Deck 1: Creating Customer Value through Operations

Question 1

Processes of multiple firms can be linked together to form a chain reaction.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

As the value of output per work hour goes up,the nation's standard of living is lowered.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Processes do not necessarily add value to every customer along the supply chains.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The process of baking a doughnut at Tim Hortons is a manufacturing process.

Question 5

Competitive priorities are the means by which operations implements the firm's corporate strategies.

Question 6

Every process has a customer.

Question 7

Operations management refers to the direction and control of inputs that transform processes into products and services.

Question 8

A nested process refers to a process within a process.

Question 9

Inputs to a process can include human resources.

Question 10

A process involves transforming inputs into outputs.

Question 11

Over the last decade the gains in labour productivity in Canada have been greater in the manufacturing sector than in the service sector.

Question 12

Labour productivity is an index of the output per person or hours worked.

Question 13

Entering into regional trade blocks such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)tends to lessen the competitive pressures on manufacturers located within member countries such as Canada.

Question 14

Productivity is measured as input over output.

Question 15

As a percentage of total employment within the Canadian economy,jobs in the service sector have declined over the past 40 years.

Question 16

Relative to strategic decisions,tactical decisions are less structured and have longer-term consequences.

Question 17

Today,most products are made of material and services from around the world.

Question 18

Today,many environmental issues are receiving more emphasis.

Question 19

Many service operations have little outside customer contact.

Question 20

Many companies today compete on the basis of time.

Question 21

Multifactor productivity measures are determined by measuring more than one of the input resources used to produce outputs.

Question 22

Lead time is the elapsed time between the receipt of a customer order and filling it.

Question 23

One factor used to determine market segments is psychological factors.

Question 24

Core process is a set of activities that delivers values to internal customers.

Question 25

One effective global strategy is strategic alliances.

Question 26

Delivery time should always be less than two days.

Question 27

An operations management department typically performs one process.

Question 28

Developing an operations strategy that delivers customer value begins with an corporate strategy.

Question 29

An increase in the value of the Canadian dollar relative to other currencies lessens the pressure on manufacturing companies based in Canada to consider locating facilities in low-cost labour countries such as China and India.

Question 30

Measuring the number of square metres of carpet installed per day by an installer working for a flooring company is example of a multifactor measure of productivity.

Question 31

The first step of needs assessment is market analysis.

Question 32

Flexibility is a possible competitive priority.

Question 33

On a per capita basis,as a nation Canada is one of lowest emitters of greenhouse gases in the world.

Question 34

Functions within an organization are characterized by having their own knowledge and skill areas,primary responsibilities,processes,and decision domains.

Question 35

In business setting,a crucial reason for monitoring is to stay ahead of the competition.

Question 36

Consistent quality is unimportant to today's consumers.

Question 37

Support processes provide key resources,capabilities,or other inputs that allow the core processes to function.

Question 38

Customer benefit bundle consists of a core good and/or service and a set of peripheral goods and Services.

Question 39

An organization is only as effective as its managers.

Question 40

In computing a multifactor measure of productivity,the inputs can be measured in different units such as dollars,labour hours,volume of materials used,etc.

Question 41

Order qualifier refers to the criterion customers use to differentiate the services or goods of one firm from those of another.

Question 42

Multifactor productivity is an index of the output provided by more than one of the resources used in production.

Question 43

Labour productivity in Canadian business has improved by an average of 3.1 percent annually over the past four decades.

Question 44

Productivity is the value of outputs produced divided by the total values of resources.

Question 45

The principles of operations management is strictly for the supervisor to direct customers' traffic.

Question 46

An operations strategy is a pattern of decisions and investments over time that develop a competitive advantage.

Question 47

China and India have comparative cost advantages over Canada and the U.S.

Question 48

Order qualifier refers to the demonstrated level of performance of an order winner that is required for a firm to do business in a particular market segment.

Question 49

Which one of the following statements regarding operations management is TRUE?

A) Inputs to a production system include capital and materials, but not human resources.
B) Operations management deals only with manufacturing organizations because service organizations do not have tangible outputs.
C) Typical inputs to a production system are processes and consumer goods.
D) Customer participation and information on performance are two special types of inputs to a production system.

