Deck 12: Operations Planning and Scheduling

Question 1

Which one of the following is NOT a typical objective of production and staffing plans?

A) maximize customer service
B) minimize changes in workforce levels
C) minimize costs
D) minimize equipment utilization

Answer 1

minimize equipment utilization

Question 2

Which one of the following statements are TRUE?

A) The progress chart graphically displays the days each employee is on duty.
B) Gantt charts are tools that determine the optimal schedule of jobs in a job shop.
C) Gantt charts only display the ideal use (planned schedules) of resources over time because the actual use is too variable.
D) The machine chart is a visual tool useful for determining the consequence of schedule changes on a trial- and- error basis.

Answer 2

The machine chart is a visual tool useful for determining the consequence of schedule changes on a trial- and- error basis.

Question 3

Table 12.3
Bluebird University provides tutoring services for undergraduate students seven days a week. The daily requirements for
tutors are:

Each tutor works five days a week and must have two consecutive days off, according to the contract.
Use the information in Table 12.3. What is the minimum number of tutors required if preference is given to the pair S- Su in case of a tie in the selection off days?

A) less than 7
B) 7
C) 8
D) 9

Answer 3

7

Question 4

Table 12.1
Gable Express Co. provides delivery service seven days a week.
The daily requirements (in workers) are estimated as follows:

Each worker is required to work five days per week,
and each must have two consecutive days off.
Use the information in Table 12.1. What is the minimum number of workers required if preference is given to the pair S- Su in case of a tie in the selection of off days?

A) less than 8 workers
B) 8 workers
C) 9 workers
D) greater than 9 workers

Question 5

Which one of the following approaches for scheduling customer demand would be appropriate for a fancy hotel?

A) backlogs
B) reservations
C) service on demand
D) appointments

Question 6

Which one of the following conditions can make a level strategy the most attractive?

A) The shelf life of the goods being produced is limited.
B) Inventory holding costs are high.
C) The cost of changing the workforce levels is low.
D) Products complementary to the existing products can be produced easily with the given facilities.

Question 7

Which one of the following statements concerning aggregate planning alternatives is best?

A) Creating anticipation inventory has the advantage of increasing customization.
B) Building anticipation inventory during the slack season is a demand alternative a firm can follow to satisfy seasonal demand patterns.
C) Using overtime is an undesirable option when the overtime wage premium is high and sustained levels of top worker productivity are important.
D) Adjusting workforce levels is an attractive capacity alternative when the cost of training and unemployment compensation is high.

Question 8

The meaning of undertime is

A) employees work as usual, but they are paid at a lower rate.
B) employees work more than normal hours, but they are not compensated.
C) employees don't work productively for the number of hours that they normally do.
D) the workweek of some employees is permanently reduced.

Question 9

Table 12.2
The daily requirements for highway patrol officers at Park City over the week are:

Each officer works five days a week and must have two consecutive days off.
Use the information in Table 12.2. What is the minimum number of officers required if preference is given to the pair S- Su in case of a tie in the selection of off days?

A) 9
B) 10
C) 11
D) 12

Question 10

Table 12.2
The daily requirements for highway patrol officers at Park City over the week are:

Each officer works five days a week and must have two consecutive days off.
Use the information in Table 12.2. How much total slack is generated from the schedule?

A) less than 9 days
B) 10 days
C) 11 days
D) greater than 11 days

Question 11

Which one of the following statements concerning production and staffing plans is best?

A) Production plans are based primarily on information from the master production plan.
B) A master production schedule is a projected statement of income, costs, and profits.
C) A staffing plan is the intermediate link between the business plan and the master production schedule.
D) Aggregation can be performed along three dimensions: product families, labor, and time.

Question 12

Which one of the following statements concerning capacity alternatives is best?

A) Subcontracting can help overcome short- term capacity shortages by offloading work on other producers.
B) Using overtime capacity usually improves worker productivity.
C) Adjusting workforce levels is preferred when the workforce is skilled and the labor pool is small.
D) Creating anticipation inventory increases customization, and is particularly favored in the service industry.

Question 13

With a rotating schedule

A) employees switch workdays or hours on a periodic basis.
B) each employee chooses the schedule he/she wants each week and is not required to change unless they want to.
C) the supervisor must switch an employee's work schedule on demand, thereby changing the schedules of other employees.
D) employees work the same days and hours each week but rotate tasks.

