Operations Strategy
Chapter 1
1. what is Operations as one of the three main functional concerns of most organizations.
2. The role and job of the operations manager as a planner and decision-maker.
3. Different ways of classifying (and understanding) production systems.
4. System design versus system operation.
5. Major characteristics of production systems.
6. Contemporary issues in operations management.
7. Operations as managerial (planning, staffing, etc.)
8. The historical evolution of production/operations management.
9. Manufacturing operations versus service operations.
10. The need to manage the supply chain.
Chapter 2
1. List several ways that business organizations compete
2. Name several reasons that business organizations fail
3. Define the terms mission and strategy and explain why they are important
4. Discuss and compare organization strategy and operations strategy, and explain why it is
important to link the two
5. Define the term productivity and explain why it is important to organizations and to countries
6. Describe the factors that affect productivity
CALCULATIONS
Calculate: Single Factor Productivity, Multi-Factor Productivity, and Productivity Change.
chapter 3
1. List features common to all forecasts
2. Understand why forecasts are generally wrong
3. List elements of a good forecast
4. Outline the steps in the forecasting process
5. Describe four qualitative forecasting techniques
CALCULATIONS
Understand, interpret, calculate, or create:
• Basic Naïve
• Trend-Adjusted Naïve
• Seasonally Adjusted Naïve
• Moving Average Forecasts (MA)
• Weighted-Moving Average Forecasts (WMA)
• Exponentially Smoothed Forecasts
• Forecast with Linear Trend, Linear Trend Equation
• Seasonality
• TAF
• Simple Linear Regression
• Error Measures MAD (Mean Absolute Deviation)
• MSE (Mean Squared Error)
• MAPE (Mean Absolute Percentage)
Supplemental notes:
What is the smoothing constant Alpha (in Exponential Smoothing)? It can range between 0 and 1.
Alpha is the smoothing constant for the level of the series. The limits of this value are zero and one.
Usually, a value between 0.1 and 0.3 are used. As the value gets closer to one, more and more weight is
given to recent observations.
Exponential smoothing is a rule of thumb technique for smoothing time series data using the
exponential window function. Whereas in the simple moving average where past observations are
weighted equally, exponential functions are used to assign exponentially decreasing weights over time.
Whereas in Single Moving Averages the past observations are weighted equally, Exponential Smoothing
assigns exponentially decreasing weights as the observation get older. In other words, recent
observations are given relatively more weight in forecasting than the older observations.
Exponential smoothing: requires less data storage, gives more weight to recent data, and is easier to
change to make it more responsive to changes in demand.
The primary difference between an EMA and an SMA is the sensitivity each one shows to changes in the
data used in its calculation. ... More specifically, the exponential moving average gives a higher
xplain the strategic importance of product and service design
Describe what product and service design does
3. Name the key questions of product and service design
4. Identify some reasons for design or redesign
5. List some of the main sources of design ideas
6. Discuss the importance of legal, ethical, and sustainability considerations in product and service
design
7. Explain the purpose and goal of life cycle assessment
8. Explain the phrase “the 3 Rs”
9. What is the House of Quality and the Kano Model?
10. Discuss several key issues in product or service design
11. Discuss the two key issues in service design
12. Name the phases in service design
13. List the characteristics of well-designed service systems
14. List some guidelines for successful service design
Main topics in this chapter include:
1. The reasons, trends, and objectives of Product and Service Design.
2. The Design Process (Designing for mass customization, reliability, robust design, etc.).
3. Research and Development.
4. Standardization.
5. Product Design (concurrent engineering, computer aided design, remanufacturing).
6. Service Design.
7. Quality Function Deployment.
8. Operations Strategy.tion. ... More specifically, the exponential moving average given explain the strategic importance of product and service design
The main advantages of Standardization are:
a. Less variety of parts to deal with.
b. Permits standardized training, purchasing, inspection, and material handling. It may also permit
automation.
c. Enables production to stock, which allows filling orders from inventory, and potentially long
production runs.
Among the main disadvantages of standardization are the following:
a. Designs may be “frozen” with too many imperfections remaining.
b. The high cost of design changes increases resistance to improvement.
c. Decreased variety may lessen consumer appeal.
Modular design refers to viewing a product (and sometimes a service) as being composed of a number
of “chunks” or sections instead of a collection of individual parts. In effect, it is one form of
standardization. Among the advantages of modular design are ease of diagnosis and repair of failures;
standardization of manufacturing; and more routine purchasing, inventory control, and training. The
disadvantages of modular design include a decrease in possible variety of the product, the possibility of
not being able to disassemble a module to replace a faulty part, and possible resistance to design
improvements, particularly minor ones, if they cannot be readily incorporated into an existing
configuration.
Some of the competitive advantages of Concurrent Engineering are:
a. Manufacturing personnel are able to identify production capabilities and capacities. Very often,
they have some latitude in design in terms of selecting suitable materials and processes. Knowledge of
production capabilities can help in the selection process. In addition, cost and quality considerations can
be influenced greatly by design, and conflicts during production can be reduced greatly.
b. Early opportunities for design or procurement of critical tooling, some of which might have a
long lead-time. This can result in a major shortening of the product development process, which could
be a key competitive advantage.
c. Early consideration of the technical feasibility of a particular design or a portion of a design.
Again, this can avoid serious problems during production.
d. More effective resource allocation.
e. The emphasis can be on problem resolution instead of conflict resolution.
Differences between service design and product design:
a. Products are generally tangible; services are generally intangible. Consequently, service design
often focuses more on intangible factors (e.g., peace of mind, ambiance) than does product design.
b. Services are often produced and received at the same time (e.g. a haircut, a car wash). Thus,
there is less latitude in finding and correcting errors before the customer has a chance to discover them.
Consequently, training, process design, and customer relations are particularly important.
c. Services cannot be inventoried. This poses restrictions on flexibility and makes capacity design
very important.
d. Services are highly visible to consumers and must be designed with that in mind; this adds an
extra dimension to process design, one that usually is not present in product design.
e. Some services have low barriers to entry and exit. This places additional burden on service
design to be innovative and cost-effective.
f. Location is often important to service design, with convenience as a major factor. Hence, design
of services and choice of location often are closely linked.
Quality function deployment (QFD) is a structured approach for integrating the “Voice of the Costumer”
into the product development process. The purpose is to ensure that customer requirements are
factored into every aspect of the process from product planning to the production floor. Listening to and
understanding the customer is the central feature of QFD
Reverse engineering is dismantling and inspecting a competitor’s product to discover product
improvements. Yes, it is ethical to look but not to copy, in most cases.
The 3 R’s are reduce (through value analysis), reuse (through remanufacturing), and recycle. They relate
to sustainability by avoiding or reducing the impact on the environment that would accompany new
Know supply chain and what it is
Know modals and what they do
Know different variations and what they do
Know manufacturing and service differentiation
Know the 3rs
Cradle in the gravel
Mission vision
Order qualifier and order winner know the difference between the two
Know what concurrent engeering is
Know the leaders that sought scientific management
What is logistics
What is the whole idea of outsourcing
What are the benefits of scandalization and modal design
Know the defile approach
Know what goes into a SWOT
What is the driving force for product and design service