Question 50

Which one of the following statements concerning measures of productivity is FALSE?

A) The number of insurance claims processed per week by employees in an insurance company is a valid measure of productivity.
B) Productivity is measured as the ratio of outputs divided by inputs.
C) Multifactor measures of productivity must convert the quantities being measured to a common unit of measure such as dollars.
D) Measures of labour productivity are generally more informative than multifactor measures of productivity.

Question 51

Nationalization is a political risk in which a government may take over a firm's assets without paying compensation.

Question 52

Operations management is part of a production system that can be described in the following manner: Organization: inputs-processes-outputs.Which one of the following correctly describes a production system?

A) Airline: pilots-planes-transportation
B) Bank: tellers-computer equipment-deposits
C) Furniture manufacturer: wood-sanding-chair
D) Telephone company: satellites-cables-communication

Question 53

In countries such as Canada,the United States,Japan and Germany,productivity gains in the service sector

A) have tended to lag gains in labour productivity in manufacturing.
B) have improved recently with widespread adoption of the Internet as a means to service customers more directly.
C) have accelerated with greater international competition in areas such as financial services.
D) all the above

Question 54

Which one of the following statements concerning productivity is TRUE?

A) Accounting for several inputs simultaneously is not possible.
B) The low growth in service productivity has had little effect on overall productivity in countries such as Canada and the U.S..
C) Multifactor productivity is an index of the output provided by more than one of the resources used in production.
D) Productivity improvement is achieved by increasing the inputs used to produce a given level of output.

Question 55

Labour productivity is an index of the output per person or hour worked.

Question 56

Which one of the following statements is TRUE?

A) The share of the workforce in service jobs in countries such as Canada, France, Britain, Japan, and the United States is well above 60 percent.
B) Service-sector organizations generally cannot utilize operations management techniques.
C) The absolute number of Canadian manufacturing jobs has decreased since the late 1950s because the percentage of service jobs in the economy increased.
D) Because outputs from service organizations typically cannot be inventoried, inventories are of little importance to service systems.

Question 57

Regional trading blocs such as NAFTA and the EU further change the competitive landscape in both services and manufacturing.

Question 58

Machine productivity is a measure where the denominator is the number of machines.

Question 59

The percentage of the workforce in service jobs in some industrialized countries such as Canada,France,Japan,and Britain is

A) much lower than that of the manufacturing sector in these countries.
B) more than 60 percent of the total workforce in these countries.
C) higher than that in the manufacturing sector now, but shows a declining trend.
D) lower than that in the manufacturing sector now, but shows a rising trend.

Question 60

Consistent quality is the frequency with which the product or service meets any specification.

Question 61

Competitive priorities define the dimensions on which the firm should excel with its products or services.Which one of the following statements regarding this concept is TRUE?

A) The strategy of emphasizing lower price is most appropriate when the product is highly differentiated.
B) McDonald's restaurants emphasize high-performance design quality rather than consistent quality.
C) All eight dimensions of competitive priorities should be equally emphasized in order to service the increasingly competitive market of the 1990s.
D) Often there are trade-offs among competitive priorities; thus, the best emphasis is situational.

Question 62

Which of the following technologies is least likely to help companies to improve their competitiveness?

A) electronic mail
B) the Internet
C) automated robots
D) keypunch cards

Question 63

what is the relative emphasis or weighting of the dimensions of customer value that operations management must possess to outperform its competitors?

A) Market differentiation
B) Competitive priorities
C) Suppliers' bargain
D) Customers' promo

Question 64

Which of the following is NOT of the six broad dimensions of customer value that collectively create the customer benefit bundle?

A) Negotiation
B) Quality
C) Flexibility
D) Innovation

Question 65

Which of the following refers to the interconnected network of processes across different firms that produce a service or product to the satisfaction of customers ?

A) General process
B) Demand factor
C) Chain reaction
D) Supply chain

Question 66

Which of the following skill areas is NOT fundamental to operations managers?

