Deck 10: Information and Decision Support Systems

Question 1

Many manufacturing operations have been dramatically improved over the last decade as a result of advances in information systems.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Internal auditing is performed by individuals within an organization to determine whether the financial statements and reports produced by the financial MIS are accurate.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The first stage in the problem-solving process involves the identification and definition of potential problems or opportunities and the investigation of environmental constraints.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The use of MISs span few levels of management.

Question 5

The ultimate goal of management information and decision support systems is to help managers and executives at all levels make better decisions and solve important problems.

Question 6

A well-known model developed by Herbert Simon divides the decision making phase of the problem solving process into five stages.

Question 7

Business decisions are always semistructured and are encountered only at the highest levels of an organization.

Question 8

Product design is the process of generating a new product or service to be sold by an organization to its customers.

Question 9

A flexible manufacturing system determines when finished products are needed and then works backward to determine deadlines and resources needed.

Question 10

Unstructured decisions are ones where the variables that affect the decision cannot be measured quantitatively.

Question 11

Revenue centers are units within a company that focus primarily on generating sales.

Question 12

Most financial MISs integrate financial and operational information from multiple sources, including the Internet, into a single system.

Question 13

A satisficing model is one that finds a good, but not necessarily the best, solution to a problem.

Question 14

An MIS can be divided along functional lines to produce reports tailored to individual functions.

Question 15

The primary purpose of an MIS is to help an organization achieve its goals by providing managers with insight into the regular operations of the organization so they can control, organize, and plan more effectively.

Question 16

Programmed decisions are made using a rule, procedure, or quantitative method.

Question 17

The economic order quantity is calculated to minimize the number of times an inventory item must be reordered.

Question 18

The data that enters an MIS originates entirely from internal sources.

Question 19

Product pricing is important to identify products, sales personnel, and customers that contribute to profits and those that do not.

Question 20

The overall objective of master production scheduling is to provide vague plans for long-range scheduling of manufacturing facilities.

Question 21

The overall purpose of the human resource planning subsystem in a human resource MIS is to aid in the recruiting and selecting of personnel.

Question 22

Marketing functions are increasingly being performed on the Internet and mobile devices.

Question 23

​DSS and MIS systems are similar in numerous ways, including the types of problems solved, the support given to users, the decision emphasis and approach, and the type, speed, output, and development of the system used.

Question 24

The _____ stage of the problem solving process requires selecting a course of action.

A) intelligence
B) implementation
C) choice
D) design

Question 25

The two phases of problem solving added by Huber to Simon's original three-stage model are _____.

A) intelligence and design
B) implementation and monitoring
C) choice and implementation
D) design and choice

Question 26

The most significant internal data sources for an MIS are the organization's _____.

A) data from customers, suppliers, competitors, and stockholders
B) various TPS and ERP systems and related databases
C) Internet Web sites
D) various DSS and GSS systems and users

Question 27

The _____ stage is the second stage in the problem solving process during which alternative solutions to the problem are developed and their feasibility is evaluated.

A) design
B) choice
C) implementation
D) monitoring

Question 28

The ability to _____ is a characteristic of an MIS system.

A) provide reports with varying formats
B) allow users to develop reports based on a fixed format.
C) produce only soft-copy reports
D) use internal data stored in the computer system.

Question 29

A(n) _____ report is the management report that summarizes the previous day's critical activities and is typically available at the start of each workday.

A) exception
B) drill-down
C) key-indicator
D) demand

Question 30

A wide area decision network is used when group members are located in the same building or geographic area and under conditions in which the decision frequency is low.

Question 31

The performance of decision support systems is typically a function of decision quality, decision-making speed, and _____.

A) hardware
B) cost
C) problem complexity
D) software

Question 32

Decision support systems support optimization, satisficing, and heuristic approaches.

Question 33

A group decision support system (GSS), consists of most of the elements in a DSS, plus software to provide effective support in group decision-making settings.

Question 34

The model base is the component of a decision support system that allows managers and decision makers to perform qualitative analysis on external data.

Question 35

_____ reports are management reports that are automatically produced when a situation is unusual or requires management action.

A) Exception
B) Drill-down
C) Scheduled
D) Demand

Question 36

The ability to _____ is a function of a financial MIS.

A) perform market research to determine the needs and wants of consumers
B) provide easy access to financial data through use of a corporate intranet to access corporate Web pages
C) design a product or service that will appeal to consumers
D) determine the various media to be used to inform potential customers about your product or service

Question 37

Decision support systems are skewed, and hence cannot be used at all levels.

Question 38

A decision support system includes people, procedures, software, databases, and devices to help assemble, store, manipulate, and display geographic information.

Question 39

Unlike an individual DSS, a GSS is more difficult to use and is not as flexible.

Question 40

_____ are ones where the variables that comprise the decision are known and can be measured quantitatively.

A) Structured decisions
B) Semistructed decisions
C) Unstructured decisions
D) Nonprogrammed decisions

Question 41

A _____ is an independent business unit that is treated as a distinct entity enabling its revenues and expenses to be determined and its profitability to be measured.