Question 14

Which one of the following statements about aggregate planning is best?

A) A production plan generally focuses on production rates and inventory holdings, whereas a staffing plan focuses on staffing and other labor- related factors.
B) A level strategy stabilizes inventory levels by adjusting production rates or staff levels to match demand levels over the planning horizon.
C) Capacity alternatives are actions that adjust demand patterns.
D) Operations and marketing are the only two functional areas that supply inputs for developing production and staffing plans.

Question 15

Which one of the following conditions favors a level strategy for manufacturing firms?

A) high availability of workers
B) high inventory holding cost
C) highly automated equipment and a make- to- stock strategy
D) short shelf life of inventory

Question 16

Which one of the following is a demand alternative for aggregate planning?

A) Use subcontracting to overcome short- term capacity shortages.
B) Use overtime and undertime to change workforce levels.
C) Offer complementary products or services with contra- cyclical demand requirements.
D) Use seasonal inventories to buffer the manufacturing process from variations in customer demand.

Question 17

Which one of the following actions applies to a level strategy?

A) Use promotional campaigns to boost demand.
B) Decrease production output to match any decreases in demand requirements.
C) Build anticipation inventory to meet the variability in demand.
D) Hire workers to increase production output to match increases in demand requirements.

Question 18

Which one of the following statements about managerial inputs to production and staffing plans is best?

A) Accounting and finance provide forecasts of demand and competition behaviour.
B) Materials provide supplier capabilities.
C) Human resources provide plans for future equipment capacities.
D) Operations provide training capacity.

Question 19

Which one of the following statements about costs of aggregate plans is best?

A) Hiring costs include the costs of advertising jobs, interviews, training programs for new employees, and initial paperwork.
B) Overtime wages are typically 50 percent of regular time, exclusive of fringe benefits.
C) Fringe benefits, which are a part of regular- time costs, do not typically include health insurance and paid vacations.
D) The cost of capital is not generally included in the inventory holding cost.

Question 20

A TV repair service company has a seasonal demand for its service, and there is a general shortage of skilled TV repair persons. Which one of the following is a capacity production planning alternative suitable for this situation?

A) Build anticipation inventories.
B) Increase the backlog for short- term demand surges.
C) Offer reduced prices during the slack season.
D) Hire and lay off workers to match the demand requirements.

Question 21

The aggregate planning strategy to be used should be consistent with the environment. Which one of the following pairs of environment and strategy is consistent?

A) ample labor supply; increase backlog for short- term demand surges
B) seasonal requirements and ample, unskilled labor supply; subcontracting
C) skilled labor in short supply; adjust workforce levels
D) low inventory holding cost; build anticipation inventory

Question 22

Which one of the following statements is best?

A) Demand alternatives adjust demand patterns, whereas capacity alternatives change in response to changes in demand.
B) Overtime and undertime are two ways to change the workforce level (rather than its utilization).
C) Due to the almost limitless number of possible aggregate plans, it is virtually impossible to select a desirable plan without using an optimization procedure such as linear programming.
D) Subcontracting during the peak season is called a demand strategy since it requires a competitive orientation toward suppliers.

Question 23

Which one of the following approaches for scheduling customer demand would be appropriate for a TV repair shop?

A) backlogs
B) reservations
C) service on demand
D) appointments

Question 24

Table 12.1
Gable Express Co. provides delivery service seven days a week.
The daily requirements (in workers) are estimated as follows:

Each worker is required to work five days per week,
and each must have two consecutive days off.
Use the information in Table 12.1. How much total slack will be generated from the schedule?

A) less than 6 days
B) 6 days
C) 7 days
D) greater than 7 days

Question 25

Which one of the following statements about managerial inputs to production and staffing plans is best?

A) Distribution and marketing provides labor- market conditions.
B) Operations provide storage capacity.
C) Human resources provide labor standards.
D) Engineering provides product designs.

Question 26

Which one of the following approaches for scheduling customer demand would be appropriate for a dentist?

A) backlogs
B) reservations
C) service on demand
D) appointments

Question 27

Which one of the following capacity alternatives would typically be best to implement a chase strategy for a manufacturing firm?

A) Increase overtime to satisfy peaks in demand.
B) Build anticipation inventory to absorb the variability in demand.
C) Use promotional campaigns to boost demand.
D) Use creative pricing to modify demand.

