Deck 4: Business Processes

Question 1

The magnitude of changes created by a continuous improvement program is generally larger than those created by a business process reengineering program.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

A support process performs necessary,value-added activities of an organization.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Most people developing process maps for the first time fail to put in sufficient detail.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

The Five Whys can be used during all three phases of construction of a Pareto chart.

Question 5

Ted's uses customer comment cards to discover sources of customer dissatisfaction and then develops training programs for their servers and kitchen help to try to eliminate those sources of dissatisfaction.This constitutes a development process for Ted's.

Question 6

Mapping creates a common understanding of process activities,their results,and who performs the steps.

Question 7

Productivity is measured as the ratio of inputs to outputs.

Question 8

A laundry tracks clean linen output in pounds and their inputs of gas,water,electricity,and labor.A productivity measure incorporating all of these inputs is a multifactor measure.

Question 9

When McDonald's studies the drive-through operations of Burger King,they are engaging in competitive benchmarking.

Question 10

Cycle time is the total time needed to complete a business process.

Question 11

A check sheet,also called an Ishikawa diagram,is used to record how frequently a certain event occurs.

Question 12

Level 1 of the SCOR model is organized around the five core management processes: plan,source,make,deliver,and return.

Question 13

One reason the SCOR model is widely accepted is its consistency.It mandates the same information and physical flows for all products,regardless of the degree of customization.

Question 14

While efficiency can exceed 100%,percent value-added time has a maximum of 100%.

Question 15

A person that fails to meet output standards could still have an efficiency measurement of more than 100%.

Question 16

A Six Sigma Champion is a full-time Six Sigma expert that is responsible for training,mentoring,deployment,and results.

Question 17

Your university sends a contingent of top-ranking officials to Las Vegas hotels to study ways to improve dormitory living conditions.This is an example of process benchmarking.

Question 18

A three-man hay baling crew is expected to buck 800 small square bales a day in the blazing August sun.This amount is a standard output.

Question 19

In a process map,a circle represents a step or activity in the process.

Question 20

The primary focus of a swim lane process map is to depict flows of objects,information,and money.

Question 21

A professor is expected to cover 16 chapters in an operations management text each semester.One semester the professor dismisses class 30 minutes early every Monday and Friday and is able to cover only 12 chapters.What is the professor's efficiency?

A)75%
B)4
C)133%
D)-4

Question 22

Which tool should be used to track the movement of a customer's complaint from one department to the next until it is resolved?

A)process map
B)swim lane map
C)entity map
D)data flow map

Question 23

A maintenance worker maintains an alibi sheet of all work activities performed in an 8 hour shift.If the work standard is such that 90% efficiency is expected,what is the actual amount of time that should be documented?

A)8)9 hours
B)111%
C)7)2 hours
D)0)8 hours

Question 24

Mapping does NOT:

A)create a common understanding of the content of a process.
B)define the boundaries of a process.
C)provide a detailed view of all elements external to the process.
D)provide a baseline against which to measure the impact of improvement efforts.

Question 25

Which of these steps is NOT part of the Six Sigma process sequence?

A)design
B)measure
C)analyze
D)improve

Question 26

When constructing a fishbone diagram,brainstorming takes place during the:

A)closed phase.
B)narrow phase.
C)wide phase.
D)open phase.

Question 27

Every morning the married couple waged a war over the available laptop computer.Jeff was always eager to get started on the task at hand but Liza felt the need to first download her podcasts,which infuriated Jeff.He decided to track the time he spent waiting for podcasts to download every day for a month to see whether things were getting worse.The best tool for displaying these results to the divorce court judge would be a:

A)swim lane chart.
B)flow chart.
C)cause and effect diagram.
D)run chart.

Question 28

A car wash services 200 customers in an hour on a lovely Saturday afternoon.The car wash employs 5 washers at $6 per hour and uses $50 of water and $5 of electricity per hour.An appropriate measure of productivity is:

A)80%.
B)2)35 cars/$.
C)8 cars/$.
D)0)425 $/car.

Question 29

It takes one day for Peter Gibbons to complete a TPS report and attach the cover sheet.During that day,Peter spends about 15 minutes a day performing actual work and the other 7 hours and 45 minutes spacing out.Which of the following statements is correct?

