Key Concepts in Supply Chain and Operations Management

CHAPTER 1

4) To participate in a supply chain, a firm must actually handle the physical goods at some point.

7) Inputs to the transformation process are tangible, but the outputs may be tangible or intangible.

9) Of the three flows linking organizations in a supply chain, information and monetary flows always move upstream and physical flows always move downstream.

10) A second-tier supplier is downstream from a first-tier supplier in the supply chain.

13) The drive for efficiency has decreased the level of globalization in the world economy over the last twenty years.

14) E-commerce is the component of a supply chain that is the most susceptible to breakdown.

15) To avoid supply chain problems, firms must manage relationships with their downstream suppliers as well as their upstream customers.

16) The association for operations management is AOM.

18) The Logistics function of a supply chain would include Marketing and Engineering as its key interorganizational participants.

CHAPTER 2

2) A mechanism that identifies a firm's targeted customers and sets time frames and performance objectives for the business is called a mission statement.

3) The vision statement addresses a company's reason for existence, core values, and domain.

4) As long as each functional area in a company operates efficiently, their strategies can be very different.

6) The operations and supply chain strategy is a functional strategy that is, by definition, an infrastructural strategy.

9) Changeover flexibility refers to the ability of a company to change production quickly from one product to another, thereby producing a wide range of products.

10) Volume flexibility is the term used to describe the ability of a producer to produce a dazzling array of products or services.

14) In the internally supportive stage of business strategy alignment, management merely attempts to minimize negative potential in the operations and supply chain area.

17) The phrase "closing the loop" means that strengths and weaknesses, as well as core competencies, are fed back into the mission statement.

CHAPTER 3

3) Cycle time is the sum of all of the task times.

5) A batch process is less flexible than an assembly line and less efficient that a job shop.

6) A cellular layout is another name for a functional layout.

7) A customer service function at an insurance firm that handles claims based on the first letter of the customer's last name is an example of applying group technology to a service operation.

12) According to the law of variability, converting from an assemble-to-order to a make-to-order production process should increase productivity of the manufacturing processes.

14) Capability variety is the difference in how customers view an identical service outcome. What some customers might view as economical and thrifty others might view as cheap and poor value.

16) The back room refers to the part of the service process where the customer is not visible to the other customers waiting for service.

17) In a service blueprint, the line of internal interaction falls between the customer and the onstage service provider.

CHAPTER 4

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

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

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

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

7) Productivity is measured as the ratio of inputs to outputs.

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

10) 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.

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

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

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

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