Q&A Hero

Q: (p. 21) Sustainability is the ability to maintain profits in a system.

Q: The demand on a hospital's emergency medical services is considered an uncontrollable arrival pattern of the calling population.

Q: (p. 21) The "triple bottom line" relates to the economic, employee, and environmental impact of a firm's strategy.

Q: The demand on a hospital's emergency medical services is considered a controllable arrival pattern of the calling population.

Q: (p. 19) Business process reengineering, which seeks revolutionary change, is contrasted with total quality management which commonly advocates incremental change.

Q: The Poisson probability distribution is used in waiting line management when we are interested in the number of arrivals to a queue during some fixed time period.

Q: Arrival characteristics in a queuing problem include the length of the queue.

Q: (p. 19) The approach that advocates making revolutionary changes as opposed to evolutionary changes is called "business process reengineering."

Q: A constant arrival rate is more common in waiting line management than a variable arrival rate.

Q: (p. 19) The approach that advocates making revolutionary changes as opposed to evolutionary changes is called creation theory.

Q: A variable arrival rate is more common in waiting line management than a constant arrival rate.

Q: (p. 18) The Baldrige National Quality Award was started under the direction of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Q: (p. 18) Lean manufacturing refers to just in time production coupled with total quality control.

Q: An infinite population in waiting line management refers to a population that is large enough in relation to the service system so that the population size caused by subtraction or additions to the population does not significantly affect the system probabilities.

Q: (p. 17; Figure 1-7 & page-18) Just in time (JIT) production was a major breakthrough in manufacturing philosophy pioneered by the Japanese.

Q: A finite population in waiting line management refers to a population that is large enough in relation to the service system so that the population size caused by subtraction or additions to the population does not significantly affect the system probabilities.

Q: (p. 16) A supply chain manager is an OSCM job while a purchasing manager is not.

Q: The customer arrivals in a queuing system come almost exclusively from infinite populations.

Q: (p. 16) A bank branch manager position is not an OSCM-type of job.

Q: The customer arrivals in a queuing system come almost exclusively from finite populations.

Q: (p. 16) In contrast to careers in finance and marketing, careers in OSCM involve hands-on involvement with people and processes.

Q: Ideally in waiting line or queuing analysis we want to balance the cost of service capacity with the cost of waiting.

Q: (p. 10) "Product-service bundling" refers to a company building service activities into its product offerings for its customers.

Q: The central problem in virtually every waiting line situation is a trade-off decision balancing the costs of adding services with the costs of waiting.

Q: (p. 10) Core service providers integrate tangible goods into their product.

Q: (p. 9) Automobiles and appliances are classified as "pure goods."

Q: One of the major conclusions in job design is that task variety and skill variety are important job design principles.

Q: Sociotechnical systems is an approach to job design that focuses on the interaction between technology and the work group.

Q: (p. 9) Services are defined and evaluated as a package of features that affect the five senses.

Q: Job enrichment generally entails adjusting a specialized job to make it more interesting to the jobholder.

Q: One of the disadvantages of adopting specialization of labor as a job design principle for labor is boredom.

Q: (p. 9) Services are homogeneous.

Q: "Informating" ordinary workers means using electronic methods to give them instructions.

Q: (p. 8) Service innovations can be patented.

Q: One objective in managing people is to make them work as hard as possible so that the value of their output will exceed the cost of employing them.

Q: (p. 8) Services are intangible processes that cannot be weighed or measured.

Q: Requiring little or no education is one of the advantages for management in adopting specialization of labor as a job design principle.

Q: (p. 8) Delivering is not considered in supply chain analysis when outside carriers are contracted to move products to customers.

Q: One of the behavioral considerations in job design includes job enrichment.

Q: (p. 8) Returning involves processes for receiving worn-out, defective, and excess products back from customers but does not involve support for customers who have problems with the product.

Q: One of the behavioral considerations in job design includes the degree of labor specialization.

Q: (p. 7) A major aspect of planning involves developing a set of metrics to monitor the supply chain.

Q: Specialization of labor does not appear to have serious adverse effects on workers.

Q: (p. 7) Operations and supply chain processes can be conveniently categorized as planning, sourcing, making, and delivering.

Q: Extensive use of temporary workers can have an effect on job design.

Q: (p. 7) Use of systems like point-of-sale, radio-frequency identification tags, bar-code scanners, and automatic recognition has made it more difficult to understand what all the information is saying.

Q: Job design is defined as the function of specifying the work activities of an individual or group in an organizational setting.

Q: (p. 7) Capturing information directly from the source through such systems as point-of-sale, radio-frequency identification tags, bar-code scanners, and automatic recognition has had little impact on Operations and Supply Chain Management.

Q: When the textbook presented the topic of job design decisions, the "what" of these decisions concerned the tasks to be performed.