A)Peter's cycle time is 7 hours and 30 minutes.
B)Peter's efficiency is 25%.
C)Peter's productivity is 8 hours per TPS report.
D)Peter's percent value-added time is just over 3%.

Question 30

Which two continuous improvement tools are most similar in appearance?

A)scatter plot and check sheet
B)Pareto chart and histogram
C)histogram and fishbone diagram
D)check sheet and fishbone diagram

Question 31

A set of tasks or activities that addresses the main value-added activities of an organization is a:

A)process.
B)primary process.
C)support process.
D)development process.

Question 32

A man in midlife crisis places his order for a custom chopper from OC Choppers on September 1,but the work on the bike doesn't actually begin until October 1.The actual work on the bike,from design,through fabrication and assembly takes the entire month of October.The entire month of November is spent learning to ride a trainer bike,adding another garage bay to the house,and updating his will.Finally on November 30,the customer takes possession of his dream chopper and happily smokes his tires out of the lot and rides back to Oklahoma.This period of 91 days,besides being labeled "the longest three months of his life" would be more accurately labeled:

A)efficiency.
B)value-added time.
C)cycle time.
D)productivity.

Question 33

In statistical terms,a process that achieves Six Sigma quality will generate about:

A)zero defects per million opportunities.
B)six defects per million opportunities.
C)three defects per million opportunities.
D)thirty-four defects per million opportunities.

Question 34

Which of the following statements BEST describes current thinking regarding processes?

A)If companies concentrate on how functional areas like marketing,finance,and operations are organized,then everything will be fine.
B)Managing functional areas like marketing,finance,and operations is essentially the same thing as managing what a business does.
C)If the individual functional strategies of marketing,finance,and accounting are aligned with the overall business strategy,then everything will be fine.
D)Developing superior business processes requires a cross-functional and cross-organizational perspective.

Question 35

Which of the following approaches to process improvement could be described as competitive benchmarking?

A)Employees at XEROX ignore the way they have always processed customer orders and design an entirely new way to do so.
B)Employees at XEROX visit GM to pick up ideas on processing customer orders.
C)Employees at XEROX purchase a Canon copier and take it apart to get design ideas for their next generation of copiers.
D)Employees at XEROX take classes in quality improvement and make small,incremental changes to their order filling processes.

Question 36

Green Belts have:

A)more Six Sigma training than Black Belts but less Six Sigma training than Champions.
B)more Six Sigma training than Champions but less Six Sigma training than Team Members.
C)more Six Sigma training than Black Belts but less Six Sigma training than Master Black Belts.
D)more Six Sigma training than Team Members but less Six Sigma training than Black Belts.

Question 37

A car wash services 200 customers in a 4 hour span on a lovely Saturday afternoon.The car wash employs 5 washers at $6 per hour.An appropriate measure of productivity is:

A)200 cars/hour.
B)0)6 $/car.
C)8)3 cars/$.
D)1)7 cars/$.

Question 38

The majority of the total operating budget for most organizations is:

A)engineering costs.
B)advertising costs.
C)supply chain costs.
D)equipment maintenance costs.

Question 39

A set of logically related tasks or activities performed to achieve a defined business outcome is a:

A)process.
B)primary process.
C)support process.
D)development process.

Question 40

An arrow in a process map represents a:

A)move activity.
B)start or finish point.
C)delay.
D)creation of a document.

Question 41

________ is a process improvement philosophy that results in small,incremental changes while ________ is a process improvement philosophy that results in dramatic organizational changes.

Question 42

Which of these continuous improvement tools would be best suited for showing all of the steps required to change your major to operations management?

A)process map
B)cause-and-effect diagram
C)Pareto chart
D)scatter plot

Question 43

When an organization compares their processes to those of another firm outside their industry,they are engaging in ________.

Question 44

________ is a measure of process performance that is a ratio of output to inputs.

Question 45

A process that seeks to improve the performance of main value-added and necessary,non value-added activities is a(n)________ process.

Question 46

Which of these statements about the SCOR model is BEST?

A)The SCOR model consists of four levels that describe supply chain processes in increasing detail.
B)The core management processes of the model are Source,Collaborate,Operations,and Return.
C)The model makes provisions for different levels of customization.
D)The process types detailed in level one are Planning,Execution,and Enable.

Question 47

When should a process be an art and not a science?

