question

Farming is an example of:

answer

non-manufactured goods

question

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

answer

easy measurement of productivity

question

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

answer

outsourcing; supply chain

question

Operations and sales are the two _____ functions in businesses.

answer

line

question

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

answer

mean; standard deviation

question

Value added can be calculated by:

answer

outputs minus inputs

question

Gourmet Pretzels bakes soft pretzels on an assembly line. It currently bakes 800 pretzels each 8-hour shift. If the production is increased to 1,200 pretzels each shift, then productivity will have increased by:

answer

50%

question

Which of the following is not a key step toward improving productivity?

answer

converting bond debt to stock ownership

question

The external elements of SWOT analysis are:

answer

opportunities and threats

question

The fundamental purpose for the existence of any organization is described by its:

answer

mission statement

question

The owner of Darkest Tans Unlimited in a local mall is forecasting this month's (Octobers's demand for the one new tanning booth based on the following historical data: April 100 May 140 Jun 110 July 150 August 120 Sept 160 What is the month's forecast using the naive approach?

answer

160

question

Given forecast errors of 4, 8, and -3, what is the mean absolute deviation?

answer

5

question

Detecting non-randomness in errors can be done using:

answer

Control Charts

question

A managerial approach toward forecasting which seeks to actively influence demand is:

answer

proactive

question

Given forecast errors of -5, -10, and +15, the MAD is:

answer

10

question

The goal of value analysis is to find ways of _____.

answer

Both I and II

question

Movile 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 _____.

answer

creeping featurism

question

Designing for recycling helps facilitate _____.

answer

Compliance with regulatory environments

question

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

answer

back-of-the-house

question

Ideas for new or improved designs can come from:

answer

all of the above

question

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

answer

True

question

Productivity tends to be only a very minor factor in an organization's ability to compete.

answer

False

question

The Delphi approach involves the use of a series of questionnaires to achieve a consensus forecast.

answer

True

question

Concurrent Engineering is another term for sequential development.

answer

False

question

Reducing consumer choices makes service more efficient.

answer

True

question

Forecasting techniques generally assume an existing causal system that will continue to exist in the future.

answer

True

question

Forecasts for groups of items tend to be less accurate than forecasts for individual items because forecasts for individual items don't include as many influencing factors.

answer

False

question

Forecasts help managers plan both the system itself and provide valuable information for using the system.

answer

True

question

Organizations that are capable of responding quickly to changing requirements can use a shorter forecast horizon and therefore benefit from more accurate forecasts.

answer

True

question

When new products or services are introduced, focus forecasting models are an attractive option.

answer

False

question

Time series techniques involve identification of explanatory variables that can be used to predict future demand.

answer

False

question

A consumer survey is an easy and sure way to obtain accurate input from future customers since most people enjoy participating in surveys.

answer

False

question

Exponential smoothing adds a percentage (called alpha) of last period's forecast to estimate next period's demand.

answer

False

question

The shorter the forecast period, the more accurately the forecasts tend to track what actually happens.

answer

True

question

The naive approach to forecasting requires a linear trend line.

answer

False

question

The naive forecast is limited in its application to series that reflect no trend or seasonality.

answer

False

question

The naive forecast can serve as a quick and easy standard of comparison against which to judge the cost and accuracy of other techniques.

answer

True

question

A moving average forecast tends to be more responsive to changes in the data series when more data points are included in the average.

answer

False

question

Forecasts of future demand are used by operations people to plan capacity.

answer

True

question

An advantage of a weighted moving average is that recent actual results can be given more importance than what occurred a while ago.

answer

True

question

Exponential smoothing is a form of weighted averaging.

answer

True

question

MAD is equal to the square root of MSE

answer

False

question

In exponential smoothing, an alpha of 1.0 will generate the same forecast that a naïve forecast would yield.

answer

True

question

Bias exists when forecasts tend to be greater or less than the actual values of time series.

answer

True

question

In business, forecasts are the basis for:

answer

all of the above

question

Which of the following features would not generally be considered common to all forecasts?

answer

Historical data is available on which to base the forecast.

question

Which of the following is not a step in the forecasting process?

answer

eliminate all assumptions

question

The two general approaches to forecasting are:

answer

qualitative and quantitative

question

Which of the following is not a type of judgmental forecasting?

answer

time series analysis

question

Which of the following would be an advantage of using a sales force composite to develop a demand forecast?

answer

The sales staff is often aware of customers' future plans.

question

Gradual, long-term movement in time series data is called:

answer

trend

question

The primary difference between seasonality and cycles is:

answer

the duration of the repeating patterns

question

Averaging techniques are useful for:

answer

smoothing out fluctuations in time series

question

Using the latest observation in a sequence of data to forecast the next period is:

answer

a naive forecast

question

For the data given below, what would the naive forecast be for the next period (period #5)? 1 - 58 2 - 59 3 - 60 4 - 61

answer

61

question

Moving average forecasting techniques do the following:

answer

smooth variations in the data

question

Which is not a characteristic of simple moving averages applied to time series data?

answer

requires only last period's forecast and actual data

question

In order to increase the responsiveness of a forecast made using the moving average technique, the number of data points in the average should be:

answer

Decreased

question

A forecast based on the previous forecast plus a percentage of the forecast error is:

answer

an exponentially smoothed forecast

question

Which is not a characteristic of exponential smoothing?

answer

weights each historical value equally

question

Which of the following smoothing constants would make an exponential smoothing forecast equivalent to a naive forecast?

answer

1.0

question

Given an actual demand of 59, a previous forecast of 64, and an alpha of .3, what would the forecast for the next period be using simple exponential smoothing?

answer

62.5

question

A manager uses the following equation to predict monthly receipts: Yt= 40,000 + 150t. What is the forecast for July if t = 0 in April of this year?

answer

40,450

question

A persistent tendency for forecasts to be greater than or less than the actual values is called:

answer

bias

question

The mean absolute deviation (MAD) is used to:

answer

measure forecast accuracy

question

Given forecast errors of 5, 0, - 4, and 3, what is the mean absolute deviation?

answer

3

question

The two most important factors in choosing a forecasting technique are:

answer

cost and accuracy

question

Which of the following is not necessarily an element of a good forecast?

answer

low cost

question

Current information on _________ can have a significant impact on forecast accuracy:

answer

All of the above

question

Customer service levels can be improved by better:

answer

short term forecast accuracy

question

Given the following historical data, what is the simple three-period moving average forecast for period 6? 1 - 73 2 - 68 3 - 65 4 - 72 5 - 67

answer

68

question

Given the following historical data and weights of .5, .3, and .2, what is the three- period moving average forecast for period 5? 1 - 138 2 - 142 3 - 148 4 - 144

answer

144.80

question

Develop a forecast for the next period, given the data below, using a 3-period moving average. 1 - 19 2 - 20 3 - 18 4 - 19 5 - 17

answer

f6 = (18+19+17)/3=18

BUSI411 – Operations Management – Exam 1 – Flashcards

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