A) cost center
B) revenue center
C) profit center
D) sales center

Question 42

Developers of _____ try to build on the advantages of individual support systems while adding new approaches unique to group decision making.

A) decision support systems
B) management information systems
C) group support systems
D) geographic information systems

Question 43

_____ decisions deal with unusual or exceptional situations and, in many cases, these decisions are difficult to quantify.

Question 44

A limit on the quantity of raw material to make a finished product is an example of a problem _____.

Question 45

A typical DSS includes many components such as the _____ that allows decision makers to easily access and manipulate the DSS and to use common business terms and phrases.

A) model base
B) dialogue manager
C) database
D) external database access

Question 46

A _____ MIS uses data gathered from both internal and external sources to provide reporting and aid decision making in areas of product development, distribution, pricing, and promotions.

A) human resources
B) financial
C) marketing
D) manufacturing

Question 47

An advantage of using the nominal group technique is that:

A) it relies on input from a panel of experts.
B) it is anonymous.
C) it seeks the consent of all participants.
D) it encourages participation from everyone.

Question 48

The final stage of the problem-solving process during which decision makers evaluate the implementation is called the _____ stage.

Question 49

The _____ MIS subsystems and outputs are used to monitor and control the flow of materials, products, and services through the organization.

A) human resources
B) marketing
C) financial
D) manufacturing

Question 50

A(n) _____ model finds the best solution, the one that will best help the organization meet its goals.

Question 51

_____ is a structured, interactive, iterative decision-making method that relies on input from a panel of experts.

A) Brainstorming
B) Group consensus approach
C) Delphi approach
D) Nominal group technique

Question 52

An effective _____ MIS enables an organization to keep personnel costs at a minimum while serving the required business processes needed to achieve corporate goals.

A) financial
B) manufacturing
C) human resource
D) sales forecasting

Question 53

The _____ approach forces members of a decision making group to reach a unanimous decision.

A) delphi
B) brainstorming
C) group consensus
D) nominal group

Question 54

The goal of _____ is to tie together all aspects of production, including order processing, product design, manufacturing, inspection and quality control, and shipping.

A) computer-assisted manufacturing
B) computer integrated manufacturing
C) flexible manufacturing systems
D) computer-assisted design

Question 55

In general, computerized decision support systems can either optimize or _____.

Question 56

.Decision support systems:

A) are used for operational, tactical, and strategic decision making.
B) are used only when making structured decisions.
C) provide reports with fixed and standard formats.
D) require user requests for reports developed by systems personnel.

Question 57

The _____ is NOT a component of the typical DSS.

A) database
B) user interface
C) model base
D) inference engine

Question 58

Subsystems for the marketing MIS and their outputs help marketing managers and executives to _____.

A) accelerate product development
B) lower inventory levels and expenses
C) develop plans for future products
D) make financial data immediately available

Question 59

_____ is used when the decision frequency is low and the location of group members is distant.

A) Multivoting
B) Local area network
C) Teleconferencing
D) A wide area decision network

Question 60

The focus of a DSS is on decision-making _____ when faced with unstructured or semistructured business problems.

A) accuracy
B) processes
C) effectiveness
D) tools

Question 61

_____ is an approach that maintains inventory at the lowest levels without sacrificing the availability of finished products.

Question 62

_____ is used when modeling a problem properly to get an optimal decision would be too difficult, complex, or costly.

Question 63

The purpose of _____ is to analyze the market to identify threats, opportunities, and customer needs and wants.

Question 64

An organization might hire an outside group, usually an accounting firm, to perform a(n) _____ to assess the financial condition of the firm and determine whether financial statements and reports produced by its financial MIS are accurate.

Question 65

A _____ is a computer system capable of assembling, storing, manipulating, and displaying geographic information.

Question 66

The purpose of the _____ subsystem of a human resource MIS is to place the right number and type of employees in the right job when needed.

Question 67

_____ reports provide increasingly detailed data about a situation so analysts can see data at a high level first and then at more detailed levels.

Question 68

_____ are commonly accepted guidelines or procedures that usually find a good solution.

Question 69

_____ capture transactions entered by workers in all functional areas of the business.

Question 70

A manufacturing or architectural firm uses _____ software to develop a digital blueprint of its products prior to building them.

Question 71

_____ reports are developed to provide certain information upon request.

Question 72

In the _____ decision making approach, members of a group offer suggestions "off the top of their heads."

Question 73

_____ is any one of a number of voting processes used to reduce the number of options to be considered.

Question 74

_____ communications ties together and integrates various communications systems, traditional phones, cell phones, e-mail, text messages, the Internet, and more.

Question 75

The _____ report lists all major products and their sales for a specified period of time.

Question 76

A(n) _____ DSS handles situations or decisions that occur more than once, usually several times per year or more.

Question 77

_____ reports are produced periodically, such as daily, weekly, or monthly.

Question 78

A ______ provides managers with information that supports effective decision making and provides feedback on daily operations.

Question 79

A(n)_____ DSS is concerned with situations or decisions that come up only a few times during the life of the organization.​

Question 80

A(n) _____ MIS performs a number of important activities, providing aggregate information on accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, and many other applications.