Q&A Hero

Q: An industrial engineer observes a brand new process and develops time standards for several of the manual components of the production line. What are the implications of learning effects on the time standards and the line balance? What could be done to address this situation?

Q: A manager of a company producing computer chips knows that in the early stages of production for a new product, the expenditures exceed receipts, whereas in the latter stages, the reverse is true. Give an explanation for this phenomenon.

Q: Compare and contrast the method of time study to the method of work sampling. What are the strengths and limitations of each, and for which applications are they best suited?

Q: Explain why a sampling schedule is important in a work sampling study.

Q: Consider the four steps in a time study. If an analyst were to make a mistake, during which step would the impact on the standard time be the greatest? Explain your reasoning.

Q: You have been hired as an external consultant to improve processes at a business. You are unfamiliar with exactly how the work is currently done but are intimately familiar with charting techniques and data analysis tools. What is a general sequence for use of these tools and why should you use them in the sequence you specify?

Q: The sales team has just finished creating a process chart of the sales-call process. After fifteen minutes of high-fiving, they decide to tape the flowchart to the conference room wall and stand back a safe distance admiring the many symbols on the chart. You join them, and while you don't know much about sales calls, your expertise in process analysis and improvement is well-respected. What would you look for in the chart that would let you know whether their sales-call process was well-conceived?

Q: How can flowcharts and process charts be used to study and improve operations? Include descriptions of these two tools, the types of questions that can be addressed with them, and the extent to which teams can be used.

Q: A(n) ________ is a diagram that relates a key quality problem to its potential causes.

Q: A(n) ________ would be a useful tool to determine the effect that the number of practice problems solved correctly has on the midterm score.

Q: A(n) ________ is a bar chart on which the factors are plotted in decreasing order of frequency along the horizontal axis.

Q: A(n) ________ is a form used to record the frequency of occurrence of certain product or service characteristics related to quality.

Q: An eighty percent learning curve means that for each doubling of output, the time required to complete the last task is ________ percent less than before.

Q: The ________ can be represented by a line called a learning curve.

Q: ________ involves estimating the proportion of time spent by people and machines on activities, based on a large number of observations.

Q: The time added to adjust for factors such as fatigue or equipment malfunction is called ________.

Q: ________ is the process of creating labor standards based on the judgment of skilled observers.

Q: The ________ in a service blueprint separates which steps are in view of the customer from those that aren't.

Q: A(n) ________ shows processing steps grouped according to which company department is responsible for performing them.

Q: ________ is represented in a process flow chart when an outgoing arrow from one step splits into two or more arrows that lead to different boxes.

Q: A restaurant manager tracks complaints from the diner satisfaction cards that are turned in at each table. The data collected from the past week's diners have been plotted and appear in the following graph. The number of complaints for each category is with each bar. How was the value for the point represented by the triangle calculated? A) B) C) D)

Q: Which of the following analyses is best suited for a scatter diagram? A) A professor plots a student's exam score against the number of homework problems the student completed prior to the exam. B) A professor determines a student's letter grade based on their final course average. C) A professor determines the curve on the most recent exam by categorizing students into groups called A, B, C, etc. D) A professor studies his student evaluations and classifies complaints into broad categories such as Assign More Homework and Make Exams More Challenging.

Q: A farmer that has been well-trained in the scientific method divides his acreage into several plots and plants the same variety of hay in each. He varies the amount of fertilizer applied to each plot and carefully records the yield, in bales per acre, for each of the plots. Which of these tools would be the best to help him analyze the effect of fertilizer application on hay yield? A) cause and effect diagram B) scatter diagram C) Pareto chart D) flow chart

Q: A restaurant manager tracks complaints from the diner satisfaction cards that are turned in at each table. The data collected from the past week's diners appear in the following table. Complaint Frequency Food taste 80 Food temperature 9 Order mistake 2 Slow service 16 Table/utensils dirty 47 Too expensive 4 Using a classic Pareto analysis, what bottom categories comprise about 20% of the total complaints? A) Order mistake, Too expensive, Food temperature B) Slow service, Order mistake C) Food taste, Food temperature, Slow service D) Food taste, Table/utensils dirty

