Part 3 Multiple Choice Questions |Essential Operations Management, Second Edition by Alex Hill and Terry Hill

1. The two common denominators used in business to express, calculate and measure activities are:

Time and money People and money People and equipment

2. In a business using a project or jobbing process, capacity is measured by the:

Number of staff hours Number of equipment hours Both a and b

3. Efficiency is measured as:

Expected level of output in the number of hours worked Actual number of hours worked compared with those planned to be worked Actual output compared to the level of output expected in the number of hours worked

4. Which of the following is not a factor affecting the definition of capacity:

The make-or-buy decision The service or product range and specification The level of market demand

5. An example of the unpredictable aspect of managing capacity is:

Absenteeism Short-term demand changes Both a and b

6. The purpose of rough-cut capacity planning is to:

Determine how demand levels can be met in the short term Establish feasible medium-term plans to meet demand levels in situations where capacity is considered relatively fixed Establish medium-term plans to meet demand levels where capacity is considered relatively flexible

7. Which of the following is a method used to modify the pattern of demand:

Annualized hours Fixed service schedules Both a and b

8. Substituting capacity is one way to change the nature of capacity to meet fluctuations in demand and involves:

Increasing the use of technology and/or the use of customers in the delivery system Having suppliers manage part of the capacity implications resulting from changes in demand Spreading the cost of expensive equipment or highly skilled staff resources that would normally be underutilized between similar companies

9. Which of the following is a way to cushion the operations core from the instability of the market:

Inventory or excess capacity Planned capacity Both a and b

10. A basic mechanism used for cushioning the delivery system from the instability of the markets is:

Demand management Order backlog Forecasting

11. Operations scheduling concerns:

Meeting the short-term demands placed on the process or delivery system Meeting the long-term demands placed on the process or delivery system Forecasting future resource requirements

12. Which of the following is not a factor that influences the choice and design of the operations control system:

The complexity of the service or product The nature of the competition in the market Special vs. standard services or products

13. Which of the following is not a system used to schedule and manage operations:

Network analysis Statistical process control Enterprise resource planning

14. Bar charts are a scheduling system used for:

A complex business A simple business Both a and b

15. MRPI means:

Manufacturing Resource Planning Material Requirements Planning Manufacturing Requirements Planning

16. Which of the following is not a prerequisite for implementing JIT:

It must be end-user driven Operations schedules must be flexible It is most suited to situations of high volume, low variety and repetitive operations

17. Waste is any activity that:

Does not add value Does add value Reduces lead times

18. The level of inventory in an organization reflects:

The rate of supply The rate of demand Both a and b

19. The underlying purpose of inventory is to:

Uncouple the various phases of a service delivery system or manufacturing process Provide overall support for a service delivery system or manufacturing process Neither of these

20. Corporate inventory is:

Strategic inventory to support operations All forms of non-operations inventory Neither of these

21. Using the independent/dependent demand principle means:

Demand for services or products with a dependent demand is forecast Demand for services or products with an independent demand is calculated Neither of these

22. The Pareto principle is:

Used to reduce inventory Used to indicate areas of high value in inventory where the most effort in managing inventory should be concentrated Used in calculating economic order quantities

23. Annual Requirement Value (ARV) is:

Calculated by multiplying the forecast demand for a service or product by its unit value Calculated by multiplying the annual usage of a service or product by its unit value Neither of these

24. If a company decided to hold additional inventory to safeguard the business from uncertainty of overseas supply, this additional inventory would be classed as:

Pipeline inventory Corporate inventory Consignment stock

25. Special services and products are usually:

Made-to-order Assembled-to-order Made-to-stock

26. Consignment stock is:

The quantity of a product assigned to inventory Another name for capacity-related inventory Inventory held on a customer's premises that is not paid for until it is used

27. From an operations perspective, quality concerns:

Determining customers' needs and embodying these in the service/product design Consistently meeting service and product design specifications Both a and b

28. The first step in the quality conformance procedure is to:

Identify causes of below-standard quality Determine and define the quality characteristics Measure and control the quality characteristics

29. Which of the following is not a consideration when deciding how to monitor quality levels:

Where in the operations process to check conformance to the quality standards Which variables to check How to undertake the checks

30. A proactive approach to managing quality involves:

Anticipating quality problems that may occur and taking action to prevent them from occurring Reacting to quality problems as quickly as possible when they occur Managing the cost of implementing quality systems and procedures

31. In general, quality tools and techniques can be categorized as:

Design tools Process tools Either a or b

32. Which of the following is not an example of a quality tool or technique:

Network analysis Cause and effect diagrams Gap analysis

33. Which of the following is not an example of a quality award:

Six sigma ISO 9000 Malcolm Baldrige

34. Implementing total quality management (TQM) in a business requires the following culture change:

Improvement is the responsibility of the quality department Management should take full responsibility for any failures in quality Suppliers and customers need to be part of the improvement process

35. A supply chain is:

The steps between the origin of the service or product in question and its consumption or use The steps in the process or delivery system managed by suppliers The steps in the process or delivery system directly managed by an organization

36. Outsourcing comprises:

Overseas suppliers Domestic suppliers Both a and b

37. Types of supplier relationships include:

Trawling the market Partnerships Both a and b

38. One benefit of outsourcing is:

Increased focus on core tasks Increased control over supply of materials It is easy to reverse a decision to outsource

39. One benefit of making in-house is:

It is easier to reduce costs It allows more focus on core issues More access to up-to-date technology

40. One alternative to outsourcing is:

Deciding to switch suppliers Joint ventures Synchronised supply chains

41. Developing integrated supply chains involves:

Moving more from being a supply chain to a demand chain Moving more from being a supply chain to a demand chain Both a and b

Part Three: Managing Operations