A)when the process is mass customization
B)when the process is mass production
C)when the process is research and development
D)when the process is continuous flow

Question 48

Which of these statements about SCOR level 3 processes is BEST?

A)They describe in detail the actual steps required to execute level 2 processes.
B)They prescribe how best to achieve the processes defined in level 2.
C)They describe an alternative method of achieving processes described in level 2 if a primary system failure occurs.
D)They prescribe a communication plan for the people,departments,and organizations that execute level 2 processes.

Question 49

Level two of the SCOR model divides SCM activities into what are referred to as ________.

Question 50

Which of these SCOR model flows moves in the opposite direction from the others?

A)plan
B)return
C)source
D)make

Question 51

During the narrow phase of root cause analysis,the teams should use the five ________ to drill down to potential root causes.

Question 52

The first lane of a swim lane process map is usually reserved for ________.

Question 53

A(n)________ process performs the main,value-added activities of an organization.

Question 54

Which of these elements of the SCOR model at level 1 does NOT have a direct connection with customer processes?

A)deliver
B)make
C)plan
D)return

Question 55

The elapsed time needed to complete a business process is called ________.

Question 56

At seventy miles per hour with a departure of noon,I expected to reach Kansas City by 5 pm since it was only 350 miles distant.Due to unforeseen circumstances,I didn't make it until 6:30 pm.The notion of covering 350 miles in five hours is an example of ________.

Question 57

When an employee team develops a process map,they should document the process ________.

Question 58

The Six Sigma ________ process outlines the steps that should be followed to improve existing business processes.

Question 59

The procedure of rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic organizational improvements is called:

A)competitive benchmarking.
B)continuous improvement.
C)process benchmarking.
D)business process reengineering.

Question 60

A(n)________ is used to record how frequently a certain event occurs.

Question 61

What is the general procedure for developing a swim lane process map?

Question 62

Briefly describe the five core management processes that comprise Level 1 of the SCOR model.

Question 63

What is benchmarking and how do the two types differ?

Question 64

Describe continuous improvement and business process reengineering and compare their advantages and disadvantages in relation to each other.

Question 65

Lisa manages customer service representatives in a call center.The center's computer system tracks a number of metrics for each employee including the total number of customer calls they complete,the amount of time the service representative spends talking to customers,and the total time the service representative was clocked in each day.The work standard developed by the call center is to complete 150 calls in an 8 hour shift.Answer the following questions using the information provided in the table.
a.What is the productivity of employee J?
b.What is the efficiency of employee K?
c.What is the percent value-added time for employee M?

Question 66

________ is the SCOR model process that addresses the movement of defective product from the customer.

Question 67

The process mapping effort took Team Tiger a full two weeks,but finally their efforts had paid off.The entire process had been meticulously documented;every twist and turn,handoff,loop,and diversion in the process was clearly drawn out in a color-coded masterpiece that was not only useful,but also a work of modern art rivalling anything Jackson Pollock had ever produced."Well done," the CEO exclaimed as he admired their work product,"have a cigar!"
From the corner of the room came a timid voice,"It's a lovely process map sir,but I don't think we are done yet."
A hush fell over the room and their cigars drooped in unison as if yanked down by a marionette's puppeteer."Explain yourself!" the CEO bellowed.
"The process map is a necessary starting point,but now we should study the flow chart to identify potential trouble spots and see how we might actually improve the process.I recently received some training that listed four guidelines for improving a process based on examining a process map."
"It sounds like you're not done yet,so I'll collect my cigars and leave you to your work."
The CEO's assistant plucked the cigars out of the bewildered worker's mouths and they grimly returned to their seats in the conference room.Help them finish the job by discussing the four guidelines for improving a process - what should they look for on their process map and how should those elements be addressed?

Question 68

When should a process be art,not science? Provide examples to frame your discussion.

Question 69

Develop a logical order for use of these analysis tools (flow chart,scatter plot,Pareto chart,cause and effect diagram,check sheet)for a process troubleshooter that is unfamiliar with the business process she has been called to help fix.In addition to assigning an order of use,explain why you feel it is in her best interest to use the tools in the order you provide.

Question 70

Describe the three types of processes and the relationships between them.

Question 71

Describe the process of root cause analysis and include in your description the tools that it uses.