Chapter 1 – 50 Questions

Original exam questions and all original choices retained. Use Learn or Practice Test with Written questions, answer with Definition, and enter only the original answer letter (A–E). The five-choice originals exceed Knowt’s three-custom-distractor editor; generated multiple-choice answers are not the original exam choices. Independently reconstructed study key, not an official instructor key. Chapter 1 Q3 uses the textbook estimate of 86%; current employment shares may differ.

Question 1. Which strategic operations management decision requires judgments regarding nearness to customers, suppliers, and talent, while considering costs, infrastructure, logistics, and government?
A. scheduling
B. layout strategies
C. process and capacity strategies
D. location strategies
E. job design and work measurement

D

Question 2. Which of the following factors makes firm specialization more difficult?
A. affordable transportation
B. established worldwide supply chains
C. the ease of communicating with supply chain partners
D. a lack of potential supply chain partners with specialized expert knowledge
E. technological advances that ease buyer-supplier collaborations

D

Question 3. The service sector makes up approximately what percentage of all jobs in the United States?
A. 86%
B. 40%
C. 94%
D. 66%
E. 12%

A

Question 4. Which of the following tasks within an airline company is related to operations?
A. crew scheduling
B. sales
C. accounts payable
D. international monetary exchange
E. advertising

A

Question 5. The finance function is concerned with:
A. securing monetary resources.
B. generating the demand for the organization's products or services.
C. building and maintaining a positive image.
D. producing goods or providing services.
E. procuring materials, supplies, and equipment.

A

Question 6. Who was the person most responsible for popularizing interchangeable parts in manufacturing?
A. Eli Whitney
B. Lillian Gilbreth
C. Henry Ford
D. Frederick W. Taylor
E. Whitney Houston

A

Question 7. Which strategic operations management decision involves defining much of what is required of operations in each of the other OM decision areas?
A. design of goods and services
B. process and capacity strategies
C. layout strategies
D. job design and work measurement
E. managing quality

A

Question 8. Which of the following is the best example of a pure service?
A. restaurant
B. electric Co-Op
C. heart transplant
D. oil change
E. counseling

E

Question 9. Of the three options for increasing contribution, which of the following statements about the profit-and-loss statement is incorrect?
A. all else equal, if sales increase, the cost of goods sold must also increase
B. increasing sales may be difficult for firms in mature markets
C. a dollar increase in sales has a smaller effect on contribution when compared to a dollar reduction in production costs
D. all else equal, if production costs are reduced, the cost of goods sold must also decrease
E. a 20% increase in sales will produce a contribution equal to a 20% reduction in production costs

E

Question 10. The largest contributor to productivity increases is ________, estimated to be responsible for ________ of the annual increase.
A. management; over one-half
B. Mr. Deming; one-half
C. technology; over one-half
D. capital; 90%
E. marketing and sales; two-thirds

A

Question 11. Reasons to study operations management include learning about:
A. All of these.
B. how goods and services are produced.
C. a costly part of the enterprise.
D. how people organize themselves for productive enterprise.
E. what operations managers do.

A

Question 12. The strategic operations management decisions that determine what is to be purchased, from whom, and under what conditions is:
A. process and capacity strategies.
B. layout strategies.
C. supply chain management.
D. human resources, job design and work measurement.
E. quality management.

C

Question 13. Reasons to study operations management include:
A. studying how people organize themselves for productive enterprise and learning about a costly part of the enterprise
B. studying how people organize themselves for productive enterprise.
C. learning about a costly part of the enterprise.
D. understanding what human resource managers do.
E. knowing how goods and services are consumed.

A

Question 14. Informed consumers choose what, when and where they wish to consume products and services, giving rise to the need for operations managers to create:
A. mass customization.
B. supply chain resilience.
C. omnichannel distribution.
D. productivity.
E. industry 4.0.

C

Question 15. Which of the following attributes is most typical of a service?
A. production and consumption occur simultaneously
B. consistency
C. mass production
D. easy to automate
E. tangible

A

Question 16. Which of the following are the primary functions of all organizations?
A. marketing, production/operations, and finance/accounting
B. marketing, human resources, and finance/accounting
C. sales, quality control, and production/operations
D. research and development, finance/accounting, and purchasing
E. production/operations, marketing, and human resources

A

Question 17. Which strategic operations management decisions determine what is to be purchased, from whom, and under what conditions?
A. layout strategies
B. human resources, job design and work measurement
C. supply chain management
D. location strategies
E. process and capacity strategies

C

Question 18. Which strategic OM decision involves determining the efficient flow of materials and information?
A. process and capacity strategies
B. statistical process control
C. maintenance
D. layout strategies
E. job design and work measurement

D

Question 19. Which of the following influences layout design?
A. personnel levels
B. All of these influence layout decisions.
C. capacity needs
D. technology
E. inventory requirements

B

Question 20. Part of the 10 strategic operations management decisions include:
A. managing quality.
B. layout strategies.
C. process and capacity strategies.
D. maintenance.
E. all of these.

E

Question 21. Which of the following services is LEAST likely to be unique, i.e., customized to a particular individual's needs?
A. elementary education
B. computer consulting
C. hairdressing
D. dental care
E. legal services

A

Question 22. The factor responsible for the largest portion of productivity increase in the United States is:
A. management.
B. capital.
C. All of these; it is impossible to determine the contribution of individual factors.
D. labor.
E. none of these.

A

Question 23. Eli Whitney, in the ________, provided the foundations for ________ in operations management.
A. U.S. Army; logistics
B. 1890s; queuing theory
C. nineteenth century; interchangeable parts
D. United Kingdom; mass production
E. 1920s; statistical sampling

C

Question 24. Operations management is applicable:
A. to the manufacturing sector exclusively.
B. mostly to the manufacturing sector.
C. mostly to the service sector.
D. to services exclusively.
E. to all firms, whether manufacturing or service.

