Operations Management – Chapter 2 – Flashcards

An example of a strategic operations management decision is the choice of where to locate.

An example of an operational operations management decision is inventory level management.

Government statistics are a good source of data about productivity trends in the service sector.

An example of a tactical operations management decision is determining employment levels.

Productivity is defined as the ratio of output to input.

Productivity is defined as the ratio of input to output.

Competitiveness relates to the profitability of an organization in the marketplace.

If people would only work harder, productivity would increase.

Tracking productivity measures over time enables managers to judge organizational performance and decide where improvements are needed.

Productivity is directly related to the ability of an organization to compete.

A characteristic that was once an order winner may become an order qualifier, and vice versa.

Outsourcing tends to improve quality but at the cost of lowered productivity.

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

An organization that is twice as productive as its competitor will be twice as profitable.

National productivity is determined by averaging the productivity measures of various companies or industries.

Wage and salary increases that are not accompanied by productivity increases tend to exert inflationary pressures on a nation's economy.

Global competition really only applies to multinational organizations.

A business that is rated highly by its customers for service quality will tend to be more profitable than a business that is rated poorly.

Services often don't fit simple yield measurements.

A mission statement should provide a guide for the formulation of strategies for the organization

The hierarchy and sequence of planning and decision making is: mission, organizational strategy, tactics, and operational decisions.

Strategy includes both organizational and functional strategies.

Organizational strategy should be determined without considering the realities of functional area strengths and weaknesses since they can be changed to meet our strategy.

Mission statements should be as specific as possible regarding exactly how they will be accomplished.

Improving efficiency will guarantee a similar improvement in productivity.

As long as we match a competitor on quality and price we will gain market share.

Environmental scanning is a search for events or trends that present either threats or opportunities to the organization.

Standardization has the advantage of reducing variability.

Traditional strategies of business organizations have tended to emphasize cost minimization or product differentiation.

The majority of our textbook deals with tactical operations that support established functional strategies.

Which of the following is least likely to affect the cost an organization incurs in producing its products or services?

Where a firm locates would typically not affect that firm's:

Which of the following is not among the chief reasons organizations fail?

The key to successfully competing is understanding what customers want and then __________ satisfy those wants.

An organization's mission statement serves as the basis for:

Which of the following would be least important in the pursuit of a time-based strategy?

Competitiveness doesn't include:

Product design and choice of location are examples of _______ decisions.

Scheduling personnel is an example of an operations management:

Productivity is expressed as:

In the 1970s and early 1980s in the United States, organizations concentrated on:

Which of the following is not a factor that affects productivity?

Which of these factors would be least likely to affect productivity?

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

For an organization to grow its market share, it must:

The ratio of good output to quantity of raw material input is called

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

A productivity increase in one operation that does not improve overall productivity of the business is not

Value added can be calculated by:

Which of the following is true?

Core competencies in organizations generally do not relate to:

With regard to operations strategy, organization strategy should, ideally, take into account:

Which of the following is not typically considered a cure for poor competitiveness?

Time-based approaches of business organizations focus on reducing the time to accomplish certain necessary activities. Time reductions seldom apply to:

The external elements of SWOT analysis are:

In an assembly operation at a furniture factory, six employees assembled an average of 450 standard dining chairs per five-day week. What is the labor productivity of this operation? A. 90 chairs/worker/day B. 20 chairs/worker/day C. 15 chairs/worker/day D. 75 chairs/worker/day E. 60 chairs/worker/day

Which of the following is not a reason for poor performance of our organization in the marketplace?

The manager of a carpet store is trying to determine the best installation crew size. He has tried various crew sizes with the results shown below. Based on productivity, what crew size do you recommend? 2 - 716 4 - 1298 3 - 1017 3 - 1002 4 - 1278 2 - 702 A. 2 B. 3 C. 4

Which of the following is not a key factor of competitiveness?

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

The weekly output of a fabrication process is shown below, together with data for labor and material inputs. Standard selling price is $125 per unit. Overhead is charged weekly at the rate of $1,500 plus .5 times direct labor cost. Assume a 40-hour week and an hourly wage of $16. Material cost is $10 per foot. What is the average multifactor productivity? A. 1.463 B. 1.457 C. 1.431

The Balanced Scorecard is a useful tool for helping managers translate their strategy into action in the following areas:

A firm pursuing a strategy based on customization and variety will tend to structure and manage its supply chain to accommodate more _____________ than a firm pursuing a strategy based on low cost and high volume.

Unique attributes of firms that give them a competitive edge are called:

Years ago in the overnight delivery business, providing package tracking capability gave some firms a competitive advantage. Now, all firms must offer this capability simply to be in this line of business. This is an example of ______________ becoming ____________ over time.

For firms competing in worldwide markets, conducting ______________ is more complex, since what works in one country or region might not work in another.

Increasing the service offered to the customer makes it more difficult to compete on the basis of:

__________ is generally used to facilitate an organization strategy that emphasizes low cost.

Which of the following factors would tend to reduce productivity?