Operation Management – Flashcards
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Which of these statements regarding Regal Marine is TRUE?
A) Product design is a critical decision for the firm.
B) Regal uses a three-dimensional CAD system to shorten product development time.
C) Regal still uses some wooden parts and hand-produces some components.
D) Regal's use of CAD has resulted in a superior product.
E) All of the above are true.
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E. All of the above are true
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Regal Marine
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C) treats the product design decision as critical to its success.
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The three major elements of the product decision are:
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A) selection, definition, and design.
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In which stage of the product life cycle should product strategy focus on process modifications as the product is being "fine-tuned" for the market?
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A) Introduction
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A product's life cycle is divided into four stages, which are:
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D) introduction, growth, maturity, and decline.
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When should product strategy focus on forecasting capacity requirements?
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B) at the growth stage of the product life cycle
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The analysis tool that lists products in descending order of their individual dollar contribution to the firm is:
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D) product-by-value analysis.
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At which stage of the product life cycle is product strategy likely to focus on improved cost control?
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C) maturity
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________ is used to rank a company's products to determine which products represent the best use of the firm's resources, or, perhaps, to determine which products are to be eliminated.
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D) Product-by-value analysis
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What percentage of sales from new products is indicative of industry leaders?
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A) 50%
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Regal Marine's use of ________ has reduced product development time and reduced problems with tooling and production.
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CAD or Computer-aided Design
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In the ________ phase of the product life cycle, the product design has begun to stabilize.
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Growth
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________ lists products in descending order of the individual dollar contribution to the firm.
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Product-by-value analysis
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What is the objective of the product decision?
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To develop and implement a product strategy that meets the demands of the marketplace with a competitive advantage.
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What is a product-by-value analysis, and what type of decisions does it help managers make?
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A product-by-value analysis lists products in descending order of their individual dollar contribution to the firm, as well as the total annual dollar contribution of the product.
It helps managers evaluate possible strategies for each product. The report may also tell management which product offerings should be eliminated and which fail to justify further investment in research and development or capital equipment. The product-by-value report focuses management's attention on the strategic direction for each product.
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"With respect to the product decision, managers must be able to accept risk and tolerate failure." Comment on why this is a necessary hazard in making new product decisions, given all the powerful tools and carefully built systems that support that decision.
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The vast majority of new product ideas do not become marketable products, and most marketable products are failures. Perhaps hundreds of designs accompany each success.
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Is it possible for a product's life cycle stage to affect its product strategy? In particular, describe how one product in growth and another in maturity might have different product strategies.
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There is no reason for the strategy to be static through the life cycle stages. Organizations often treat new products differently than older ones, in terms of support for changes, aggressiveness in pursuit of market, etc. In particular, growth is associated with stabilization of design, and with ensuring that sufficient capacity exists. Maturity is a time for high-volume operations and cost control.
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Operations managers must be able to anticipate changes in which of the following?
A) product mix
B) product opportunities
C) the products themselves
D) product volume
E) all of the above
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E) All of the above
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Which of the following would likely cause a change in market opportunities based upon levels of income and wealth?
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A) economic change
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Which of the following represents an opportunity for generating a new product?
A) understanding the customer
B) demographic change, such as decreasing family size
C) changes in professional standards
D) economic change, such as rising household incomes
E) All of the above are such opportunities.
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E) All of the above
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Identify factors that influence new product opportunities.
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Understanding the customer, economic change, sociological and demographic change, technological change, political/legal change, and other changes brought about through market practice, professional standards, suppliers, and distributors.
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Provide some examples of recent product changes, i.e. new products that are replacing older ones.
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The list in the text includes: TV to HDTV, radio to satellite radio, coffee shops to Starbucks lifestyle coffee, traveling circuses to Cirque du Soleil, land lines to cell phones, cell phone to iPhone, Walkman to iPod, and mops to Swiffers.
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Aggressive new product development requires that organizations build structures internally that contain what features?
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They should have open communication with customers, innovative product development cultures, aggressive R&D, strong leadership, formal incentives, and training.
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Quality function deployment refers to both (1) determining what will satisfy the customer and
(2) translating those customer desires into a target design.
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TRUE
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Which of the following is true regarding value engineering?
A) Value engineering occurs only after the product is selected and designed.
B) Value engineering creates fragile design.
C) Value engineering is oriented toward improvement of design.
D) Value engineering occurs during production when it is clear the product is a success.
E) Value engineering can save substantial amounts of product cost, but quality suffers.
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C) Value engineering is oriented toward improvement of design.
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Reducing the complexity of a product and improving a product's maintainability are activities of:
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C) manufacturability and value engineering.
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Quality function deployment (QFD):
A) determines what will satisfy the customer.