Question 28

Which of the following is the best example of a physical constraint on the aggregate plan?

A) safety stock levels
B) use of overtime
C) inventory storage space
D) level of backorders

Question 29

Table 12.4
A company is attempting to schedule workers for the next seven days. The daily requirements, in number of workers needed,
are shown below.

Each worker must work five days per week and must have two consecutive days off.
Use the information in Table 12.4. How much total slack will be generated from the schedule?

A) less than 7 days
B) 7 days
C) 8 days
D) more than 8 days

Question 30

A company is attempting to cope with seasonal demand patterns using a demand alternative. Which one of the following will NOT help achieve this aim?

A) promotional campaigns
B) creative pricing
C) complementary products or services
D) adjusting workforce levels

Question 31

Which one of the following statements concerning production and staffing plans is best?

A) When production and staffing plans are made, aggregation can be performed only along two dimensions: products and time.
B) The impact of production and staffing plans cuts across several functional areas of the firm.
C) Production and staffing plans specify production rates, workforce levels, and inventory holdings, but do not account for capacity limitations because they are aggregated.
D) Production and staffing plans attempt to achieve several objectives, all of which must be consistent with one another.

Question 32

Two basic types of decision alternatives are used to arrive at acceptable production or staffing plans: capacity alternatives and demand alternatives. If an organization that faces seasonal demand uses a reactive approach, which one of the following actions is it most likely to implement?

A) advertising to generate demand during off- peak periods
B) introduction of complementary products
C) creating a stock of anticipation inventory
D) discounting products in off- peak periods

Question 33

The heuristic method for developing a workforce scheduling in the text observes the constraint that each employee must

A) get two consecutive days off.
B) be fully utilized.
C) have Saturday and Sunday off at least once per month.
D) get Saturday and Sunday off.

Question 34

Which one of the following statements about managerial inputs to production and staffing plans is best?

A) Materials provide the current staffing level.
B) Finance provides labor and machine standards.
C) Marketing provides new product or service developments.
D) Human resources provide the training capacity and labor- market conditions.

Question 35

Which of the following statements is not consistent with the typical objectives of developing aggregate plants?

A) Minimize the accumulation of inventory.
B) Minimize changes in production rates to avoid potential difficulties in coordinating with suppliers.
C) Improving on- time delivery to maximize customer service.
D) Strive for low utilization of expensive production assets to maintain a large capacity cushion

Question 36

Gantt charts can be used to

A) monitor the progress of jobs and sequence work on each machine.
B) monitor the progress of jobs but cannot be used to sequence work on each machine.
C) sequence work on each machine but cannot be used to monitor the progress of each job.
D) monitor the average number of defective parts generated by a machine on each job.

Question 37

The adjustment of price to maximize the revenue obtained from available capacity that will be lost if not used is referred to as

A) anticipation inventory.
B) yield management.
C) workforce adjustment.
D) chase strategy.

Question 38

The intermediate link between the business plan and manufacturing schedules is the

A) workforce schedule.
B) financial plan.
C) production (aggregate) plan.
D) annual plan.

Question 39

Which one of the following statements about aggregate planning is best?

A) When a firm wants to emphasize stability in its workforce, it should adopt a level production planning strategy.
B) A make- to- stock production plan that wants to emphasize plant utilization should adopt a chase production strategy.
C) When a firm wants to minimize its inventory investment, it should use a level production planning strategy.
D) A make- to- stock production plan that wants to minimize changes in production rates should adopt a chase production planning strategy.

Question 40

Table 12.4
A company is attempting to schedule workers for the next seven days. The daily requirements, in number of workers needed,
are shown below.

Each worker must work five days per week and must have two consecutive days off.
Use the information in Table 12.4. What is the minimum number of workers needed if preference is given to the pair S- Su in case of a tie in the selection of off days?

A) less than 8 workers
B) 8 workers
C) 9 workers
D) more than 9 workers

Question 41

------- is the allocation of resources over time to accomplish specific tasks.

Question 42

A(n) ------- is a projected statement of income, costs, and profits.

Question 43

Which one of the following statements about aggregate planning is best?

A) All functional areas should supply inputs for developing production and staffing plans.
B) Capacity alternatives are actions that adjust demand patterns.
C) The production plan specifies the timing and size of production quantities for each product in the product families.
D) The staffing plan is to service organizations what competitive priorities are to manufacturing organizations.