E

Question 25. For a commercial bank, the operations function will involve:
A. accounts payable.
B. auditing financial transactions.
C. accounting expenses incurred.
D. teller scheduling.
E. advertising new loan products.

D

Question 26. Which of the following is one of the 10 strategic operations management decisions?
A. debt/equity ratio
B. pricing
C. process and capacity strategies
D. advertising
E. depreciation policy for tax returns

C

Question 27. Which strategic operations management decisions effectively and efficiently use both personnel and facilities while meeting customer needs?
A. maintenance
B. scheduling
C. process and capacity strategies
D. layout strategies
E. location strategies

B

Question 28. Which of the following tasks within a manufacturing firm is performed by the operations function?
A. borrowing funds
B. sales promotion
C. quality assurance and control
D. market research
E. stock issue

C

Question 29. Productivity measurement is complicated by:
A. the workforce size.
B. the competition's output.
C. the fact that precise units of measure are often unavailable.
D. the type of equipment used.
E. stable quality.

C

Question 30. For an airline, the marketing function will involve:
A. crew scheduling.
B. managing general ledger.
C. cash control.
D. pricing tickets.
E. dispatching crew.

D

Question 31. Which of the following nets the largest productivity improvement?
A. decrease input 10%, increase output 3%
B. increase output 15%
C. decrease input 15%
D. increase both output and input by 5%
E. increase output 10%, decrease input 3%

C

Question 32. The "Father of Scientific Management" is:
A. Henry Ford.
B. Frank Gilbreth.
C. Frederick W. Taylor.
D. just a figure of speech, not a reference to a person.
E. W. Edwards Deming.

C

Question 33. Productivity can be improved by:
A. increasing inputs while holding outputs steady.
B. decreasing inputs while holding outputs steady.
C. None of these.
D. increasing inputs and outputs in the same proportion.
E. decreasing outputs while holding inputs steady.

B

Question 34. Which of the following would NOT be an operations function in a commercial bank?
A. auditing
B. teller scheduling
C. maintenance
D. collection
E. check clearing

A

Question 35. Which strategic operations management decision determines how to recruit, motivate, and retain personnel with the required talent and skills?
A. process and capacity strategies
B. location strategies
C. human resources, job design and work measurement
D. layout strategies
E. scheduling

C

Question 36. Internet of Things is associated with which operations management time period?
A. Just-In-Time Focus
B. Cost Focus
C. Quality Focus
D. Globalization Focus
E. Customization Focus

E

Question 37. Which of the following events occurs mainly during the Globalization Era?
A. Electronic Data Interchange
B. Gantt Charts
C. Industry 4.0
D. Enterprise Resource Planning
E. Computer-Aided Design

D

Question 38. Which of the following is NOT true about a supply chain?
A. all members of the supply chain are responsible for adding value along the supply chain from raw materials to the final customer
B. firms frequently create value on their own by owning all of the firms in their supply chain
C. it includes a supplier and the supplier's supplier
D. distribution to the final customer is part of a supply chain
E. a supply chain is only as strong as its weakest link

B

Question 39. Which strategic operations management decision involves determining how a good or service is produced and commits management to specific resource investments that determine much of the firm's basic cost structure?
A. process and capacity strategies
B. location strategies
C. maintenance
D. layout strategies
E. job design and work measurement

A

Question 40. Walter Shewhart is listed among the important people of operations management because of his contributions to:
A. statistical quality control.
B. assembly line production.
C. information technology.
D. just-in-time inventory methods.
E. measuring productivity in the service sector.

A

Question 41. Which productivity variable has the greatest potential to increase productivity?
A. management
B. globalization
C. energy
D. capital
E. labor

A

Question 42. Which strategic operations management decision considers facility capacity, production demands, and personnel necessary to maintain a reliable and stable process?
A. scheduling
B. layout strategies
C. location strategies
D. maintenance
E. process and capacity strategies

D

Question 43. Who among the following provided the foundations for statistical sampling in quality control?
A. Walter Shewhart
B. Henry Ford
C. Charles Babbage
D. Frank Gilbreth
E. Henri Fayol

A

Question 44. Illiteracy and poor diets have been known to cost countries up to what percent of their productivity?
A. 50%
B. 20%
C. 10%
D. 2%
E. 5%

B

Question 45. Walter Shewhart, in the ________, provided the foundations for ________ in operations management.
A. U.S. Army; logistics
B. 1920s; statistical sampling
C. nineteenth century; interchangeable parts
D. United Kingdom; mass production
E. 1900s; queuing theory

B

Question 46. Three commonly used productivity variables are:
A. education, diet, and social overhead.
B. labor, capital, and management.
C. quality, external elements, and precise units of measure.
D. technology, raw materials, and labor.
E. quality, efficiency, and low cost.

B

Question 47. A business's stakeholders, whose conflicting perspectives cause ethical and social dilemmas, include:
A. suppliers.
B. owners.
C. lenders.
D. all of these.
E. employees.

D

Question 48. What is a global network of organizations and activities that supply a firm with goods and services?
A. provider network
B. vendor network
C. supply chain
D. supply tree
E. vendor tree

C

Question 49. The total of all outputs produced by the transformation process divided by the total of the inputs is:
A. defined only for manufacturing firms.
B. greater in manufacturing than in services.
C. multifactor or total factor productivity.
D. utilization.
E. single-factor productivity.

C

Question 50. The field of operations management is shaped by advances in which of the following fields?

A. information technology

B. chemistry and physics

C. all of the these

D. industrial engineering and management

E. biology and anatomy

C