Deck 1: Introduction to Operations Management

Question 1

What was the primary reason why American firms lost market dominance in many industries in the 1970s and 1980s?

A) OPEC oil embargoes
B) the Vietnam war had drained the economy of resources
C) after Richard Nixon was President, foreign consumers began to mistrust American firms
D) they had become lax with a lack of competition in the 1950s and 1960s
E) foreign government subsidies for business

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Operations management is responsible for orchestrating all the resources needed to produce the final product. This includes all of the following except ______________________________________.

A) managing cash flow
B) arranging schedules
C) managing inventory
D) controlling quality
E) designing work methods

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Which of the following is not an input?

A) services
B) managers
C) buildings
D) technology
E) information

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which business function is responsible for planning, coordinating, and controlling the resources needed to produce a company's products and services?

A) engineering
B) finance
C) human resources
D) marketing
E) operations management

Question 5

Operations Management is responsible for increasing the organization's efficiency, which means the company will be able to __________.

A) add to the engineering process
B) take for granted current operations
C) increase the number of positions under the manager's position
D) eliminate activities that do not add value
E) increasing purchasing opportunities

Question 6

An example of an operation that does not add value is ____________________________.

A) removing iron ore from the ground and shipping it to a steel mill
B) filling the underground gasoline tanks at a service station
C) making a wedding cake
D) moving components to a warehouse for storage until the factory needs them
E) moving luggage from a cab to the airport ticket counter

Question 7

Which business function is responsible for sales, generating customer demand, and understanding customer wants and needs?

A) finance
B) human resources
C) marketing
D) operations management
E) purchasing

Question 8

Which one of the following would not generally be considered to be a transformation?

A) a haircut
B) a train ride
C) manufacturing a radio
D) waiting to see the doctor
E) a surgery

Question 9

Which initially successful web-based home delivery company had to shut down in 2001 due to inadequate management of its operations?

A) Contact.com
B) Time Saver.com
C) Kozmo.com
D) Kramer.com
E) Neptune.com

Question 10

The finance function is responsible for:

A) sales, generating customer demand, and understanding customer wants and needs.
B) plans and coordinates all the resources needed to design, produce, and deliver the merchandise to its various retail locations.
C) planning, coordinating, and controlling the resources needed to produce a company's products and services.
D) managing cash flow, current assets, and capital investments.
E) efficiency and costs.

Question 11

Which famous economist once suggested that, "The production problem has been solved."?

A) John Nash
B) Irving Fisher
C) John Kenneth Galbraith
D) Adam Smith
E) John Maynard Keynes

Question 12

In order to be successful with Web-based on-line shopping, companies must do all except which of the following?

A) manage distribution centers and warehouses
B) operate fleets of trucks
C) maintain adequate inventories of products
D) increase the cost of production
E) schedule deliveries

Question 13

At a factory, the transformation process is a (an) __________change of raw materials and components into products.

A) locational
B) imperceptible
C) hypothetical
D) irreversible
E) physical

Question 14

Which of the following is not true for business process reengineering?

A) It can increase efficiency.
B) It cannot be used to improve quality.
C) It can reduce costs.
D) It involves asking why things are done in a certain way.
E) It involves redesigning processes.

Question 15

Every business is managed through what three major functions?

A) accounting, finance, and marketing
B) engineering, finance, and operations management
C) accounting, purchasing, and human resources
D) accounting, engineering, and marketing
E) finance, marketing, and operations management

Question 16

Which business function is responsible for managing cash flow, current assets, and capital investments?

A) accounting
B) finance
C) marketing
D) operations management
E) purchasing

Question 17

Which second-tier computer company utilized a drastic change in its operations function to become an industry leader in the late 1990s?

A) Apple
B) Compaq
C) Dell
D) IBM
E) Kozmo

Question 18

What outsourcing functions does UPS provide for clients?

A) accounting and inventories
B) inventories and deliveries
C) accounting and deliveries
D) accounting and maintenance
E) deliveries and maintenance

Question 19

A company with a low customer contact that is capital intensive is called:

A) a farm
B) manufacturing
C) quasi-manufacturing
D) service
E) Industrial era operations management

Question 20

At The GAP, which function plans and coordinates all the resources needed to design, produce, and deliver the merchandise to its various retail locations?

A) engineering
B) human resources
C) marketing
D) operations management
E) purchasing

Question 21

Which of the following operations management concepts did not evolve from scientific management?

A) moving assembly lines
B) interchangeable parts
C) stopwatch time studies
D) piece rate incentives
E) setting time standards for task performance

Question 22

Who popularized the moving assembly line?

A) James Watt
B) Adam Smith
C) Eli Whitney
D) Frederick W. Taylor
E) Henry Ford

Question 23

Which of the following is an example of a "back room" operation for an airline company?

