True / False Questions

1. Operations managers are responsible for assessing consumer wants and needs and
selling and promoting the organization's goods or services.
True False
2. Often, the collective success or failure of companies' operations functions will
impact the ability of a nation to compete with other nations.
True False
3. An example of a strategic operations management decision is the choice of where
to locate.
True False
4. An example of an operational operations management decision is inventory level
management.
True False
5. Global teams provide diversity while eliminating conflicts and miscommunication.
True False
6. A House of Quality' is achieved when no department in a single location has more
than 15% rejects.
True False
7. The term capacity refers to the maximum quantity an operating unit can process
over a given period of time.
True False
8. Capacity decisions are usually one-time decisions; once they have been made, we
know the limits of our operations.
True False
9. Continuous processing is the best way to produce customized output.
True False
10. As a general rule, continuous processing systems produce products for inventory
rather than for customer order.
True False
11. Ergonomics is the use of computers and robots in the workplace.
True False
12. Specialization is one of the sources of disagreement between the efficiency and
behavioral approaches to job design.
True False
13. Location decisions are basically one-time decisions usually made by new
organizations.
True False

14. The fact that most types of firms are located in every section of the country
suggests that in many cases, location decisions are not overly important; one location
typically is as good as another.
True False

15. Broadly defined, quality refers to the ability of a product or service to occasionally
meet or exceed customer expectations.
True False
16. An organization achieves quality by consistently meeting their competitor's
standards.
True False
17. One important use of inventories in manufacturing is to decouple operations
through the use of work in process inventories.
True False
18. The objective of inventory management is to minimize the cost of holding
inventory.
True False
19. In lean operations, input resources arrive for processing only after the preceding
batch has been completed.
True False
20. A functioning MRP system is required prior to adopting lean planning and control
systems.
True False
21. A company's supply chain involves the flow of materials and information from
suppliers, through production, to the end users.
True False
22. In supply chain organizations, functions must operate independently of each
other.
True False
23. "Flow-shop scheduling" is used in high volume systems.
True False
24. . Line balancing is a major factor in the design and scheduling of low volume
systems because of batch processing.
True False

Multiple Choice Questions

25. Operations management involves continuous decision-making; hopefully most

decisions made will be:
A. redundant
B. minor in nature
C. informed
D. quantitative
E. none of the above
26. A 'product package' consists of:
A. the exterior wrapping
B. the shipping container
C. a combination of goods and services
D. goods if a manufacturing organization
E. customer relations if a service organization
27. Competitiveness doesn't include:
A. Productivity
B. Effectiveness
C. Profitability
D. Operations Strategy
E. Operations Management
28. Product design and choice of location are examples of _______ decisions.
A. strategic
B. tactical
C. operational
D. customer focused
E. design
29. The goal of value analysis is to find ways of _______.
A. I. Reducing the cost of parts and materials
B. II. Improving the performance of the product or service
C. III. Incorporating multiple cultural values in global system design
D. Both I and III
E. Both I and II

30. When considering re-use issues for a given product, an important factor to take
into account is that product's _______.
A. Ethical impact
B. Reliability
C. Durability
D. Design for assembly
E. None of the above
31. Outsourcing some production is a means of _________ a capacity constraint.
A. Identifying
B. Modifying
C. Supporting
D. Overcoming
E. Repeating
32. A basic question in capacity planning is:
A. what kind is needed
B. how much is needed
C. when is it needed
D. all of the above
E. none of the above
33. Which of the following is not a process commonly considered in making products
or delivering services?
A. continuous
B. batch
C. repetitive
D. job shop
E. subcontracting
34. The type of processing system which is used for highly standardized products is:
A. continuous
B. intermittent
C. project
D. batch
E. unit
35. Behavioral approaches to job design include:
A. Specialization
B. Ergonomics
C. Job Rotation
D. Flow Process Charts
E. SIMO Charts

36. A major advantage of job specialization in business is increased _________.

A. motivation
B. opportunity for advancement
C. opportunity for self-fulfillment
D. productivity
E. job enrichment
37. Nearness to raw materials would be most important to a
A. grocery store
B. tax preparation service
C. manufacturing company
D. post office
E. hospital
38. A one-hour photo processing machine in a Wal-Mart store is an example of a
_________.
A. micro-factory
B. downsize strategy
C. diversified strategy
D. lean production system
E. falling price strategy
39. A tool that is not used for quality management is ________.
A. Flowchart
B. Histogram
C. Perato Analysis
D. Redesign
E. Check sheets
40. The four dimensions of quality that are sometimes used to determine fitness for
use of a product are ______.
A. performance, special features, durability, and service after sale
B. performance, special features, conformance, and reliability
C. special features, conformance, reliability, and durability
D. performance, conformance, reliability, and durability
E. special features, conformance, durability, and service after sale

41. Which of the following is not one of the assumptions of the basic EOQ model?
A. Annual demand requirements are known and constant.
B. Lead time does not vary.
C. Each order is received in a single delivery.
D. Quantity discounts are available.
E. All of the above are necessary assumptions.
42. Which of the following interactions with vendors would potentially lead to
inventory reductions?
A. reduce lead times
B. increase safety stock
C. less frequent purchases
D. larger batch quantities
E. longer order intervals
43. For a company with a product mix of 40% of product A and 30% each of
products B and C, which of the following mixed-model sequences most reflects the
lean philosophy?
A. AABBCCAABC
B. ABCABCABCA
C. AAAABBBCCC
D. BCABCABCAB
E. BBBAACCCAA
44. The lean philosophy suggests that workers are _________.
A. Assets
B. Liabilities
C. Interchangeable
D. Replaceable
E. To be phased out
45. Which of the following is not a goal of supply chain management?
A. fewer suppliers and long-term relationship
B. small lot sizes
C. on time deliveries
D. lowest possible transportation costs
E. delivery often to the place of use

46. Logistics includes all of these except:

A. the movement of materials within a production facility
B. incoming shipments of goods or materials
C. outgoing shipments of goods or materials
D. customer selection
E. returned goods processing
47. Scheduling pertains to:
A. hiring workers
B. process selection
C. buying machinery
D. timing the use of specific resources
E. determining the lowest cost
48. Which of the following is the last step in the capacity/scheduling chain?
A. product planning
B. process planning
C. capacity planning
D. aggregate planning
E. scheduling
Essay Questions

49. The weekly output of a production process is shown below, together with data for
labor and material inputs. The standard inventory value of the output is $125 per unit.
Overhead is charged weekly at the rate of $1500 plus .5 times direct labor cost.
Assume a 40-hour week and an hourly wage of $16. Material cost is $10 per running
foot. What is the average multi-factor productivity for this process?

50. Given the following data for a make or buy decision:

What are total costs to buy a quantity of 15,000 units per year?
51. An analyst has observed 28 work cycles, for which the average cycle time was
five minutes and the performance rating was 1.05. Allowances for the department are
25 percent of job time. What standard time is appropriate for this job?

52. A firm stocks a seasonal item that it buys for $22/unit and sells for $29 unit.
During the season, daily demand can be described using a Poisson distribution with a
mean of 2.4. Because of the nature of the item, units remaining at the close of
business each day must be removed at a cost of $2 each. What is the optimum
stocking level, and what is the effective service level?
53. The All Seasonings Company uses 3,200 glass jars at one of its jar-filling
workstations each eight hours of production. The cycle time for a standard container,
which holds 90 jars, averages 45 minutes. If management uses an efficiency factor of
twenty percent, how many containers should be used?