B) translates customer desires into the target design.
C) is used early in the design process.
D) is used to determine where to deploy quality efforts.
E) all of the above
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E) All of the above
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A graphic technique for defining the relationship between customer desires and product (or service) is:
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B) the house of quality.
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A result of concurrent engineering in product design is:
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A) speedier product development.
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The Japanese method of organizing for product design features:
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D) a single organization without subdivision or individual teams.
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Manufacturability and value engineering has which of the following benefits?
I. Reduced complexity of the product
II. Reduction of environmental impact
III. Additional standardization of components
IV. Robust design
V. Improved job design and safety
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E) I, II, III, IV, V
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________ is a process for determining customer requirements and translating them into attributes that each functional area can understand and act upon.
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Quality function deployment or QFD
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The ________ is a part of the quality function deployment process that utilizes a planning matrix to relate customer "wants" to "how" the firm is going to meet those "wants."
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House of quality
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Identify the benefits associated with manufacturability and value engineering.
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Benefits include immediate cost reduction, reduced product complexity, additional standardization of components, improvement of functional aspects of the product, improved job design and job safety, improved maintainability (serviceability) of the product, and robust design.
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What is quality function deployment (QFD)?
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QFD refers to both (1) determining what will satisfy the customer and (2) translating those customer desires into the target design.
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Identify the 7 steps involved in building the house of quality.
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(1) Identify customer wants. (2) Identify how the good/service will satisfy customer wants. (3) Relate customer wants to product hows. (4) Identify relationships between the firm's hows. (5) Develop importance ratings. (6) Evaluate competing products. (7) Determine the desirable technical attributes, your performance, and the competitor's performance against these attributes.
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Computer-aided design (CAD) refers to the use of specialized computer programs to direct and control manufacturing equipment.
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FALSE
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Robust design ensures that small variations in production or assembly do not adversely affect the product.
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TRUE
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Modular design exists only in tangible products; it makes no sense in services.
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FALSE
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Which of the following is TRUE regarding computer-aided design?
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D) It is the use of computers to interactively design products and prepare engineering documentation.
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Which of the following is TRUE concerning advantages of CAD?
A) It provides accurate information flows to other departments.
B) Most product costs are determined at the design stage.
C) Design options are easier to review before final commitments are made.
D) Virtually all products have their development cycle shortened.
E) All of the above are true.
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E) All of the above
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What is the use of information technology to control machinery?
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Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM)
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Value analysis takes place
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D) during the production process when it is clear that the new product is a success.
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What technology "builds" products by laying down successive thin layers of plastic, metal, glass, or ceramics?
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C) 3-D printing
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________ provides a format allowing the electronic transmittal of three-dimensional data.
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Standard for the exchange of product data or STEP
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The use of information technology to control machinery is called ________.
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Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM)
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If a design can be produced to requirements even when the production process has unfavorable conditions, the design is said to be ________.
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Robust design
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Products or services designed in easily segmented components are known as ________ designs.
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modular
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________ reviews successful products for improvement during the production process.
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Value analysis
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Identify at least three general benefits derived from CAD.
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Faster development, better products, and accurate flow of information to other departments.
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Explain the difference between value analysis and value engineering.
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Value engineering is concerned with reducing cost and improving function in a preproduction setting, while value analysis, with similar aims, takes place during production, when the product has shown that it will succeed. Techniques are similar.
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Discuss the advisability of using modular assemblies in manufacturing. (What are the advantages and disadvantages?) To what extent can these arguments be applied to service products?
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Modules are easily segmented components. They add flexibility to production and marketing. They allow mix-and-match of components (customization at point of customer contact). Use of modules usually means fewer parts, less design and tooling expense. Disadvantages include using a module in a product for which a more specific component would have been better. It also may be possible that a module is more expensive than a product-specific version would be because it has to function properly for multiple products. Modules do exist in services, as in fast-food meals built to customer specification.
Diff: 3
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Rapidly developing products and moving them to the market is part of time-based competition.
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TRUE
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Boeing's 737 airplane and Hewlett-Packard's printer business are examples of using enhancements and migrations of existing products to build on a ________.
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C) product platform
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Which of the following is an example of an external product development strategy?
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C) alliances
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Which of the following product development strategies has the highest product development risk?
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D) new internally developed products
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Rapidly developing products and moving them to the market is referred to as ________.
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time-based competition
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Boeing's 737 airplane and Hewlett-Packard's printer business are examples of using enhancements and migrations of existing products to build on a(n) ________.
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product platform
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What is time-based competition?
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Time-based competition is competition that is based on time. It involves rapid development of products and moving them to market. Often, the first company into production may have its product adopted as the "standard."
