Q1. Which of the following is the best example of competing on low-cost leadership?
a. A firm produces its product with less raw material waste than its competitors do.
b. A firm offers more reliable products than its competitors do.
c. A firm's products are introduced into the market faster than its competitors' products are.
d. A firm's research and development department generates many ideas for new products.
e. A firm advertises more than its competitors do.
Q2. Standardization is an appropriate strategy in which stage of the product life cycle?
a. introduction
b. growth
c. maturity
d. decline
e. retirement
Q3. The ability of an organization to produce goods or services that have some uniqueness in their characteristics is competing on:
a. mass production.
b. cost
c. productivity.
d. quality.
e. differentiation.
Q4. Which of the international operations strategies involves high cost reductions and high local responsiveness?
a. international strategy
b. global strategy
c. transnational strategy
d. multidomestic strategy
e. worldwide strategy
Q5. Outsourcing is simply an extension of the long-standing practice of:
a. subcontracting.
b. importing.
c. exporting.
d. postponement.
e. e-procurement.
Q6. One reason to globalize is to find new markets.
a. True
b. False
Q7. Service Sector forecasting can be as quantitative as forecasting goods.
a. True
b. False
Q8. The three major types of forecasts used by organizations in planning future operations are:
a. strategic, tactical, and operational.
b. economic, technological, and demand.
c. exponential smoothing, Delphi, and regression.
d. causal, time-series, and seasonal.
e. departmental, organizational, and territorial.
Q9. The forecasting technique that pools the opinions of managers is known as:
a. the expert judgment model.
b. multiple regression.
c. jury of executive opinion.
d. market survey.
e. management coefficients.
Q10. Forecasts may be influenced by a product's position in its life cycle.
a. True
b. False
Q11. The two general approaches to forecasting are:
a. qualitative and quantitative.
b. mathematical and statistical.
c. judgmental and qualitative.
d. historical and associative.
e. judgmental and associative.
Q12. Many services maintain records of sales noting:
a. the day of the week.
b. unusual events.
c. the weather.
d. holiday impacts.
e. all of the above.
Q13. At which stage of the product life cycle is product strategy likely to focus on improved cost control?
a. introduction
b. growth
c. maturity
d. saturation
e. inflation
Q14. Which of the following is TRUE regarding computer-aided design?
a. It is too expensive to use in most manufacturing and design settings.
b. It is an obsolete technology.
c. It results in longer development cycles for virtually all products.
d. It is the use of computers to interactively design products and prepare engineering documentation.
e. It is the use of information technology to control machinery.
Q15. Product strategy may focus on developing a competitive advantage via differentiation, low cost, rapid response, or a combination of these.
a. True
b. False
Q16. The role of decision trees in product design is to:
a. rank products in descending order of their dollar contribution to the firm.
b. better understand the customers' wants.
c. calculate the expected value of each course of action.
d. calculate the value of quality function deployment.
e. calculate the value of the moment of truth.
Q17. The analysis tool that lists products in descending order of their individual dollar contribution to the firm is:
a. decision tree analysis.
b. Pareto analysis.
c. breakeven analysis.
d. product-by-value analysis.
e. product life cycle analysis.
Q18. 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.
Q19. Total quality management emphasizes:
a. the responsibility of the quality control staff to identify and solve all quality-related problems.
b. a commitment to quality that goes beyond internal company issues to suppliers and customers.
c. a system where strong managers are the only decision makers.
d. a process where mostly statisticians get involved.
e. ISO 14000 certification.
Q20. An improvement in quality must necessarily increase costs.
a. True
b. False
Q21. Which of the determinants of service quality involves performing the service right the first time?
a. access
b. courtesy
c. credibility
d. reliability
e. responsiveness
Q22. Based on his 14 Points, Deming is a strong proponent of:
a. inspection at the end of the production process.
b. an increase in numerical quotas to boost productivity.
c. looking for the cheapest supplier.
d. training and knowledge.
e. all of the above.
Q23. A manager tells her production employees, "It's no longer good enough that your work falls anywhere within the specification limits. I need your work to be as close to the target value as possible." Her thinking is reflective of:
a. internal benchmarking.
b. Six Sigma.
c. ISO 9000.
d. Taguchi concepts.
e. process control charts.
Q24. According to the manufacturing-based definition of quality:
a. quality is the degree of excellence at an acceptable price and the control of variability at an acceptable cost.
b. quality depends on how well the product fits patterns of consumer preferences.
c. even though quality cannot be defined, you know what it is.
d. quality is the degree to which a specific product conforms to standards.
e. quality lies in the eyes of the beholder.
Q25. A firm's process strategy is its approach to transforming resources into goods and services.
a. True
b. False
Q26. Which of the following products is likely to be assembled on a repetitive process line?
a. automobiles
b. custom personal computers
c. custom cakes
d. steel
e. beer
Q27. Advances in technology:
a. have impacted the manufacturing sector only.
b. have had only a limited impact on services.
c. have failed to change the level of customer interaction with an organization.
d. have had a dramatic impact on customer interaction with services and with products.
e. have dramatically changed health care, but have not changed retailing.
Q28. Which of the following are all strategies for improving productivity in services?
a. separation, self-service, automation, and scheduling
b. lean production, strategy-driven investments, automation, and process focus
c. reduce inventory, reduce waste, reduce inspection, and reduce rework
d. high interaction, mass customization, service factory, and just-in-time
e. process focus, repetitive focus, product focus, and mass customization focus
Q29. Which of the following industries is most likely to have low equipment utilization?
a. auto manufacturing
b. commercial baking
c. television manufacturing
d. steel manufacturing
e. restaurants
Q30. One of the similarities between process focus and mass-customization is:
a. the volume of outputs.
b. the use of modules.
c. many departments and many routings.
d. the variety of outputs.
e. All of the above are similarities.
Q31. Which of the following is a location analysis technique typically employed by a service organization?
a. purchasing power analysis
b. linear programming
c. queuing theory
d. transportation method
e. locational cost-volume analysis
Q32. A jewelry store is more likely than a jewelry manufacturer to consider ________ in making a location decision.
a. transportation costs
b. cost of raw materials
c. appearance/image of the location
d. quality of life
e. taxes
Q33. Nowadays location decisions worldwide are often being based on what?
a. rivers
b. rail hubs
c. interstate highways
d. ports
e. airports
Q34. Which of the following is most likely to affect the location decision of a service firm rather than a manufacturing firm?
a. energy and utility costs
b. attitude toward unions
c. parking and access
d. cost of shipping finished goods
e. labor costs
Q35. Operations management is applicable:
a. mostly to the service sector.
b. to services exclusively.
c. mostly to the manufacturing sector.
d. to all firms, whether manufacturing or service.
e. to the manufacturing sector exclusively.
Q36. Productivity is generally more difficult to improve in the service sector than in the manufacturing sector.
a. True
b. False
Q37. What is a global network of organizations and activities that supply a firm with goods and services?
a. supply tree
b. provider network
c. supply chain
d. vendor network
e. vendor tree
Q38. Operations management is the set of activities that creates value in the form of goods and services by transforming inputs into outputs.
a. True
b. False
Q39. Productivity measurement is complicated by:
a. the competition's output.
b. the fact that precise units of measure are often unavailable.
c. stable quality.
d. the workforce size.
e. the type of equipment used.
Q40. Which of the following tasks within an airline company are related to operations?
a. crew scheduling
b. international monetary exchange
c. sales
d. advertising
e. accounts payable