A) quantitative analysis
B) knowledge of information systems
C) understanding of international business
D) advertising tactics

Question 67

Which of the following process is NOT one of the four core processes in the supply chain?

A) Demand relationship process
B) Order fulfilment process
C) Customer relationship process
D) New product development

Question 68

Which one of the following statements is TRUE?

A) Increased market segmentation and technological advances mandate long development cycles.
B) Recent trends are for manufacturing firms not to involve operations until the final design stage has been reached.
C) The process of concurrent engineering requires design engineers, manufacturing specialists, and marketers to work jointly in designing a product and selecting a production process.
D) Firms like Ford and Honda found that the concept of concurrent engineering is not cost effective.

Question 69

Which of the following is the responsibility of operations?

A) develop new products and services
B) transform inputs into new products and services
C) transport inputs and outputs
D) interpret financial information

Question 70

The text views operations management in several different ways.One acceptable view of operations management is as a

A) corporate function in which the best way to finance corporate assets is determined.
B) system wherein inputs pass through one or more operations and are transformed into outputs (goods or services).
C) set of decisions related to budgeting the annual resources between different functional areas.
D) set of decisions related to product pricing and marketing.

Question 71

Competitive priorities define the dimensions on which companies should excel in producing their products or services.Which one of the following statements is TRUE?

A) A firm that competes on the dimension of volume flexibility is more likely to manufacture products that experience a seasonal demand variation.
B) It is impossible for a firm to improve cost and quality simultaneously.
C) A firm offering little customization cannot compete simultaneously on the dimension of consistent quality.
D) A firm that competes on the dimension of customization tends have operating systems that are inflexible.

Question 72

Which of the following statements is best?

A) Operations management refers primarily to manufacturing.
B) Productivity in the service sector has kept pace with the manufacturing sector.
C) Operations managers have little interaction with other functional areas.
D) Global competition is putting additional pressures on operations managers.

Question 73

Which of the following statements about competitive priorities is TRUE?

A) Firms emphasizing low price have slack capacity and hold large inventories in order to be efficient.
B) To survive, all firms in an industry must compete on the same dimensions of competitive priority.
C) Club Med competes on the dimension of high-performance design in part by offering excellent entertaining, dining, and recreational facilities.
D) A good delivery time is less than a few weeks, irrespective of the industry under consideration.

Question 74

An ethnic restaurant,in serving a lovely,four-hour,seven-course dinner for two for $150,is giving particular emphasis to which dimension of competitive priorities?

A) price
B) consistent quality
C) fast delivery time
D) high-performance quality

Question 75

What is the function of support process?

A) To offer benefits to others in the supply chain
B) To assist with the analysis of the core processes
C) To provide vital resources and inputs to the core processes
D) To discharge customers from the supply chain

Question 76

Competitive priorities state the dimensions on which a firm can excel.Which one of the following statements about each dimension is TRUE?

A) Emphasizing low price is most appropriate for differentiated products in the growth stage of demand.
B) A firm that intends to excel at high-performance design quality can succeed only when its production volume is very high.
C) McDonald's is a typical example of an organization that excels at volume flexibility rather than quality consistency.
D) For a firm that gives top priority to customization, volumes for any individual product tend to be low.

Question 77

From an operations perspective,a corporate strategy involves which of the following?

A) Developing the firm's operations with a global perspective
B) Monitoring and evaluation of the chain
C) Targeting resources of the competitors
D) Accounting for the sale activities of the firm

Question 78

Which of the following is NOT one of the views of a firm's sustainability triple bottom line performance?

A) Financial
B) General
C) Environmental
D) Social

Question 79

Which of the following statements is best? Operations management can be made more effective by

A) focusing on aspects of operations that are directly related to production.
B) coordinating operations with other functional areas that impact operations.
C) making products early enough so that stock outs do not occur.
D) coordinating all activities related to operations, directly or indirectly, both within and outside the organization.

Question 80

Which of the following is NOT fundamental to supply chain management?

A) The flow of materials
B) Services
C) Supply provider
D) Information with customer demand