A) serving food and drinks to passengers
B) collecting tickets and checking passengers in at the gate
C) loading luggage onto the airplane
D) demonstrating use of the seat belt and other safety features of the airplane
E) assisting passengers in getting off of the plane

Question 24

When did operations management emerge as a formal field of study?

A) during the late 1950s and early 1960s
B) during the late 1970s and early 1980s
C) during World War II
D) during the nineteenth century
E) during the early 1900s

Question 25

What are long-term decisions that set the direction for the entire organization called?

A) tactical
B) operational
C) directional
D) distant
E) strategic

Question 26

The creator of scientific management believed that ______________________________________.

A) worker productivity is governed by scientific laws
B) the worker should have a lot of control over his or her job
C) efficiency is overrated
D) worker pay should primarily be based on seniority
E) mathematical models are the basis for management of production

Question 27

The concept of interchangeable parts was introduced by ___________________.

A) Adam Smith
B) Frederick Taylor
C) Eli Whitney
D) Henry Ford
E) W. Edwards Deming

Question 28

What are companies that have low customer contact and are capital intensive; yet provide a service, called?

A) pseudo-manufacturing organizations
B) quasi-manufacturing organizations
C) hierarchical manufacturing organizations
D) service factories
E) servifacturing organizations

Question 29

Who created "scientific management?"

A) James Watt
B) Adam Smith
C) Eli Whitney
D) Frederick W. Taylor
E) Henry Ford

Question 30

Who wrote The Wealth of Nations in 1776, describing division of labor?

A) James Watt
B) Adam Smith
C) Eli Whitney
D) Henry Ford
E) Frederick Taylor

Question 31

Which of the following is not true with respect to strategic and tactical decisions?

A) tactical decisions focus on more specific day-to-day decisions
B) tactical decisions determine the direction for strategic decisions
C) tactical decisions provide feedback to strategic decisions
D) tactical decisions are made more frequently and routinely
E) tactical decisions must be aligned with strategic decisions

Question 32

What percentage of total non-farm jobs in the U.S. economy comes from service-producing industries?

A) 20%
B) 50%
C) 60%
D) 80%
E) 95%

Question 33

In what area does General Motors earn its highest return on capital?

A) selling cars
B) selling logo merchandise
C) financing
D) selling racing engines
E) post-sales parts and service

Question 34

Who invented the steam engine?

A) James Watt
B) Adam Smith
C) Eli Whitney
D) Henry Ford
E) Frederick Taylor

Question 35

A key feature of scientific management is that workers are motivated only by __________________.

A) love
B) power
C) challenging work
D) money
E) fame

Question 36

A key feature of scientific management is that workers are limited only by __________________.

A) machinery
B) co-workers
C) their job description
D) their tools
E) their physical ability

Question 37

Managing the transformation of inputs into goods and services is:

A) a post industrial era process.
B) a direct contributor to the curved earth syndrome.
C) as old as time.
D) a twenty-first century developed process.
E) a design of Frederick Taylor.

Question 38

What concept involves breaking down the production of a product into a series of small, elementary tasks, each of which is performed by a different worker?

A) division of labor
B) interchangeable parts
C) scientific management
D) the Hawthorne effect
E) operations research

Question 39

Which of the following is not primarily performed by the operation management function?

A) job design and work measurement
B) advertising strategy
C) location analysis
D) quality management
E) facility layout

Question 40

What was Frederick W. Taylor's background?

A) physics
B) human resources management
C) operations research
D) psychology
E) engineering

Question 41

What is the Hawthorne effect?

A) workers responding to the attention they are given
B) stopwatch time studies leading to time standards
C) the use of quantitative methods for solving management problems
D) the use of interchangeable parts
E) more lighting increases productivity

Question 42

Many companies require their suppliers to meet what standards as a condition for obtaining contracts?

A) RFO 6000
B) PUR 8000
C) ISO 9000
D) MACH 5000
E) SUP 2000

Question 43

Increasing the level of responsibility of a job by adding planning tasks is ___________.

A) job enlargement
B) job rotation
C) job involvement
D) job enrichment
E) job backward integration

Question 44

Where was the just-in-time philosophy developed?

A) Germany
B) United States
C) Canada
D) Japan
E) Italy

Question 45

When was the just-in-time philosophy developed?

A) 1980s
B) 1930s
C) 1800s
D) 1700s
E) 1990s

Question 46

ISO 14000 standards provide guidelines for what?

A) business ethics
B) environmentally responsible actions
C) supplier certification
D) quality control
E) web site development

Question 47

What term describes the approach of giving workers a larger portion of the total task to do?

A) job enlargement
B) job rotation
C) job involvement
D) job enrichment
E) job backward integration

Question 48

Under scientific management, information from what is used to set time standards for task performance?

A) stopwatch time studies
B) observance of similar tasks
C) computer simulation
D) negotiations with unions
E) arbitration

Question 49

In what company were the Hawthorne Studies conducted?