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Identify the external product development strategies; describe each in a sentence or two.
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The external product development strategies include alliances, joint ventures, and purchase of technology or expertise by acquiring the developer. Alliances are cooperative agreements that allow firms to remain independent, but use complementing strengths to pursue strategies consistent with their individual missions. Joint ventures are combined ownership to pursue new products or markets. Purchasing technology or expertise is usually accomplished by acquiring entrepreneurial firms that have already developed the technology that fits the mission. The issue then becomes fitting the purchased organization, its technology, and its product line into the buying firm, rather than a product development issue.
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The "make-or-buy" decision distinguishes between what an organization chooses to produce and what it chooses to purchase from suppliers.
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TRUE
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An engineering drawing shows the:
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A) dimensions, tolerances, materials, and finishes of a component.
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The dimensions, tolerances, materials, and finishes of a component are typically shown on a(n):
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B) engineering drawing.
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What identifies components by a coding scheme that specifies size, shape, and the type of processing (such as size)?
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B) group technology
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Which of the following typically shows the hierarchy of components, their description, and the quantity of each required to make one unit of a product?
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C) a bill of material
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The hierarchy of components, their description, and the quantity of each required to make one unit of a product are documented on:
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C) a bill of material
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Group technology requires that:
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A) each component be identified by a coding scheme that specifies size, shape, and the type of processing.
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A drawing that shows the dimensions, tolerances, materials, and finishes of a component is a(n) ________.
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engineering drawing
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A listing of the hierarchy of components, their description, and the quantity of each required to make one unit of product is the ________.
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bill of material
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Which of the following shows in schematic form how a product is assembled?
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C) an assembly chart
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A route sheet provides a(n):
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D) sequence of operations necessary to produce the component.
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An assembly drawing:
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B) shows an exploded view of the product.
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An assembly chart:
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A) shows graphically how the product is assembled.
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A process sheet is a type of:
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C) route sheet.
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Which of the following documents lists the operations necessary to produce the component with the material specified in the bill of material?
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C) a route sheet
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A document for production that gives the instruction to make a given quantity of a particular item, usually to a given schedule, is a(n):
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A) work order.
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12) An exploded view of the product is a(n) ________.
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Assembly drawing
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How does configuration management manifest itself when you ask for service on your automobile?
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Configuration management is used by every automobile manufacturer to track all of the changes between and during a model year. To be specific about the part that is needed, the VIN (vehicle identification number) is often used.
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Briefly explain how product life-cycle management (PLM) impacts product design.
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PLM is an umbrella of software programs that attempts to bring together many phases of product design and manufacture. PLM products often start with product design (CAD/CAM); move on to design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA); and then into product routing, materials, layout, assembly, maintenance and even environmental issues.
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The moment-of-truth is the crucial moment between the service provider and the customer that exemplifies, enhances, or detracts from the customer's expectations.
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TRUE
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According to PCN analysis, firms intending to provide a value offering that focuses on customization should be positioned more toward the consumer's process domain.
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TRUE
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Which of the following is NOT a service design technique used to increase service efficiency?
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A) increase customer interaction
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What type of analysis focuses on the ways in which processes can be designed to optimize interaction between firms and their customers?
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A) PCN
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7) According to PCN analysis, service operations exist only within the area(s) of:
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D) surrogate interaction and direct interaction.
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According to PCN analysis, which process region includes process steps in which one participant is acting on another participant's resources, such as their information, materials, or technologies?
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B) surrogate interaction
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The ________ is the crucial moment between the service provider and the customer that exemplifies, enhances, or detracts from the customer's expectations.
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moment of truth
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Within PCN analysis, a(n) ________ is a sequence of steps that accomplishes an identifiable purpose (of providing value to process participants).
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process chain
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Identify the methods of service design that can increase service efficiency and limit customer interaction.
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Limit the options, delay customization, modularization, automation, and focusing design on the moment of truth.
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Identify and briefly describe the three process regions from PCN analysis.
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Direct interaction includes process steps that involve interaction between participants. Surrogate interaction includes process steps in which one participant is acting on another participant's resources, such as their information, materials, or technologies. Independent processing includes steps in which the participant is acting on resources where it has maximum control.
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The role of decision trees in product design is to:
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C) calculate the expected value of each course of action.
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Payoffs, alternatives, and expected monetary values are terms associated with:
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D) decision trees.
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In analyzing product design decisions, decision trees determine the ________ of each course of action.
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expected value or EMV
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Transition to production refers to the act of moving a product to production from what?
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D) development
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Product Decision
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to develop and implement a product strategy that meets the demands of the marketplace with a competitive advantage
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Product selection
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choosing the goods or service to provide customers or clients
