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Q:
(p. 18) Central to the concept of operations strategy are the notions of operations focus and trade-offs.
Q:
If the normal time for a job is 30 minutes and the allowances for the job include 10 percent for personal needs, 5 percent for unavoidable work delays and 3 percent for work fatigue, which one of the following comes closest to the standard time for this job?
A. 14 minutes
B. 24 minutes
C. 32 minutes
D. 35 minutes
E. 38 minutes
Q:
If the normal time for a job is 15 minutes and the allowances for the job include 10 percent for personal needs, 5 percent for unavoidable work delays and 3 percent for work fatigue, which one of the following comes closest to the standard time for this job?
A. 10 minutes
B. 15 minutes
C. 18 minutes
D. 24 minutes
E. 35 minutes
Q:
(p. 10) Attempting to balance the desire to efficiently use resources while providing a highly effective service may create conflict between the two goals.
Q:
(p. 11) The term "value" refers to the relationship between quality and the price paid by the consumer.
Q:
If the normal time for a job is 20 minutes and the allowances for the job are 25 percent of normal time, which one of the following comes closest to the standard time for this job?
A. 5 minutes
B. 22 minutes, 30 seconds
C. 24 minutes
D. 25 minutes
E. 35 minutes
Q:
If the normal time for a job is 4 minutes and the allowances for the job are 10 percent of normal time, which one of the following comes closest to the standard time for this job?
A. 4 minutes
B. 4 minutes, 6 seconds
C. 4 minutes, 24 seconds
D. 5 minutes, 24 seconds
E. 6 minutes, 6 seconds
Q:
(p. 4) Operations and supply chain management is defined as the design, operation, and improvement of the systems that create and deliver the firm's primary products and services.
Q:
Which of the following is not a reason that work measurement is used to set time standards?
A. To schedule work
B. To provide an objective basis for motivating the workforce
C. To bid for new contracts
D. To identify and eliminate lower performing employees
E. To provide benchmarks for improvement
Q:
(p. 11) A process can be effective without being efficient.
Q:
Which of the following is not a disadvantage of specialization?
A. Low wages due to ease of substitutability of labor
B. Difficulty in controlling quality because no one has responsibility for entire product
C. Boredom stemming from repetitive nature of work
D. Worker dissatisfaction leading to hidden costs
E. Little gratification from work itself because of small contribution to each item
Q:
(p. 11) A worker can be efficient without being effective.
Q:
Which of the following is not a reason that time standards are necessary?
A. To allocate capacity
B. To provide an objective basis for measuring worker performance
C. To evaluate performance on existing contracts
D. To focus the supervisor on performance improvement
E. To provide benchmarks for improvement
Q:
(p. 10) A doctor completes a surgical procedure on a patient without error. The patient dies anyway. In operations management terms, we could refer to this doctor as being efficient but not effective.
Q:
Some of the advantages for labor to increasing specialization of labor in job design include which of the following?
A. Boredom
B. Job satisfaction and gratification
C. Control over the workplace
D. Enhanced opportunity to progress to a better job
E. Ease in learning the job
Q:
(p. 10) Effectiveness means doing the right things to create the most value for the company.
Q:
Some of the advantages for labor to increasing specialization of labor in job design include which of the following?
A. Rapid training of the workforce
B. Little or no education required to obtain work
C. Low wages due to ease of substitutability of labor
D. Close control over work flow and workloads
E. Ease in recruiting new workers
Q:
(p. 10) Efficiency means doing the right things to create the most value for the company.
Q:
In designing a job it has been concluded that individuals or work groups require a clearly defined, visible and meaningful set of work activities. This refers to which of the following job design principles?
A. Automation of manual tasks
B. Task identity
C. Quality at the source
D. Temporary labor use
E. "Informating" ordinary workers
Q:
An objective of job design could be to develop a logically integrated pattern of work activities for individuals or work groups. Which of the following is not a job design principle relevant to this objective?
A. Task variety
B. Skill variety
C. Feedback
D. Partnership with management
E. Task autonomy
Q:
Behavioral considerations in job design include which of the following?