A) Westinghouse
B) General Electric
C) Hawthorne Incorporated
D) General Motors
E) Western Electric

Question 50

NAFTA and the EU are _________________________.

A) certification groups
B) regional trade agreements
C) quality control methods
D) logistics providers
E) U.S. government agencies

Question 51

When were the Hawthorne Studies conducted?

A) 1770s
B) 1830s
C) 1930s
D) 1960s
E) 1980s

Question 52

Just-in-time philosophy is applicable in:

A) Service organizations
B) Manufacturing organizations
C) Assembly line operations
D) A, B, and C
E) A and C only

Question 53

One of the two most important features of time-based competition involves ___________________.

A) advertising on the Internet
B) stopwatch time studies
C) setting time standards for task performance
D) instantaneous access to inventory information
E) developing new products and services faster than the competitor

Question 54

Supply chain management involves managing:

A) the flow of internal information only.
B) the flow of materials and information from suppliers and buyers to the final customer.
C) the flow of raw materials to inventory only.
D) managing the stock room supply only.

Question 55

Management science is focused on:

A) profit margin
B) qualitative systems analysis
C) management promotion metrics
D) quantitative techniques for solving personnel issues
E) quantitative techniques for solving operations problems

Question 56

When was the first mathematical model for inventory management developed?

A) 1770
B) 1865
C) 1900
D) 1913
E) 1930

Question 57

Which of the following is considered a "quality guru?"

A) Elton Mayo
B) W. Edwards Deming
C) Alex Gamble
D) F.W. Harris
E) Frederick W. Taylor

Question 58

What movement started with the publication of the results of the Hawthorne studies?

A) scientific management
B) human relations
C) management science
D) marketing research
E) operations management

Question 59

What is a philosophy that aggressively seeks to improve product quality by eliminating causes of product defects and making quality an all-encompassing organizational philosophy?

A) CQI
B) TQM
C) SPC
D) JIT
E) BPR

Question 60

The first military use of management science was solving complex problems of logistics control, weapons system design, and deployment of missiles during _____________________.

A) World War I
B) World War II
C) The Korean War
D) The Vietnam War
E) Operation Desert Storm

Question 61

Which of the following concepts is linked the least with Henry Ford?

A) scientific management
B) mass production
C) mass customization
D) technology
E) interchangeable parts

Question 62

Operations management is the business function that plans, coordinates, and controls the resources needed to produce a company's products and services.

Question 63

Entry-level positions for operations management graduates include all of the following except _________.

A) quality specialist
B) inventory analyst
C) plant manager
D) production analyst
E) production supervisor

Question 64

What type of commerce makes up the highest percentage of electronic transactions?

A) B2C
B) C2C
C) B4B
D) B2B
E) B4C

Question 65

Today's operations management is characterized by:

A) its use of the internet.
B) its reliance on the intranet.
C) its increased use of cross-functional decision making.
D) its use of cross-functional job sharing.
E) its use of interchangeable parts.

Question 66

The Internet developed from a government network called ARPANET, which was created in 1969 by _____.

A) Japanese scientists
B) the EPA
C) the U.S. Defense Department
D) NSF
E) ISO

Question 67

Operations management personnel perform a variety of functions, including all of the following except ___________________.

A) analyzing production problems
B) analyzing potential mergers
C) developing forecasts
D) developing employee schedules
E) monitoring inventory

Question 68

Which of the following historical figures would probably have the most different management style from the others?

A) Elton Mayo
B) Henry Ford
C) Eli Whitney
D) Frederick W. Taylor
E) Adam Smith

Question 69

OM's transformation role is to add value. Value added is

A) performing activities well for the least possible cost
B) the net decrease between output product value and input material value
C) increasing product value in the first stage
D) the net increase between output product value and input material value
E) customizing a product, regardless of expense, to satisfy customer needs

Question 70

Efficiency means being able to perform most activities.

Question 71

What is a concept that takes a total system approach to creating efficient operations?

A) lean systems
B) enterprise resource planning
C) customer relationship management
D) management science
E) management information systems

Question 72

Operations management interacts with which of the following:

A) Marketing
B) Information systems
C) Finance
D) Engineering
E) all the above

Question 73

General Electric's Trading Process Network primarily handles transactions between _______________.

A) individual customers
B) companies and individual customers
C) companies and their shipping firms
D) companies and their distributors
E) companies and their suppliers

Question 74

Marketing is the central core function of every company.

Question 75

At a factory, the transformation process is the physical change of raw materials and components into products.

Question 76

Operations management is the central core function of every company.

Question 77

An example of an operation that does not add value is making a wedding cake.

Question 78

Today's business must think in terms of:

A) regional trade zones
B) the EPA
C) the U.S. Defense Department
D) the global market place
E) the curved world

Question 79

An example of a transformation is waiting to see the doctor.

Question 80

What are software solutions that allow the firm to collect customer-specific data?

A) MRP
B) CRM
C) ERP
D) JIT
E) ISO