Deck 2: Competitiveness, strategic Planning, and Productivity

Question 1

Productivity is defined as the ratio of output to input.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Matching a competitor on quality or price is usually sufficient to gain market share.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Making trade-offs among competitive priorities should be avoided in developing operations strategies.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Strategic planning includes both determining long-term plans and implementing them through allocation of resources and action plans.

Question 5

The variety of models and options available to customers is an example of key purchasing criteria that establishes the basis of competition.

Question 6

Formulating an operations strategy requires focusing solely on the operations function,leaving the concerns of other functions and the status of external markets to broader organizational strategic planning.

Question 7

In large manufacturing organizations,the operations function tends to adopt a passive role in strategic planning,relying on the functional areas of marketing and finance to establish the strategic direction of the organization.

Question 8

It is important that an organization has a clear and simple mission/vision/values statement.

Question 9

If you think of goals as destinations,then tactics are the roadmaps for reaching the destinations.

Question 10

Typically a manufacturing firm would not consider Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)software as part of the organizations operations strategy.

Question 11

Order qualifiers are those characteristics of an organization's goods or services that cause them to be perceived as better than the competition.

Question 12

Tactics are short-term projects to accomplish a specific objective,assigned to an individual,with a deadline and the resources needed identified.

Question 13

Vertical integration refers to the ownership of a major part or the whole of the supply chain.

Question 14

A mission statement should provide a guide for the formulation of strategies for the organization.

Question 15

The purchasing criteria of quality and timeliness of delivery are order winners for all companies.

Question 16

In the 1990's Japanese manufacturing companies tended to shift their strategic orientation away from continuous improvement towards strategies based on low labour costs.

Question 17

Time-based strategies focus on reducing the time required to accomplish certain activities,such as new product development or delivery to the customer.

Question 18

A characteristic that was once an order winner may become an order qualifier,and vice versa.

Question 19

Organizational strategy must be determined without considering the realities of functional area strengths and weaknesses.

Question 20

The hierarchy of planning and decision-making is: mission/vision,goals,strategies,tactics,and action plans.

Question 21

Which of the following is not a step for formulating an operations strategy?

A)Link the organizational goals to the operations strategy.
B)Conduct an audit to determine the strengths/weaknesses of the current operations strategy.
C)Define the mission and values of the organization.
D)Assess the degree of focus at each plant.
E)Segment the customers into types.

Question 22

Tracking productivity measures over time enables managers to judge organizational performance and to decide where improvements are needed.

Question 23

Which of the following is not a major decision-making category for operations policies and action plans?

A)Facility
B)Capacity
C)Process types and technology
D)Human Resources
E)Productivity

Question 24

Labour productivity is one example of a multifactor productivity measurement.

Question 25

Workers are the main determinant of productivity.

Question 26

Product variety is an example of:

A)a generic operations strategy.
B)operations infrastructure.
C)a process type.
D)a dimension of flexibility.
E)a key purchasing criteria.

Question 27

Of the following,which aspect of strategic planning involves medium or short-term projects to accomplish specific objectives?

A)Goals and objectives
B)Functional strategies
C)Action plans
D)Forecasts
E)Mission/vision statements

Question 28

Strategies have a(n)__________ impact on the general direction and basic character of a company.

A)long-term.
B)medium-term.
C)short-term.
D)insignificant.
E)tactical.

Question 29

Even though labour cost as a proportion of total cost has been decreasing in manufacturing companies,labour productivity is still the main measure being used to gauge the performance of individuals and plants.

Question 30

Variability of the output of services makes it more difficult to measure service productivity.

Question 31

Labour productivity is an example of a total productivity measure.

Question 32

The shared beliefs of an organizations stakeholders are its:

A)policies.
B)vision.
C)strategy.
D)mission.
E)values.

Question 33

Which of the following is not a key purchasing criterion?

A)Price
B)Variety
C)Quality
D)Timeliness
E)Vendor relations

Question 34

Vision and strategy are at the centre of the Balanced Scorecard framework.

Question 35

Productivity is directly related to competitiveness.

Question 36

Labour costs are included as one of the inputs in all productivity measures.

Question 37

Characteristics that customers perceive as minimum standards of acceptability are called:

A)order winners.
B)order qualifiers.
C)core competencies.
D)distinctive competencies.
E)minimum attributes.

Question 38

Which of the following is not one of the competitive priorities organizations emphasize as the basis of competing with one-another?

A)Cost
B)Quality
C)Product duplication
D)Flexibility
E)Delivery reliability

Question 39

Computer automation will always result in increased productivity.

Question 40

Service productivity is easier to measure than manufacturing productivity because it is more labour intensive.

Question 41

In an assembly operation at a furniture factory,six employees assembled an average of 450 standard dining chairs per 5-day week.What is the labour productivity of this operation?

A)90 chairs/worker/day
B)20 chairs/worker/day
C)15 chairs/worker/day
D)75 chairs/worker/day
E)50 chairs/worker/day

Question 42

The generic operations strategy that reduces the time needed to add new product and process designs and allows volume and design changes and product variety is referred to as _____________.

