Q&A Hero

Q: A wheel configuration of a top-management team solves complex problems much more quickly than a circle arrangement.

Q: Which of the following is not considered a major process flow structure? A. Project B. Workcenter C. Assembly line D. Fabrication E. Continuous Flow

Q: The formats by which a facility is arranged are defined by the general pattern of work flow.

Q: Game theory is particularly useful in analyzing situations where a company is competing against a limited number of rivals in its domain and they are highly interdependent.

Q: Projection is a cognitive bias that deceives people into assuming that extreme instances of a phenomenon are more prevalent than they really are.

Q: In analysis using a process flowchart of a manufacturing operation, the emphasis is usually on identification of activities that can be minimized or eliminated.

Q: Ego-defensiveness is a cognitive bias that leads managers to interpret events in such a way that their actions appear in the most favorable light.

Q: A process flowchart uses the information presented in the assembly drawing and defines how parts go together and their order of assembly.

Q: Escalation of commitment is a cognitive bias that leads managers to form judgments based on small and unrepresentative samples.

Q: The most common production management tools used in planning and designing the process flow are assembly drawings, assembly charts, route sheets and product prototypes.

Q: The most common production management tools used in planning and designing the process flow are assembly drawings, assembly charts, route sheets and flow process charts.

Q: A cognitive bias that causes managers to overestimate the extent to which the outcomes of an action are under their personal control is referred to as the "halo effect."

Q: Cognitive dissonance is the state of discomfort or anxiety that a person feels when there is an inconsistency between his or her beliefs and actions.

Q: The product-process matrix shows the relationship between process structures and product volume.

Q: When an organization uses a personalization approach to knowledge management, information systems are designed to show employees who in the organization might possess the knowledge they might need or who might have confronted a similar problem in the past.

Q: Break-even analysis can only be used in production equipment decision making and deals solely with fixed costs, not variable costs.

Q: Typically, a codification approach to knowledge management is pursued when an organization needs to provide customized products or solutions to clients, when technology is changing rapidly, and when employees rely much more on know-how, insight, and judgment to make decisions.

Q: Once a choice of position on the product-process matrix is selected change is impossible.

Q: As compared to organizations with mechanistic and inert cultures, organizations with organic and adaptive cultures are more likely to actively seek out new ways to manage linkages with other organizations.

Q: One trade-off illustrated by the product-process matrix is between flexibility and cost.

Q: According to Kotter and Heskett, organizational learning is higher in organizations with adaptive cultures than that in organizations with inert culture.

Q: Inert cultures encourage risk taking by middle and lower-level managers.

Q: The difference between an assembly line process flow and a continuous process flow is that the assembly line the flow is discrete rather than continuous.

Q: Adaptive cultures are cautious and conservative.

Q: Items produced in a project layout are typically managed using project management techniques.

Q: A continuous process flow indicates production of discrete parts moving from workstation to workstation at a controlled rate.

Q: The design of a mechanistic structure facilitates explorative learning whereas the design of an organic structure facilitates exploitative learning.

Q: A project layout is characterized by a relatively low number of production units.

Q: According to Peter Senge, individual learning is more important than team learning in promoting organizational learning.

Q: Workcenter layouts allocate the same or similar machines into cells to work on products that have dissimilar shapes and dissimilar processing requirements.

Q: Exploration is a more radical learning strategy than exploitation.

Q: Assembly lines are a special case of a project layout.

Q: Exploitation involves organizational members searching for and experimenting with new kinds or forms of organizational activities and procedures to increase effectiveness.

Q: The product-process matrix shows the relationship between process structures and product volume and product standardization characteristics.

Q: Exploration involves organizational members learning ways to refine and improve existing organizational activities and procedures to increase effectiveness.

Q: Break-Even Analysis can be used to help decide whether to perform a task with a special purpose machine or with a general purpose machine.

Q: The incrementalist model of decision-making explains why and how managers make nonprogrammed decisions.

Q: A general purpose machine is less capable than a special purpose machine in certain tasks but can perform a broader variety of tasks.

Q: The incrementalist model of decision-making, developed by Henry Mintzberg and his colleagues, describes how decision-making takes place when uncertainty is high.

Q: One methodology used to evaluate equipment investment decisions where the investment entails a large initial investment, fixed costs and variable costs is break-even analysis.

Q: The Carnegie model offers a more accurate description of how decision-making takes place in an organization than does the rational model.

Q: The choice of which process structure to select is generally a function of the volume requirements for the product.

Q: The Carnegie model assumes that managers' ability is restricted by bounded rationality.

Q: Process selection refers to the strategic decision of choosing the volume of output to produce in a manufacturing facility depending upon the way that facility produces.