Question 44

------- are actions that can be taken to adjust production and supply in order to accommodate demand requirements.

Question 45

A(n) ------- specializes in low- to medium- volume production utilizing job or batch processes.

Question 46

------- are actions that attempt to modify demand and, consequently, resource requirements.

Question 47

------- can supply services, make components and subassemblies, or even assemble an entire product to overcome short- term capacity shortages,

Question 48

What is a business plan?

Question 49

------- scheduling determines when employees work.

Question 50

A(n) ------- chart for a manufacturing plant graphically depicts the sequence of future work at various machines or work stations in a plant.

Question 51

Which one of the following statements concerning typical objectives of production and staffing plans is best?

A) Minimizing costs will also minimize changes in the workforce levels.
B) Adjusting workforce levels may cause lower productivity because new employees typically need time to become fully productive.
C) Improved on- time delivery also means minimizing inventory investment.
D) Maximizing profits also minimizes inventory investment.

Question 52

The ------- is a schedule that details the specific work schedule for each category of employee.

Question 53

------- is the accumulation of customer orders that have been promised for delivery at some future date.

Question 54

The ------- strategy tries to maintain a constant workforce level or constant output rate during the planning horizon.

Question 55

------- is the time that employees work that is longer than the regular day or workweek for which they receive additional pay for the extra hours.

Question 56

The purpose of a rotating schedule is to

A) make sure the legal constraints imposed on workforce schedules are satisfied.
B) assign each employee to work the same days and hours each week.
C) deal with certain undesirable aspects of several individual workforce schedules.
D) assign senior employees more opportunity to have weekends off.

Question 57

------- is the situation that occurs when employees do not work productively for the regular- time workday or workweek.

Question 58

Table 12.3
Bluebird University provides tutoring services for undergraduate students seven days a week. The daily requirements for
tutors are:

Each tutor works five days a week and must have two consecutive days off, according to the contract.
Use the information in Table 12.3. How many days will have slack capacity?

A) less than 3
B) 3
C) 4
D) greater than 4

Question 59

The ------- is the length of time covered by an aggregate plan.

Question 60

The ------- strategy tries to match demand during the planning horizon by varying either the workforce level or the output rate.

Question 61

The process of breaking an aggregate plan into greater detail is referred to as disaggregation.

Question 62

A plant facing seasonal demand can stock anticipation inventory during light demand periods and use it during heavy demand periods.

Question 63

A(n) ------- is a lost order that causes the customer to go elsewhere.

Question 64

A plant facing seasonal demand can stock ------- inventory during light demand periods and use it during heavy demand periods.

Question 65

------- is the practice of adjusting prices to maximize the revenue obtained from the available capacity that will be lost if it is not used.

Question 66

A service firm's aggregate plan, called a(n) ------- , centers on staffing and other labor- related factors.

Question 67

A(n) ------- specializes in medium- to high- volume production and utilizes line or continuous processes.

Question 68

Due to the fact that service firms do not inventory output, a pure chase strategy is not appropriate.

Question 69

------- are products or services having similar resource requirements, but different demand cycles.

Question 70

A(n) ------- is a statement of its production rates, workforce levels, and inventory holdings based on estimates of customer requirements and capacity limitations.

Question 71

A(n) ------- schedule calls for each employee to work the same days and hours each week.

Question 72

One of the adjustable elements of aggregate planning, as regards to capacity, is the percentage of subcontracting.

Question 73

Varying the workforce by hiring or firing is one of the demand options of aggregate planning.

Question 74

A(n) ------- schedule rotates employees through a series of workdays or hours.

Question 75

The ------- chart form of Gantt chart graphically displays the current status of each job relative to its scheduled completion date.

Question 76

A(n) ------- is an order that the customer expected to be filled immediately but reluctantly asks that it be delivered as soon as possible.

Question 77

In the manufacturing sector, aggregate planning links strategic goals to a production plant.

Question 78

------- scheduling assigns jobs to machines or workers to jobs.

Question 79

Due to the large number of possible strategies, finding an ideal mix strategy for an aggregate plan is complicated.

Question 80

The amount of overtime and the number of employees in the workforce are both adjustable elements of capacity when implementing aggregate planning.