A. Judgment of upper management
B. The social strata and ethnicity of the labor pool
C. Degree of labor specialization
D. The economic stability of the industry
E. Potential for workforce unionization
Q:
Job design decisions are being affected by which of the following trends?
A. Forecasting methods
B. Automatic guided vehicles
C. Automation of heavy manual work
D. Automated storage and retrieval systems
E. Global economic cycles
Q:
Job design decisions are not being affected by which of the following trends?
A. Cross-training workers to perform multi-skilled jobs
B. Geographic dispersion of industry
C. Employee involvement and team approaches to designing and organizing work
D. Extensive use of temporary workers
E. Quality control becoming part of the job
Q:
When the textbook presented the topic of job design decisions, the "what" of these decisions concerned which of the following?
A. Time of day
B. Tasks to be performed
C. Mental and physical characteristics of the workforce
D. Method of performance and motivation
E. The organizational rationale for the job
Q:
Work measurement and standards have proven ineffective because management regularly sets standards that cannot be achieved.
Q:
Empowerment refers to workers being given authority to call a supervisor to stop a production line if there is a quality problem.
Q:
Leading organizations use job enrichment and sociotechnical systems to improve the quality of jobs.
Q:
Job enrichment broadens workers' influence by giving them some managerial powers over their own activities.
Q:
Work groups can handle many production problems better than management if they are permitted to make their own decisions on scheduling and work allocation.
Q:
The sociotechnical systems approach to job design attempts to develop jobs that adjust the needs of the production process technology to the needs of the worker and work group.
Q:
In job design, an attempt must be made to provide an optimal variety of tasks within each job.
Q:
Employees should be able to exercise some discretion and decision making in doing their work.
Q:
Research suggests that employees derive frustration from using a number of skill levels.
Q:
Methods Time Management (MTM) and Most Work Measurement System (MOST) are proprietary examples of Predetermined Motion-Time Data Systems (PMTS).
Q:
Work sampling involves observing a portion or sample of worker activities.
Q:
If the time it takes for equipment breakdowns is significant, it should not be factored into a time study analysis in determining the standard time for a job.
Q:
Mental fatigue is a reason workers should be given some extra time to do their jobs.
Q:
A coffee break can be a reason workers should be given some extra time to do their jobs.
Q:
You need a standard time to determine normal time in a time study analysis.
Q:
Time study is usually performed by using a predetermined benchmark for a standard.
Q:
Work measurement can be used to determine how physically hard the work should be to be performed by labor.
Q:
The fundamental purpose of work measurement is to set time standards.
Q:
Describe an example of industrial learning where learning curve analysis might be useful?
Q:
What are some of the possible factors that stimulate learning?
Q:
Why are learning curves useful in business?
Q:
What is a learning curve?
Q:
A company's production process has a 90 percent learning rate. The process has produced 1,000 units to date. A process refinement is estimated to allow a future learning rate for the identical product of 70 percent. However, the initial unit made using the new process will take the same amount of time as the initial unit produced using the old process. At what point, using the new process, will the production rate exceed the production rate achieved by the old process?
Q:
A company can produce a product the first time at a cost of $2,500. If their 85 percent Learning Curve allows them to reduce their costs on each product, what is the total cost of producing 400 units of the new product?
Q:
The 15th repetition of a job is timed at 100 minutes. If the learning curve for this job is 90 percent, what is the estimated time for the 120th repetition of this job?
Q:
If a person performing a task has been achieving an 85 percent learning curve and if it took 1 minute to produce the first unit, what will be the total time to produce 1,000 units?
Q:
A company's production process has an 80 percent learning curve rate. The process has produced 1,000 units to date. A process refinement is estimated to allow a future learning curve rate for the identical product of 75 percent. However, the initial unit made using the new process will take the same amount of time as the initial unit produced using the old process. At what point, using the new process, will the production rate exceed the production rate achieved by the old process?
A. By the 50th unit
B. By the 80th unit
C. By the 100th unit
D. By the 120th unit
E. By the 250th unit
Q:
A company's production process has an 85 percent learning curve rate. The process has produced 1,000 units to date. A process refinement is estimated to allow a future learning curve rate for the identical product of 75 percent. However, the initial unit made using the new process will take the same amount of time as the initial unit produced using the old process. At what point, using the new process, will the production rate exceed the production rate achieved by the old process?