Q: Satisficing involves a much more costly information search and puts far more of a burden on managers than does the rational model.

Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages of using a make-to-order process compared to the advantages and disadvantages of a make-to-stock process in a manufacturing operation?

Q: The rational model of decision-making assumes that different managers use different preferences and values and will use different rules to decide on the best alternative.

Q: Three fast-food chains are discussed in the text. McDonald's traditional process is make-to-stock; Wendy's has a make-to-order process and Burger King has a process which is a hybrid of the other two. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each of these approaches. Why do you suppose that each of these approaches can survive in the fast food industry?

Q: The rational model of decision-making assumes that managers are aware of all alternative courses of action and their consequences.

Q: What might you do in designing a two-stage process where each process had equal average process time but with high process time variability in the first stage and low variability in the second stage? Why?

Q: The rational model of decision-making ignores the ambiguity, uncertainty, and chaos that is typically involved in decision-making.

Q: The formula (Throughput time = Work-in-process/Throughput Rate) is known as what?

Q: Programmed decision-making allows an organization to increase its efficiency and reduce the costs of making goods and services.

Q: Nonprogrammed decision-making forces managers to rely on judgment, intuition, and creativity to solve organizational problems.

Q: What is the ratio of the average time to move a unit through a productive system divided by the value-added time?

Q: The creation of an organization's strategy is an example of programmed decision-making.

Q: What are you doing when you compare the metrics of your company to another?

Q: What is the ratio of output to input called?

Q: Nonprogrammed decision-making requires much less search for information to find solutions than does programmed decision-making.

Q: To reduce process throughput time you might try which of the following actions? A. Outsource activities B. Change the sequence of activities C. Improve teamwork D. Reduce management interference E. Introduce incentive pay

Q: Generally, programmed decision-making is used by the organizations to find solutions to changing and uncertain conditions.

Q: To reduce process throughput time you might try which of the following actions? A. Perform activities in parallel B. Change the sequence of activities C. Reduce interruptions D. Acquire additional equipment E. All of the above

Q: Programmed decisions are creative, novel, and unstructured.

Q: According to Little's law, which of the following can be used to estimate work-in-process inventory? A. Process time/Cycle time B. Throughput rate times throughput time C. Process velocity/Throughput time D. Set up time/Throughput rate E. Value added time/Process velocity

Q: According to Weitzel and Jonsson's model of organizational decline, "faulty action" is the first stage of decline.

Q: According to Little's Law, which of the following ratios is used to find throughput time? A. Cycle time/Process time B. Throughput time/Process velocity C. Process velocity/Throughput time D. Work-in-Process/Throughput rate E. Value added time/Process velocity

Q: The term "organizational inertia" refers to the forces outside an organization that make it difficult for the organization to change.

Q: Which of the following terms describes the time a unit spends actually being worked on together with the time spent waiting in a queue? A. Cycle time B. Throughput time C. Run time D. Setup time E. Efficiency

Q: According to Greiner's model of organizational growth, organizations experience a crisis of control during the "growth through creativity" stage.

Q: An advantage of a make-to-stock process is which of the following? A. Rapid delivery of a standard product B. All units of output are unique C. It responds directly to customer orders D. It allows the firm to avoid inventory costs E. It combines the best features of other processes

Q: Which following production process term best describes the situation when activities in a stage of production must stop because there is no work? A. Blocking B. Buffering C. Starving D. Buffer E. Setup time

Q: According to Greiner's model of organizational growth, the stage of "growth through collaboration" immediately follows the stage of "growth through direction."

Q: According to Greiner's model of organizational growth, during the "growth through direction stage" an organization experiences a crisis of autonomy.

Q: A process flowchart uses which of the following symbols to represent flows of material or customers in a flow diagram? A. Rectangle B. Arrow C. Inverted triangle D. Diamond E. A dashed line

Q: The first stage of growth in Greiner's model of organizational growth is "growth through delegation."

Q: A process flowchart uses which of the following symbols to represent tasks or operations in a flow diagram? A. Rectangle B. Arrow C. Inverted triangle D. Diamond E. A dashed line

Q: Managers and employees frequently move from one organization to another and bring with them the norms and values of their former employers. This leads to coercive isomorphism.

Q: A process flowchart uses which of the following symbols to represent storage areas or queues in a flow diagram? A. Rectangle B. Arrow C. Inverted triangle D. Diamond E. A dashed line

Q: Isomorphism is normative when organizations come to resemble one another over time because they indirectly adopt the norms and values of other organizations in the environment.

Q: A process flowchart uses which of the following symbols to represent a decision point in a flow diagram? A. Rectangle B. Arrow C. Inverted triangle D. Diamond E. A dashed line