of a product or service throughout its useful life

Cradle-to-grave

Which of the following is not an advantage of standardization?

The opportunity to freeze design at a very early stage.

Standardization refers to the extent to which there is absence of variety in a product, service, or process.

True

Incorporating design for disassembly principles in product design helps firms with __________blank design issues.

reuse

A disadvantage of standardization is the possibility of standardizing designs too early, which may make them difficult to modify in the future.

True

One way to increase reliability is to

improve preventive maintenance procedures.

Delayed differentiation and modular design are tactics for mass customization.

True

In which ISO standard are the procedures for cradle-to-grave assessment?

ISO 14000

Which of the following statements about CAD is not true?

It is used successfully by all manufacturing companies.

Product failures can be easier to remedy with modular design.

True

The cost of the product or service is the only consideration from a buyer’s standpoint

False

One motivation for an organization to redesign its product or service is to avoid the alternative of downsizing the organization

True

Which of the following is not true about remanufacturing?

It produces high-quality products easily.

The main forces that initiate product or service design or redesign are market opportunities or threats.

True