A. By the 50th unit
B. By the 80th unit
C. By the 100th unit
D. By the 120th unit
E. By the 250th unit
Q:
A company can produce a small lot of products the first time at a cost of $3,000. If their 65 percent Learning Curve allows them to reduce their costs on each lot, what is the cost of producing the 20th lot?
A. $60,000
B. $18,585
C. $1,950
D. $466.20
E. $155.40
Q:
You are a consultant called in to estimate the costs after the employees learn how to do a job more efficiently by repetition. You find a company can produce a product the first time at a cost of $2,500. If their 65 percent Learning Curve allows them to reduce their costs on each product, what is the total cost of producing 400 units of the new product?
A. $100,000
B. $78,900
C. $58,600
D. $45,765
E. $37,850
Q:
You are a consultant called in to estimate the costs after the employees learn how to do a job more efficiently by repetition of new product. You find a company can produce a product the first time at a cost of $5,000. If their 90 percent learning curve allows them to reduce their costs on each unit, what is the total cost of producing 100 units of the new product?
A. $500,000
B. $390,000
C. $290,700
D. $250,687
E. $250,000
Q:
A company can produce a small lot of products the first time at a cost of $3,000. If their 65 percent learning curve allows them to reduce their costs on each lot, what is the cost of producing the 12th lot?
A. $14,340
B. $3,000
C. $2,896
D. $640.50
E. $213.50
Q:
A company can produce a small lot of products the first time at a cost of $10,000. If their 75 percent learning curve allows them to reduce their costs on each lot, what is the total cost of producing 10 lots?
A. $100,000
B. $93,978
C. $65,432
D. $55,890
E. $49,310
Q:
A company can produce a small lot of products the first time at a cost of $2,000. If their 85 percent learning curve allows them to reduce their costs on each lot, what is the total cost of producing 5 lots?
A. $10,000.00
B. $9,376.50
C. $8,062.00
D. $4,031.00
E. $1,191.20
Q:
At the 10th repetition of job it is timed at 100 minutes. If the learning curve for this job is 80 percent, what is the estimated time for the 100th repetition of this job?
A. 47.65 minutes
B. 62.50 minutes
C. 80 minutes
D. 92.50 minutes
E. 100 minutes
Q:
The 50th repetition of a job is timed at 100 minutes. If the learning curve for this job is 90 percent, what is the estimated time for the 200th repetition of this job?
A. 44.69 minutes
B. 81 minutes
C. 90 minutes
D. 100 minutes
E. 110 minutes
Q:
The 50th repetition of a job is timed at 100 minutes. If the learning curve for this job is 90 percent, what is the estimated time for the 100th repetition of this job?
A. 49.66 minutes
B. 81 minutes
C. 90 minutes
D. 100 minutes
E. 110 minutes
Q:
With a 70 percent unit improvement factor learning curve and an initial time of 100 minutes to do a job, at what number of repetitions does the job take less than 50 minutes?
A. 2 repetitions of the job
B. 3 repetitions of the job
C. 4 repetitions of the job
D. 5 repetitions of the job
E. 6 repetitions of the job
Q:
With an 80 percent unit improvement factor learning curve and an initial time of 100 minutes to do a job, at what number of repetitions will the job take less than 50 minutes?
A. 5 repetitions of the job
B. 6 repetitions of the job
C. 7 repetitions of the job
D. 8 repetitions of the job
E. 9 repetitions of the job
Q:
You have just timed a person doing a hair cut for the first time. It took 50 minutes. What unit improvement factor learning curve would you use if the person took 35 minutes on the second hair cut?
A. 35 percent
B. 50 percent
C. 70 percent
D. 75 percent
E. 80 percent
Q:
The general guidelines provided in the textbook on improving individual learning based on learning curves includes which of the following?
