Operations Management ch 1 ; 2 IRSC – Flashcards
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Every business is managed through what three major functions?
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finance, marketing, and operations management
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Which business function is responsible for managing cash flow, current assets, and capital investments:
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finance
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Which business function is responsible for sales, generating customer demand, and understanding customer wants and needs?
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marketing
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Which business function is responsible for planning, coordinating, and controlling the resources needed to produce a company's products and services?
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operations management
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Which of the following is not true for business process reengineering?
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It cannot be used to improve quality
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At the GAP, which function plans and coordinates all the resources needed to design, produce, and deliver the merchandise to its various retail locations?
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operations management
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A company with low customer contact that is capital intensive is called?
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quasi-manufacuting
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What are long-term decisions that set the direction for the entire organization called?
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strategic
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What concept involves breaking down the production of a produce into a series of small, elementary tasks, each of which is performed by a different worker?
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division of labor
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What is a concept that takes a total system approach to creating efficient operations?
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lean systems
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The process of monitoring the external environment is called what?
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environmental scanning
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Which of the following would not be considered a core competency that a company might have?
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an inefficient distribution system
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Environmental scanning would not provide information on?
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the firm's internal inefficient distribution system
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What term describes the process of obtaining goods or services from an outside provider?
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outsourcing
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Once a business strategy has been developed:
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an operation strategy must be formulated
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What are the three primary types of technology?
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product technology, process technology, and information technology
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Technology should be acquired because:
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the new technology supports the company's chosen competitive priories
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A firm produces 100 units asking 800 labor hours. What is the labor productivity?
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0.125 units/hour
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A machine shop produces metal frames on two different machines. The average daily production on machine 1 is 300 frames, and the average daily production on machine 2 is 180 frames. What is the daily machine productivity?
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240 frames/machine
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What are the three major functions that every business is managed through?
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finance, marketing, and operations
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What business function is responsible for planning, coordinating, and controlling the resources needed to produce a company's products and services?
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operations management
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What type of transformation process would you find at a factory?
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Inputs
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Give examples of Inputs
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human resources, facilities and processes, technologise, materials
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What are the responsibilities of an Operations Manager?
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plan production schedule, manage inventory, manage quality levels (plan, coordinate, control resources)
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What percentage of total non-farm jobs in the U.S. economy come from service-producing industries?
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over 80%
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What are the long term decisions that set the direction for the entire organization called?
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Strategic decisions
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What was the primary reason why American firms lost market dominance in many industries in the 1970's and 1980s?
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just in time developed by Japan produced high volume production using minimal amounts of inventory /lower costs
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According to "scientific management" theory what motivates workers?
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workers get paid based on worker output
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Who wrote "The Wealth of Nations" in 1776, describing division of labor?
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Adam Smith
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What movement started with the publication of the results of the Hawthorne studies?
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Human Relations Movement
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What is the Hawthorne effect?
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workers responding to the attention they are given
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When was the Just-In-Time philosophy developed?
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1980's
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What is the TQM Philosophy?
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seeks to improve quality by eliminating causes of product defects and by making quality the responsibility of everyone in the organization
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Who created the Internet, and in what year?
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ARPANET 1969
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What is the lean system concept?
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takes a total system approach to creating efficient operations
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Which country provided the most serious competitive threat to the U S companies during the 1970's and 1980s?
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Japan s
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What is environmental scanning
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monitoring the external environment for changes and trends to determine business opportunities and threats
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What does core competencies mean?
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the unique strengths of a business
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What are the four broad categories of competitive priorities?
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cost, quality, time, flexiblity
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What are the two key components of the operations strategy of Federal Express?
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compete based on time, speed and on-time delivery
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How does Fed X maintain its ability to compete on time during peak demand periods?
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they rely on very flexible part time workers such as college students who are willing to work a few hours at night. They can be called at a moments notice
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What is operations strategy?
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they serve as a linkage between the business strategy and all other operations decisons
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What are the three types of technology?
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product technology, process technology, information technology
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What is product technology?
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any new technology developed by a firm
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How can we increase productivity?
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Productivity= output/input the more efficient a company uses its resources the more productive it is