A)low labour cost strategy
B)scale-based strategy
C)focused factories strategy
D)outsourcing
E)flexible factories strategy

Question 43

Which of the following is not true of productivity measures?

A)Productivity is mainly used for manufacturing and not used for services.
B)Productivity measures can track performance over time.
C)Labour productivity is used in labour wage negotiations.
D)Productivity measures can be used to measure the performance of an organization or an entire country.
E)Productivity contributes to organizational competitiveness.

Question 44

Canvalves Company produces cast bronze valves on an assembly line.It currently produces 800 valves each 8-hour shift.If the production is increased to 1,200 valves each shift,the productivity increases by:

A)50%
B)33%
C)25%
D)67%
E)75%

Question 45

Which of the following is not a general factor that affects productivity?

A)Methods and management
B)Equipment and technology
C)Competitors
D)Labour

Question 46

Segmenting customers into types is part of formulating an Operations Strategy.Which of the following is not one of the four competitive priorities used in segmentation?

A)Cost
B)Quality
C)Delivery
D)Location
E)Flexibility

Question 47

A measure of productivity which reflects a combination of some or all of the resources used to obtain a certain output is:

A)labour productivity.
B)machine productivity.
C)multifactor productivity.
D)materials productivity.
E)overhead productivity.

Question 48

The weekly output of a fabrication process is shown below together with data for labour and material inputs.Standard selling price is $125 per unit.Overhead is charged weekly at the rate of $1,500 plus .5 times direct labour cost.Assume a 40-hour week and an hourly wage of $16.Material cost is $10 per linear foot.What is the average multifactor productivity? 11eab92b_c4af_5a60_99e6_0d22be74526b

A)1.463
B)1.456
C)1.431
D)1.422
E)1.475

Question 49

Which of the following determines where the organization desires to be in the future?

A)Mission statement
B)Values statement
C)Goals statement
D)Vision statement
E)Action plans

Question 50

Service productivity measurement is more problematic than manufacturing due to which of the following issues?

A)Output is tangible
B)Low degree of variability
C)Involves intellectual activities
D)Inputs are consistent
E)Output has a low degree of variability

Question 51

Which of these factors does not affect productivity?

A)Methods and management
B)Capital equipment
C)Technology
D)Labour
E)Hiring policies

Question 52

Which of the following is a set of well coordinated policies,objectives,and action plans,directly affecting the operations function,which is aimed at securing a long-term sustainable advantage over the competition.

A)Generic strategy
B)Operations strategy
C)Action plans
D)Strategic planning
E)Functional strategy

Question 53

Which of the following is not one of the major components of the Balanced Scorecard framework?

A)Financial
B)Human resources
C)Internal business processes
D)Learning and growth
E)Customer

Question 54

Productivity is expressed as:

A)output plus input.
B)output minus input.
C)output times input.
D)output divided by input.
E)input divided by output.

Question 55

Radical process redesign based on process re-orientation,breaking down functional silos and integrating operations into customer-focused processes are tactics associated with what generic operations strategy?

A)Low labour cost strategy
B)Scale-based strategy
C)Focused factories strategy
D)Business process reengineering
E)Flexible factories strategy

Question 56

The generic operations strategy that emphasizes capital-intensive methods to achieve higher labour productivity and lower unit costs is referred to as _____________.

A)low labour cost strategy
B)scale-based strategy
C)focused factories strategy
D)outsourcing
E)flexible factories strategy

Question 57

Which of the following is not a factor that affects productivity?

A)Use of computers in an office.
B)Design of the workspace.
C)Use of Internet and e-mail.
D)Standardizing work process.
E)Analysis of competitors.

Question 58

Which of the following is not a measure of labour productivity?

A)Units of output per labour hour
B)Value-added per labour hour
C)Units of output per shift
D)Units of output per machine hour
E)Dollar value of output per labour hour

Question 59

Time-Based strategies do not focus on:

A)the time to deliver a product.
B)maintaining quality.
C)planning time.
D)production design time.
E)changeover time.

Question 60

What is the major difference between vertical integration and outsourcing?

A)Vertical integration is ownership of a part of the supply chain,outsourcing has no ownership.
B)Outsourcing is ownership of a part of the supply chain,vertical integration has no ownership.
C)Outsourcing uses external suppliers to perform some production/service functions while production/service functions through vertical integration are strictly in-house.
D)Outsourcing is a long term operations strategy where vertical integration is short term.
E)Vertical integration is usually limited to services,where as outsourcing usually deals with production of goods.

Question 61

The weekly output of a production process is shown below,together with data for labour and material inputs.The standard inventory value of the output is $125 per unit.Overhead is charged weekly at the rate of $1500 plus .5 times direct labour cost.Assume a 40-hour week and an hourly wage of $16.Material cost is $10 per running foot.Compute the average multifactor productivity for this process.
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Question 62

The manager of a carpet store is trying to determine optimal installation crew size.He has tried various crew sizes with the results shown below.Compute the average labour productivity for each crew size.Which crew size do you recommend?
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