A. Use a cumulative improvement factor
B. Use a unit improvement factor
C. Do one or very few jobs at a time
D. Explaining learning curve logarithm analysis to workers
E. Avoid feedback until the job is complete
Q:
The general guidelines provided in the textbook on improving individual learning based on learning curves does not include which of the following?
A. Proper training
B. Work specialization
C. Early removal of workers who do not improve
D. Motivation
E. Doing one or very few jobs at a time
Q:
Which of the following is a reason that there are disparities between a firm's learning curve rate and that of its industry?
A. Companies don't always report sensitive data to outside agencies accurately
B. Learning curves don't reflect organizational learning
C. Procedural differences in the manner that data were aggregated
D. The starting points for different firms were different
E. The cumulative number of units produced is different
Q:
You have determined that a 60 percent learning curve is appropriate for a task. If your initial timing of person performing that task was 35 minutes and if you need the task performed 1,000 times, how many minutes of work will be required?
A. 3,500.0 minutes
B. 1,062.5 minutes
C. 705.25 minutes
D. 450.5 minutes
E. 220.3 minutes
Q:
You have determined that a 75 percent learning curve is appropriate for a task. If the initial timing of the person performing that job was 50 minutes and if you need the job performed 500 times, how many minutes of work will be required?
A. 25,000 minutes
B. 3,184 minutes
C. 1,895 minutes
D. 1,379 minutes
E. 636.8 minutes
Q:
You have just timed a person doing a job a four times. The first time it took the person 120 minutes, the second time it took 90 minutes, the third time it took 76.1 minutes and the fourth time it took 67.5 minutes. Which Learning Curve Unit Improvement Factor should you use?
A. 25 percent
B. 75 percent
C. 80 percent
D. 85 percent
E. 90 percent
Q:
You have just timed a person doing a job a few times. The first time it took the person 25 minutes, the second time it took 20 minutes and the third time it took 17.55 minutes. Which learning curve unit improvement factor should you use?
A. 25 percent
B. 75 percent
C. 80 percent
D. 85 percent
E. 90 percent
Q:
The unit improvement factor for an 80% learning curve at 100 units is 0.2271. The first and second timings of a person doing a job are 20 minutes and 16 minutes respectively, what is the learning-adjusted time estimate for unit number 100?
A. 20 minutes
B. 16 minutes
C. 2.271 minutes
D. 4.542 minutes
E. 0.800 minutes
Q:
The unit improvement factor for a 60% learning curve at 25 units is 0.0933. The first and second timings of a person doing a job are 5 minutes and 3 minutes respectively. Which of the below is the learning-adjusted time estimate for unit number 25?
A. 0.4665 minutes
B. 0.0933 minutes
C. 4.665 minutes
D. 9.33 minutes
E. 3 minutes
Q:
Which of the following computational methods are used to calculate learning curve statistics?
A. Simple compounding
B. Exponential smoothing
C. Logarithms
D. Calculus
E. Negative recursive multiplication
Q:
An assumption of learning curve theory is which of the following?
A. The reduction in unit time will follow a predictable pattern
B. Unit time will decrease at an increasing rate
C. The time required to do a task will vary randomly each time the task is repeated
D. Learning will not be transferred from one worker to the next
E. Organizational learning is not included in learning curve theory
Q:
An assumption of learning curve theory is which of the following?
A. Unit time will decrease at a decreasing rate
B. Unit time will increase at a decreasing rate
C. Unit time will decrease at an increasing rate
D. Unit time will increase at an increasing rate
E. Unit time will hold constant
Q:
If a person performing a task has been achieving an 85 percent learning curve and if it took 1 minute to produce the first unit, the total time to produce 1,000 units will be 437.5 minutes.
Q:
If a person performing a task has been achieving an 80 percent learning curve and it took 10 minutes to produce the first unit, the total time to produce 100 units will be 326.5 minutes.
Q:
If a person performing a task has been achieving a 75 percent learning curve and you know that the task will end after the 80th unit, the last unit produced will take 17.12 percent as much time as the first unit.
Q:
If a person performing a task has been achieving a 95 percent learning curve and you know that the task will end after the 100th unit, the last unit produced will take 71.12 percent as much time as the first unit.