Q: A restaurant manager tracks complaints from the diner satisfaction cards that are turned in at each table. The data collected from the past week's diners appear in the following table. Complaint Frequency Food taste 27 Food temperature 9 Order mistake 5 Slow service 19 Table/utensils dirty 47 Too expensive 9 Using a classic Pareto analysis, what top categories comprise 80% of the total complaints? A) Table/utensils dirty B) Table/utensils dirty, Food taste, Slow service C) Food taste, Food temperature, Order mistake, Slow service, Table/utensils dirty D) Food taste, Food temperature, Order mistake, Slow service, Too expensive

Q: Which one of the following techniques will help management trace customer complaints directly to the process involved? A) cause-and-effect diagram B) quality circles C) quality engineering D) specification management

Q: A manager of a fiberglass molding operation suspects that the number of process failures is related to the number of total units produced of a particular product. A tool most useful in this analysis would be a: A) checklist. B) cause-and-effect diagram. C) Pareto chart. D) scatter diagram.

Q: A process troubleshooter has to decide which problem to address first with his or her cause-and-effect diagram. The data analysis tool that will help him decide which problem to tackle first is a: A) scatter diagram. B) check sheet. C) flowchart. D) Pareto chart.

Q: Table 2.15 An analyst notes the time that customer appointments end with a tax preparer that is assigned customers requiring only the 1040EZ form. The times indicated in the table represent the departure times of the first eight clients for one tax preparation specialist. The 1040EZ tax forms among the different customers are very similar. The tax preparer started the first return at 12:00pm. Customer # Time 1 12:45 pm 2 1:22 pm 3 1:55 pm 4 2:26 pm 5 2:56 pm 6 3:24 pm 7 3:50 pm 8 4:15 pm Based on Table 2.15, how long should it take the tax preparer to complete the 16th return of the day? A) 16 minutes B) 19 minutes C) 21 minutes D) 24 minutes

Q: The first unit of production takes 20 hours to produce and the learning rate is expected to be 90 percent. How long will it take to produce the twelfth unit? A) less than or equal to 11.0 hours B) greater than 11.0 hours but less than or equal to 13.0 hours C) greater than 13.0 but less than or equal to 15.0 hours D) greater than 15.0 hours

Q: The first unit of production takes 20 hours to produce and the learning rate is expected to be 90 percent. How long will it take to produce the eighth unit? A) less than or equal to 12.0 hours B) greater than 12.0 hours but less than or equal to 15.0 hours C) greater than 15.0 but less than or equal to 18.0 hours D) greater than 18.0 hours

Q: The first unit of production takes 20 hours to produce and the learning rate is expected to be 90 percent. How long will it take to produce the fourth unit? A) less than or equal to 12.0 hours B) greater than 12.0 hours but less than or equal to 15.0 hours C) greater than 15.0 but less than or equal to 18.0 hours D) greater than 18.0 hours

Q: The first unit of production takes 12 hours to produce and the learning rate is expected to be 80 percent. How long will it take to produce the sixth unit? A) less than or equal to 6.0 hours B) greater than 6.0 hours but less than or equal to 7.7 hours C) greater than 7.7 but less than or equal to 9.5 hours D) greater than 8.0 hours

Q: The first unit of production takes 12 hours to produce and the learning rate is expected to be 80 percent. How long will it take to produce the fourth unit? A) less than or equal to 7.0 hours B) greater than 7.0 hours but less than or equal to 7.5 hours C) greater than 7.5 but less than or equal to 8.0 hours D) greater than 8.0 hours

Q: A work sampling method is used to determine the proportion of the time a worker is idle. The following information was gathered on a random basis. Day No. of Times Clerk Idle Total No. of Observations Monday 8 26 Tuesday 8 32 Wednesday 7 28 Thursday 7 34 What is the proportion of idle time observed for this worker? A) less than or equal to 5% B) greater than 5% but less than or equal to 10% C) greater than 10% but less than or equal to 20% D) greater than 20%

