QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS / Operation Management DUAL CLASS

01 Jul QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS / Operation Management DUAL CLASS

1. How would you employ the decision-making process in a business environment? Recommend picking a business and discuss the following areas: Define the problem, Identity the alternatives, determine the criteria, evaluate the alternatives, and choose an alternative? The answer can be hypothetical situation.

2. Discuss the roles played by the qualitative and quantitative approach to managerial decision making? Why is it important for a mangers or decision maker to have a good understanding of both of these approaches to decision making?

3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of analyzing and experimenting with a model as opposed to a real object or situation?

4. Explain Poisson Probability Distribution and provide an example.

5. Explain Random Variables and provide example.

6. Contrast dissatisfies, satisfiers and exciters/delighters. Why is this classification important for companies to understand, particularly from a strategic point of view?

7. How do customers evaluate services differently from manufacturing, and what implications do these have for operations?

8. What is the difference between corporate, business and functional

strategy?

9. What do we mean by core competencies?

10. Explain why the decision maker might feel uncomfortable with the expected value approach, and decide to use a non-probabilistic approach even when probabilities are available.

11. Why perform sensitivity analysis? Of what use is sensitivity analysis where good probability estimates are difficult to obtain?

12. How can a good decision maker “improve” luck?

13. When and why should a utility approach be followed?

14. Give two examples of situations where you have decided on a course of action that did not have the highest expected monetary value.

15. Explain how utility could be used in a decision where performance is not measured by monetary value.

Case Study: 2, Operation Management

Textbook sections: Chapter 3 and 4

Case Questions:

1. Why is measurement important?

2. Explain the difference between goods quality and service quality, and how they are measured.

3. Describe the five key dimensions of assessing service quality.

4. Explain the difference between design flexibility and volume flexibility.

5. What do managers need to understand in order to create a sustainable competitive advantage?

6. Contrast dissatisfiers, satisfiers and exciters/delighters. Why is this classification important for companies to understand, particularly from a strategic point of view?

7. How do customers evaluate services differently from manufacturing, and what implications do these have for operations?

8. What is the difference between corporate, business and functional strategy?

9. What do we mean by core competencies?

10 Differentiate between hard technology and soft technology.

11. Discuss the role of technology on productivity.

12. Summarize the process of designing goods and services, and explain where the process differs between goods and services.

13. Define:

a.	Prototype testing
b.	Robust design

14. Define reliability. Include the four major elements.

15. Why should organizations strive for product and process simplification?

16. Explain the importance of service recovery and service guarantees.

17. Explain the relationship between custom, option and standard goods and services and project, job shop, flow shop and continuous flow processes.

18. Explain the concept of hierarchy of work. Why is it useful in process design activities?

19. Define reengineering. How does it differ from other approaches to process improvement?