1. Randy told Rob that an effective hiring process is important to value chain management because ______________.

a. value chain management requires highly experienced and knowledgeable employees

b. flexible job designs require flexible people to fill them

c. value chain management requires a diverse group of highly specialized employees

d. employees need to have the knowledge and tools they need to do their jobs efficiently

2. Randy told Rob, “Organizational culture is also a very important component of value chain management. Those cultural attitudes include sharing, openness, respect, and trust, and these attitudes must encompass not only employees, but _______________ as well.”

a. extend to management

b. extend to customers

c. extend to external partners

d. their families

3. Randy wanted to convince Rob that the value chain was very important and practical. Randy briefly reviewed the results of a survey of manufacturers that had embarked on value chain management. Sharing the results of the survey with Rob, Randy indicated that ______________ was a benefit that companies reported on this survey.

a. increased sales

b. cost savings

c. increased market share

d. enhanced customer service order management

4. Rob asked Randy about the barriers commonly faced by organizations looking to implement value chain management. Randy replied that organizational barriers are among the most difficult for managers to reconcile. An example of such a barrier might include ______________.

a. reluctance to share information

b. mutual trust

c. the belief that when an organization collaborates, it no longer controls its own destiny

d. employees’ refusal to be flexible

CURRENT ISSUES IN OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

Upon graduating from college, Steve Jungman began his career as a management trainee at Felcher & Sons, Inc., a manufacturer of mid-priced office furniture. The firm has recently decided to expand overseas with manufacturing plants in Singapore and Thailand and sales offices in the Far East, Europe, and Australia. In conjunction with this investment in new plants and technologies, the firm plans to develop an online presence that will enable customers to individually tailor the products they order from Felcher & Sons. Terry Tate, VP of operations for Felcher & Sons, has been tasked with overseeing the development of these plants and new capabilities. Mr. Tate has asked that Steve be assigned to him to help him in this process.

5. Steve tells Mr. Tate that he is excited to be working with him on this project. While he was in school, he did a research project on ___________, which provides consumers with manufactured products that are tailored to their individual specifications.

a. mass personalization

b. mass customization

c. design-to-order manufacturing

d. one-to-one marketing

6. Mr. Tate and Steve have scheduled a site visit to a nearby Dell Computer’s assembly facility in order to see firsthand many of the technologies available to Felcher & Sons. Dell Computer uses technologies such as computer controlled factory equipment, industrial robots, bar code scanners, and logistics software that enable them to manufacture, assemble, and ship custom-designed computers in a very short time. Such technologies characterize _________, which give companies the ability to quickly readjust their assembly lines to make products to order.

a. design-to-order manufacturing techniques

b. new technological techniques

c. flexible manufacturing techniques

d. intellectual property techniques

7. Mr. Tate has been tasked with bringing these new plants into compliance with ISO 9000 standards. Mr. Tate asks Steve if he is familiar with ISO 9000. Steve admits that while he remembers hearing about it in school, he’s not 100 percent sure. Mr. Tate tells him that ISO 9000 is a _______________.

a. quality standard that establishes a goal of no more than 3.4 defects per 10,000 units

b. quality standard that establishes a goal of no more than 3.4 defects per 100,000 units

c. quality standard that establishes a goal of no more than 3.4 defects per 1,000,000 units

d. series of international quality management standards

8. Having been assigned to help Mr. Tate bring new plants into compliance with ISO 9000 standards, Steve asks Mr. Tate why obtaining ISO 9000 is so important to Felcher & Sons, Inc. Mr. Tate responds that ______________.

a. this type of certification is a prerequisite for doing business internationally

b. quality is often a big problem for overseas plants because labor is less highly skilled

c. U.S. law requires manufacturers bring their operations into compliance by 2007

d. this quality goal establishes a goal of no more than 3.4 defects per million units or procedures

)

9. Having been assigned to help Mr. Tate bring new plants into compliance with ISO 9000 standards, Steve asks Mr. Tate whether there are many firms that have achieved ISO 9000 certification. Mr. Tate tells Steve that according to most recent figures he’d seen, the number of registered sites is about _____________.

a. 100,000

b. 250,000

c. 670,000

d. 1,000,000

10. Mr. Tate and Steve attend a seminar put on by a Big 5 consulting firm with vast experience with ISO 9000 and an excellent reputation in implementing various quality-based initiatives. The speaker, John Dillon, begins by asking a question: “When you consider a product or service to have quality, what does that mean?” Quality is the ability of a product or service to _______________.

a. reliably do what it is supposed to do

b. exceed customer expectations

c. provide value

d. be flexible

11. Mr. Dillon tells the audience that firms, such as their client Rockwell Collins, have found that successful quality management programs tend to rely on two important approaches, cross-functional work teams and _________.

a. managerial flexibility

b. self-directed work teams

c. ongoing employee education and training

d. an overall learning orientation within the firm

12. After the presentation, Mr. Tate approaches John Dillon and asks him about his company’s experience with quality improvement efforts in overseas operations. Mr. Dillon tells Mr. Tate about the experience of one of his customers Delphi Automotive Systems Corporation. Mr. Dillon just returned from visiting their plant in Matamoros, Mexico, where Delphi had implemented a quality initiative. The Delphi plant was able to reduce their customer reject rate by almost ________________.

a. 50 percent

b. 100 percent

c. 200 percent

d. 300 percent

13. Mr. Tate tells John Dillon about Felcher & Sons, Inc.’s efforts to achieve ISO 9000 certification. He explains that the firm is pretty far along with this effort; quality control is an ongoing concern for Felcher & Sons, and he asks Mr. Dillon if there might be other quality management issues or trends that the consultant might be able to help them with. John Dillon tells them a little about Six Sigma. After the show, Steve asks Mr. Tate what Six Sigma stands for, and Mr. Tate replies that _________________.

a. Sigma is the Greek letter statisticians use to define a standard deviation

b. Six Sigma covers everything from contract review to product design to product delivery

c. Six Sigma is a series of international quality management standards established by the International Organization for Standardization

d. Six Sigma has become the internationally recognized standard for evaluating and comparing companies in the global marketplace

Essay Questions

WHAT IS OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

14. In a short essay, define operations management and briefly discuss the importance of this management process.

15. In a short essay, identify seven of Deming’s 14 points for improving management’s productivity.

VALUE CHAIN MANAGEMENT

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