Q: A work sampling method is used to determine the proportion of the time a worker is idle. The following information was gathered on a random basis. Time No. of Times Clerk Idle Total No. of Observations 8:00 - 10:00 am 2 6 10:00 am - 12:00 pm 3 8 1:00 - 3:00 pm 2 7 3:00 - 5:00 pm 1 9 What is the proportion of idle time observed for this worker? A) less than or equal to 5% B) greater than 5% but less than or equal to 10% C) greater than 10% but less than or equal to 20% D) greater than 20%

Q: A work sampling method is used to determine the proportion of the time a machine is idle. The following information was gathered on a random basis. Day No. Times Machine Idle Total No. of Observations Monday 4 12 Tuesday 2 8 Wednesday 4 10 Thursday 2 10 What is the proportion of idle time observed for this machine? A) less than or equal to 5% B) greater than 5% but less than or equal to 15% C) greater than 15% but less than or equal to 25% D) greater than 25%

Q: Work sampling is most often used in situations in which: A) a time standard is needed for a repetitive job. B) an estimate of the proportion of the time spent on a particular activity is needed. C) it is important to keep the sample size down. D) special training is required for the observer, and stopwatches must be used.

Q: Which work measurement technique breaks down tasks into a series of generic micromotions? A) time study method B) elemental standard data approach C) predetermined data approach D) work-sampling method

Q: Which of the following is not an advantage of the predetermined data approach to work measurement? A) Standards can be set before production begins. B) New work methods can be compared without conducting a time study. C) Performance ratings are not needed to derive standards. D) The approach is particularly applicable to firms with a flexible flow strategy.

Q: A manager is interested in setting a time standard for a machining operation. Which one of the following is least likely to be of use? A) time-study method B) elemental standard data approach C) predetermined data approach D) work sampling method

Q: A time study analyst is attempting to determine the standard time for a work element. She observes a worker performing the work element at a higher-than-average pace. How will this fact be reflected in the time standard that is eventually created? A) The frequency of the work element per cycle will be increased. B) The proportion of allowance time will be increased above 1.0. C) The performance rating factor will be set greater than 1.0. D) The normal time for the work element will be increased.

Q: Scenario 2.3 A job consists of three elements. Twenty observations for each element were timed, and the resulting data are shown in the following table. A performance rating has also been assigned for each element, as shown in the table. The job has an allowance of 15% of normal time. Element Performance Rating (%) Average Element Time (in minutes) # 1 70 3.6 # 2 110 2.5 # 3 90 3.1 Use the information in Scenario 2.3. What is the standard time for the entire job? A) greater than or equal to 10.0 minutes B) less than 10.0 minutes but greater than or equal to 8.5 minutes C) less than 8.5 minutes but greater than or equal to 7.0 minutes D) less than 7.0 minutes

Q: Keith assembles peanut valves and the recorded data is displayed in the table. What is the normal time for this job element if he is rated at 75%? Time (minutes) Observations 2.5 15 3.0 23 3.5 27 A) greater than or equal to 3 minutes B) less than 3 minutes but greater than or equal to 2.6 minutes C) less than 2.6 minutes but greater than or equal to 2.2 minutes D) less than 2.2 minutes

Q: Garman observes a worker assembling peanut valves and records the data displayed in the table. What is the normal time for this job element if the worker is rated at 80%? Time (seconds) Observations 20 10 25 15 30 12 35 12 A) less than 23 seconds B) greater than or equal to 23 seconds but less than 26 seconds C) greater than or equal to 26 seconds but less than 29 seconds D) greater than or equal to 29 seconds

Q: Use the information in Scenario 2.2. What is the standard time for this job element if the allowance for the process is 20%? A) 15.06 seconds B) 14.92 seconds C) 13.42 seconds D) 11.19 seconds

Q: Scenario 2.2 Garman observes a worker assembling peanut valves and records the data displayed in the table. Time (seconds) Observations 10 18 15 25 20 17 Use the information in Scenario 2.2. What is the normal time for this job element if the rating factor is 75%? A) 15.06 seconds B) 14.92 seconds C) 13.42 seconds D) 11.19 seconds

Q: Highly customized job processes and processes that are highly divergent require the use of: A) the time study method. B) the elemental standard data approach. C) the predetermined data approach. D) the work sampling method.

