Ops Chapter 3 – Flashcards
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Process decisions are strategic in nature.
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true
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Process structure is the mix of equipment and human skills in a process.
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false
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Resource flexibility determines whether resources are organized around products or processes.
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false
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Customer involvement reflects the way in which customers become part of the process and the extent of their participation.
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true
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Capital intensity is the ease with which employees and equipment can handle a wide variety of products, output levels, duties, and functions.
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false
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A moment of truth or service encounter is face-to-face interaction between the customer and service provider.
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true
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physical presence does not occur in a manufacturing service process.
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false
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a job process has a relatively high level of customization.
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true
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a job process has the highest level of customization of the process choices.
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true
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beginning points for manufacturing process structure decisions are the volume level, amount of customization, and competitive priorities.
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true
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a front office structure features high levels of customer contact where the service provider interacts directly with the internal or external customer.
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true
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52. Which one of the following statements concerning process management is best?
a. Process management is a short-term decision, and thus it has a tactical rather than a strategic focus.
b. Process changes should be made only when introducing new products or services.
c. The variable underlying all four major process decisions is volume.
d. A company's operations strategy is the primary output of its major process decisions.
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c. the variable underlying all four major process decisions is volume.
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Several key decisions must be made in building an effective process design. What are they?
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capital intensity, resource flexibility, customer involvement, and process structure
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people processing services require:
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physical presence
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A college course taught in a case-discussion format is an example of:
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active contact.
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A yacht maker produces customized yachts for a clientele that wants a one-of-a-kind watercraft. This process is said to be:
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divergent.
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What is sometimes called mass production?
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line process and make-to-stock strategy
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A job process should be preferred when:
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customization is high and volume is low.
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When the process choice is a job process, it requires:
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organizing the resources around the process.
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What is true about process choice?
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continuous flow processes are very capital intensive.
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67. Which one of the following statements about process management is best?
a. When customization must be high, equipment should be general purpose, and employees need to perform a broader range of duties.
b. The traditional relationship between capital intensity and resource flexibility is that if one is high, so is the other.
c. Creating a more capital-intensive process tends to reduce the fixed cost and raise the variable unit cost.
d. Economies of scope mean that a process should be devoted to a single product or service to achieve high volumes.
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a. When customization must be high, equipment should be general purpose, and employees need to perform a broader range of duties.
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The product-process matrix used to analyze manufacturing operations brings together the elements of:
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customization, volume, and process.
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Combining a line process with the make-to-stock strategy is sometimes called:
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mass production.
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Which of the following statements about customer involvement is best?
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High task divergence and flexible process flows require more flexibility of the process's employees, facilities, and equipment.
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Active customer contact and personalized attention can lower cost to the customer by:
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substituting customer efforts for those of the service provider.
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An advantage of customer involvement in a service process is that:
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if the customers are price sensitive, they might feel they are receiving more value.
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More fixed automation typically means:
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higher demand volumes
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What regarding capital intensity is NOT true?
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Decreased amounts of automation increase capital intensity.
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What is true about flexible automation?
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It is an automatic process that can be reprogrammed to handle various products.
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With flexible automation, the ability to reprogram instructions can be useful in:
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either line flow or flexible flow operations.
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Higher volume in a process is generally associated with:
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more capital intensity.
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Low capital intensity is generally associated with:
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high customer involvement.
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As is relates to process management, the concept of a flexible workforce is defined as:
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workers who are capable of performing many different tasks.
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Resource flexibility requires...
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employees to be able to perform a broad range of duties, and equipment usually must be more general purpose.
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Resource Flexibility
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flexible equipment is useful to companies with low production volumes and high customization.
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Suppose that competitive priorities call for offering a wide variety of customized services. Which of the following process decisions would be more likely?
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More resource flexibility.
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Under which one of the following environments would you opt for a higher degree of resource flexibility?
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A firm using a flexible flow strategy.
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Economies of Scope
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-often attained through programmable automation
-bring together two competitive priorities- customization and low price
-reflect the ability to product multiple products more cheaply in combination than separately
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Focused Factories
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Reduce the range of demand placed on an operation so management can concentrate on fewer tasks.
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One method for a factory to gain operational focus is to:
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reorganize existing facilities to the plant-within-plant approach.
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Gaining Focus
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plants within plants are different operations within a facility that can have individualized competitive priorities and processes.
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Plants within plants
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A plant that has separate operations that are relatively autonomous with individualized competitive priorities, processes, and workforces under the same roof
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Process Reengineering
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-fundamental rethinking and radical design of business processes
-information technology is a major enabler of reengineering
-requires a "clean slate" philosophy
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Cross-Functional Team
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team consisting of members from each functional area affected by the process change
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A process selected for reengineering should be a:
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core process
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Capital Intensity
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is the mix of equipment and human skills in a process
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Customer, materials, or information move in diverse ways in processes that have ____
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Active contact
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Front Office
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high customer contact where the service provider interacts directly with the internal or external customer
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Block Plan
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allocates space and indicates placement of each department.
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Closeness Matrix
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gives the relative importance of each pair of operations or departments being located close together.
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Fixed Automation
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produces one type of product or part in a sequence of simple operations.
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Flexible Automation
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can handle various products through programmability.
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Capacity
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is the ability to hold, receive, absorb, process or transform resources.
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Yield
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usable output from input
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Outsourcing
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have someone else do it
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Offshoring
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moving capacity overseas
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Reshoring
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moving capacity back
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Capacity Cushion
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purposeful reserve of capacity.
