Q&A Hero

Q: (p. 416) In setting up a Kanban control system you need to determine the number of Kanban card sets needed. If the expected demand during lead time is 50 per hour, the safety stock is 20% of the demand during lead time, the container size is 4. If the lead time to replenish an order is 8 hours, what number of Kanban card sets is needed? A. 60 B. 80 C. 90 D. 120 E. 150

Q: (p. 416) In setting up a Kanban control system you need to determine the number of Kanban card sets needed. If the expected demand during lead time is 25 per hour, the safety stock is 20% of the demand during lead time, the container size is 5, and the lead time to replenish an order is 5 hours, what is the number of Kanban card sets needed? A. 5 B. 20 C. 27 D. 30 E. 34

Q: (p. 415) Which of the following statements holds true for Kanban production control systems? A. The authority to produce or supply additional parts comes from upstream operations B. In a paperless control system, containers can be used instead of cards C. The cards or containers make up the Kanban push system D. They require substantial quantitative analysis prior to implementation E. They have not been successful outside of Japan and the United States

Q: (p. 411) Group technology (GT) is credited with which of the following benefits? A. Reducing waiting time between process operations B. Improving inventory discipline C. Reducing required workforce skills D. Improved labor relations E. Improved small group functioning

Q: (p. 414) Which of the following are elements that address elimination of waste under lean production? A. Production ahead of demand B. Group plant loading technology C. Kanban production control system D. Minimized run times E. Full capacity utilization

Q: (p. 411) Which of the following address elimination of waste under lean production? A. Info-matic warehouse networks B. Outsourced housekeeping C. Quality at the source D. Backflush E. Bottom-round management

Q: (p. 404) In the textbook Toyota's Fujio Cho identified which of the following types of waste to be eliminated? A. Excess quality B. Motion C. Excess capacity D. Underproduction E. Excess demand

Q: (p. 404) In the textbook Toyota's Fujio Cho identified which of the following types of waste to be eliminated? A. Underproduction B. Excess quality C. Preventive maintenance D. Product defects E. Kaizen

Q: (p. 404) In the textbook Toyota's Fujio Cho identified which of the following types of waste to be eliminated? A. Excess quality B. Overproduction C. Underproduction D. Environmental E. Over-thinking

Q: (p. 402) Which of the following are related to lean production? A. A philosophy of waste elimination B. Lean consumption C. Never running out of inventory D. The Wahei-Subaru method E. Full use of capacity

Q: (p. 406) Applying lean concepts to logistics is difficult unless either the manufacturer or the customer owns the logistics activities.

Q: (p. 406) Applying lean concepts in manufacturing balances increases in cost with quality improvement.

Q: (p. 405) Automation is a key to lean procurement.

Q: (p. 409) A kaizen burst is an overfilled kanban container.

Q: (p. 409) A kaizen burst is a symbol on a value stream map.

Q: (p. 407) Value stream mapping involves materials, not information.

Q: (p. 408) Value stream mapping is used to identify all of the value-adding as well as non-value-adding processes that materials are subjected to within a plant.

Q: (p. 411) Preventive maintenance is emphasized in lean production to ensure that flows are not interrupted by downtime or malfunctioning equipment.

Q: (p. 413) The term "freeze window" refers to the practice of building quality into the process and not identifying quality by inspection.

Q: (p. 420) One of the few lean techniques that does not work well in service firms is demand-pull scheduling.

Q: (p. 419) One of the many lean techniques that have been successfully applied in service firms is the eliminating of unnecessary activities.

Q: (p. 419) One of the many lean techniques that have been successfully applied in service firms is leveling facility load.

Q: (p. 419) One of the many lean techniques that have been successfully applied in service firms is the upgrading of housekeeping.

Q: (p. 419) One of the many lean techniques that have been successfully applied in service firms is the upgrading of quality.

Q: (p. 405) Firms in Japan tend to have short-term relationships with their suppliers and customers.

Q: (p. 405) Company unions in Japan exist to foster a cooperative relationship with management.

Q: (p. 405) Subcontractor networks are not very important in Japanese manufacturing.

Q: (p. 405) In Japanese manufacturing automation and robotics are used extensively to perform dull or routine jobs so employees are free to focus on important improvement tasks.

Q: (p. 405) Respect for people is a key to Toyota's improvement ideas in manufacturing.

Q: (p. 415) "Kanban Squares" is an educational game played in Kanban training sessions.

Q: (p. 416) Using the formula in the textbook the only parameters we need to determine the number of Kanban card sets is the average number of units demanded over some time period, the container size, and the safety stock.

Q: (p. 414) Kanban means "symbol" or "box" in Japanese.

Q: (p. 414) A Kanban control system uses a signaling device to regulate JIT flows.

Q: (p. 407) Value stream mapping is used to visualize product flows through various processing steps.

Q: (p. 413) Uniform plant loading is a process of smoothing the production activity flow to dampen the reaction waves that normally occur in response to schedule variations.

Q: (p. 413) Uniform plant loading is where you schedule production with different amounts of the same product each day of the week to permit variation to meet changing demand requirements.

Q: (p. 408) One of the aims of value stream mapping to eliminate waste in a process.

Q: (p. 407) A principle of value stream mapping is to concentrate on speeding up value-added operations.