Q: A professor can grade a quiz in 2 minutes. Over the course of an academic year he has 6 sections of a course with an average of 25 students with 10 quizzes in each section. If he is paid $40 an hour, how much is his annual quiz-grading labor cost to the university? A) $250 B) $500 C) $1,000 D) $2,000

Q: A professor's graduate assistant can grade a quiz in 40 seconds. Over the course of an academic year he assists with 6 sections of a course with an average of 30 students with 10 quizzes in each section. If he is paid $8 an hour, how much is his annual quiz-grading labor cost to the university? A) $60 B) $160 C) $576 D) $576,000

Q: A professor can grade a quiz in 30 seconds. Over the course of an academic year he has 6 sections of a course with an average of 30 students with 10 quizzes in each section. If he is paid $40 an hour, how much is his annual quiz-grading labor cost to the university? A) $60 B) $100 C) $600 D) $36,000

Q: A process chart activity that occurs when something is put away until a later time is a(n): A) storage. B) transportation. C) inspection. D) delay.

Q: The five categories of activities (operation, transportation, inspection, delay, and storage) are used in which of the following methods of process analysis? A) multiple-activity chart B) process chart C) capital budgeting D) flow diagram

Q: Which one of the following groups of activities is likely to be shown on a process chart? A) operation, inspection, delay B) operation, capital intensity, flow strategy C) transportation, material flow, physical layout D) storage, delay, personnel involved

Q: A process chart activity that checks or verifies something but does not change it is a(n): A) operation. B) transportation. C) inspection. D) delay.

Q: A process chart activity that changes, creates, or adds something is a(n): A) operation. B) transportation. C) inspection. D) delay.

Q: An effective tool for showing steps of a service process with a high level of customer contact is a: A) Pareto chart. B) flowchart. C) service blueprint. D) check sheet.

Q: A swim lane flowchart is an appropriate tool to use when: A) the process features only intangible outputs. B) the process involves more than one department. C) the process scope is difficult to define. D) the process has a person or group of people at a workstation or with a customer.

Q: Cross-functional coordination is at particular risk where: A) there is low process divergence. B) there are handoffs in the process. C) swim lane flowcharts are utilized. D) it is not possible to create a flowchart.

Q: A flowchart created at the strategic level of an organization should show: A) core processes and their linkages. B) details of a process as bracketed by its scope. C) individual steps that may have been aggregated at a higher level of analysis. D) areas that are seen and unseen by the customer.

Q: A flowchart traces the flow of all except the following: A) information through a process. B) customers through a process. C) equipment through a process. D) safety regulations through a process.

Q: A fishbone diagram identifies which category is most frequently observed out of all the categories for which you have data.

Q: A scatter diagram is a graphical technique that shows whether two variables may be related.

Q: The general principle that 80% of a company's complaints are generated by 20% of its product or service issues is known as the Pareto concept.

Q: The best data analysis tool for recording which gas pump most customers use would be a checklist.

Q: The learning curve for a process depends on the rate of learning and the actual or estimated time for the first unit processed.

Q: A learning curve is a line showing the relationship between processing time and the cumulative quantity of a product or service produced.

Q: When using work sampling, the times of day when the analyst collects the sample data should be selected at random over the length of the study.

Q: Work sampling can be used to estimate the proportion of time spent by people or machines on activities.

Q: A predetermined data approach to time standards can be completed before actual production begins.

Q: The predetermined data approach eliminates the need for time studies.

Q: Elemental standard time data can help managers develop time standards for new work before production begins.

Q: Formal work measurement techniques estimate average times for each step in a process by relying on the judgment of skilled observers.

Q: A service blueprint is a flowchart of a service process that shows which of its steps has high customer contact.

Q: In a swim lane flowchart, the line of visibility is used to separate the process steps in view of the customer from those hidden from view of the customer.

Q: Flowcharts, service blueprints, and process charts are effective for defining and measuring processes.

Q: The authors list six key elements of reengineering. Pick any three and describe their contribution to the reengineering effort.

Q: A(n) ________ means that a department focuses on its own tasks without understanding the role and processes of departments outside its own organizational boundaries.

Q: Gaps between actual and desired performance are called ________.

Q: ________ are performance measures that are established for a process and the steps within it.