Q: (p. 7) Internet technology has made the sharing of reliable real-time information expensive.

Q: Work measurement is necessary to set time standards for a job. Why are such standards needed?

Q: (p. 7) Operations and supply management changes constantly because of the dynamic nature of competing in global business and the constant evolution of information technology.

Q: Describe the distinction between horizontal and vertical form of job enlargement. Under what conditions would you use either?

Q: (p. 7) All managers should understand the basic principles that guide the design of transformation processes.

Q: Describe some of the benefits and drawbacks to specialization of labor from the perspectives of management and from the perspective of labor?

Q: (p. 7) The supply chain processes mentioned in the textbook are: planning, sourcing, delivering, and returning.

Q: What are the four basic methods for measuring work and setting standards?

Q: (p. 7) Although planning involves determining how the various supply chain processes (sourcing, making, delivering, and returning) will be met, planning itself is not considered a supply chain process.

Q: What are the four reasons that time standards are necessary as given in the text?

Q: (p. 7) Planning is where a firm must determine how anticipated demand will be met with available resources.

Q: The text discusses eight current trends that are affecting job design decisions. What are they?

Q: (p. 6) It is critical that a sustainable strategy meet the needs of shareholders and employees. It is also highly desirable that it preserves the environment.

Q: A worker was producing a product for which the standard time was one minute per unit. During an eight hour workday, the worker produced 520 units. What would be the worker's pay for that day if the basic pay rate was $10.00 per hour and the piece rate bonus was $2.00 per unit above standard? A. $80.00 B. $96.00 C. $120.00 D. $160.00 E. $180.00

Q: A time study was made of a job to develop new time standards. A worker was observed for 30 minutes. During that time, 40 units were produced. The analyst rated the worker as performing at a 120 percent performance rate. Allowances for rest and personal time are 20 percent. What is the standard time for this task? A. 0.75 minutes B. 0.98 minutes C. 1.00 minutes D. 1.08 minutes E. 1.33 minutes

Q: (p. 7) "Supply Chain" includes only inbound freight and inventory.

Q: A time study was made of a job to develop new time standards. A worker was observed for 30 minutes. During that time, 40 units were produced. The analyst rated the worker as performing at a 120 percent performance rate. What is the normal time for this task? A. 0.80 minutes B. 0.90 minutes C. 1.00 minutes D. 1.20 minutes E. 1.33 minutes

Q: (p. 7) "Supply Chain" refers to processes that move information and material to and from the manufacturing and service processes of the firm.

Q: An advantage that work sampling has over time study is: A. Observers can develop a repetitive route of travel B. Provides more accurate information when the work cycle is short C. Effects of short-term variations are minimized D. Results are available more promptly E. A union is less likely to dispute the results

Q: (p. 6) "Operations" refers to manufacturing and service processes used to transform resources employed by a firm into products desired by customers.

Q: In work sampling, which one of the following main issues must be decided before undertaking the study? A. How much money will be saved B. How many observations are necessary C. What is the ratio of time to money savings D. Whether a stop watch or video camera should be used E. What data shall be collected

Q: (p. 6) Supply networks cannot be constructed for every product or service.

Q: Which of the following is not a reason to choose time study rather than work sampling? A. When the cycle time is short B. When a complete a breakdown of elements is desired C. When results are not required quickly D. When the observers develop a repetitive route of travel E. When the system is in the process of change

Q: (p. 6) The supply network as can be thought of as a pipeline through which cash, material and information flows.

Q: Which of the following is not an advantage of work sampling over time study? A. Several work-sampling studies may be conducted simultaneously by one observer B. No timing devices are required C. Work of a long cycle time may be studied with fewer observer hours D. Work sampling gives more precise results E. The study may be temporarily delayed at any time with little effect

Q: (p. 4) OSCM is a functional field of business with clear line management responsibilities.

Q: Which of the following is one of the primary reasons for work sampling? A. To exploit the Hawthorne effect B. To measure performance C. Re-sequencing tasks on an assembly line D. To keep the work force alert E. To try out different jobs

Q: (p. 4) OSCM is concerned with management of the trickiest parts of the system that produces a good or delivers a service.

Q: Which of the following are not used as reasons to justify time allowances in a time study analysis? A. Going to the washroom B. Unavoidable work delays C. Worker fatigue D. Worker illness E. Coffee breaks

Q: (p. 18) Central to the concept of operations strategy are the notions of operations focus and trade-offs.

Q: If the normal time for a job is 30 minutes and the allowances for the job include 10 percent for personal needs, 5 percent for unavoidable work delays and 3 percent for work fatigue, which one of the following comes closest to the standard time for this job? A. 14 minutes B. 24 minutes C. 32 minutes D. 35 minutes E. 38 minutes