Q: (p. 412) JIT manufacturing forces a firm to work with a lower water level despite safety hazards.

Q: (p. 412) JIT is typically applied to non-repetitive manufacturing.

Q: (p. 412) The goal of JIT production is to drive all inventory queues lower.

Q: (p. 411) JIT production means that we produce the product before it is required so the customer does not wait for the product.

Q: (p. 411) "Quality at the source" requires factory workers to become their own inspectors.

Q: (p. 412) In the textbook the expression "quality at the source" means that we need to purchase the best quality a supplier or vendor can provide.

Q: (p. 411) Group technology includes the set of psychological tests and training exercises given to group workers to insure a high level of teamwork.

Q: (p. 411) Group technology cells help to eliminate movement and queue (waiting) time between operations.

Q: (p. 411) Group technology is a philosophy wherein similar parts are grouped together and the processes required to make the parts are arranged as a work cell.

Q: (p. 402) Lean production makes implementing green strategies in manufacturing processes more difficult.

Q: (p. 411) Lean production is a management philosophy and a pull system throughout the plant.

Q: (p. 402) Lean production replaced JIT in the 1990s because JIT did not address the problem of reducing waste.

Q: (p. 409) Lean production requires a "push & pull" system of inventory replenishment.

Q: (p. 402) Henry Ford used JIT concepts as he streamlined his moving assembly lines to make automobiles in the early 1900's.

Q: (p. 404) Lean production is an integrated set of activities designed to achieve high-volume production using minimal inventories of raw materials, work in process, and finished goods.

Q: (p. 357) Which of the following is not a reason to carry inventory? A. To provide a safeguard for variation in raw material delivery time B. To take advantage of economic purchase-order size C. To maintain independence of operations D. To meet variation in product demand E. To keep the stock out of the hands of competitors

Q: (p. 357) Firms keep supplies of inventory for which of the following reasons? A. To maintain dependence of operations B. To provide a feeling of security for the workforce C. To meet variation in product demand D. To hedge against wage increases E. In case the supplier changes the design

Q: (p. 357) Which of the following is one of the categories of manufacturing inventory? A. Economic Order Inventory B. Work-in-process C. Quality units D. JIT Inventory E. Re-order point

Q: (p. 357) Which of the following is not one of the categories of manufacturing inventory? A. Raw materials B. Finished products C. Component parts D. Just-in-time E. Supplies

Q: (p. 355) The costs associated with reduced inventory results in lower profits.

Q: (p. 355) Savings from reduced inventory results in increased profit.

Q: (p. 355) The average cost of inventory in the United States is 20 to 25 percent of its value.

Q: (p. 353) One of the daily, delicate balancing acts that Logistics managers have to perform involves the trade-off between inventory costs and the cost of stock-outs.

Q: (p. 353) One of the daily, delicate balancing acts that Logistics managers have to perform involves the trade-off between customer satisfaction and cost to serve.

Q: (p. 353) One of the daily, delicate balancing acts that Logistics managers have to perform involves the trade-off between transportation costs and fulfillment speed.

Q: (p. 354) You should visualize inventory as stacks of money sitting on forklifts, on shelves, and in trucks and planes while in transit.

Q: (p. 354) One of the drivers of the direct-to-store (direct distribution) approach is the decrease in trucking industry regulation.

Q: (p. 354) One of the drivers of the direct-to-store (direct distribution) approach is the increase in global sourcing.

Q: (p. 354) One of the drivers of the direct-to-store (direct distribution) approach is the upstream migration of value-added logistics services.

Q: (p. 376) In a price break model of lot sizing the lowest cost quantity is always feasible.

Q: (p. 376) In a price break model of lot sizing, to find the lowest-cost order quantity, it is sometimes necessary to calculate the economic order quantity for each possible price and to check to see whether the lowest cost quantity is feasible.

Q: (p. 376) In a price break model of lot sizing, to find the lowest-cost order quantity, it is sometimes necessary to calculate the economic order quantity for each possible price.

Q: (p. 376) Price-break models deal with discrete or step changes in price as order size changes rather than a per-unit change.

Q: (p. 376) Price-break models deal with the fact that the selling price of an item generally increases as the order size increases.

Q: (p. 376) Price-break models deal with the fact that the selling price of an item varies with the order size.

Q: (p. 366) The "sawtooth effect," is named after the jagged shape of the graph of inventory levels over time.

Q: (p. 366) The "sawtooth effect," named after turn-around artist Al "chainsaw" Dunlap, is the severe reduction of inventory and service levels that occurs when a firm has gone through a hostile takeover.

Q: (p. 381) Cycle counting is a physical inventory-taking technique in which inventory is counted on a frequent basis rather than once or twice a year.

Q: (p. 362) When stocked items are sold, the optimal inventory decision using marginal analysis is to stock that quantity where the probable profit from the sale or use of the last unit is equal to or greater than the probable losses if the last unit remains unsold.

Q: (p. 362) The optimal stocking decision in inventory management, when using marginal analysis, occurs at the point where the benefits derived from carrying the next unit are more than the costs for that unit.

Q: (p. 360) Some inventory situations involve placing orders to cover only one demand period or to cover short-lived items at frequent intervals.

Q: (p. 373) In the fixed-time period model it is necessary to determine the inventory currently on hand to calculate the size of the order to place with a vendor.