What are the four major steps in the project- planning process?
> For Rambler Manufacturing in problems 49 and 50, would you rather invest the same amount of money to double the throughput rate of workstation B or C? Explain your reasoning.
> For Rambler Manufacturing in problem 49, suppose that sales of clutch plates 1, 2, and 3, respectively are 180, 300, and 200 units for the week, and workstation C works two shifts for a total of 90 hours this week. What is the workload in hours for the w
> Rambler Manufacturing produces three clutch plates for small automobiles at its factory in Columbus, Ohio. The three processes shown in Exhibit 11.32 are composed of common and different work activities to manufacture the clutch plates. Exhibit 11.33 pro
> Jefferson Manufacturing in problem 47 has another cellular layout and process shown in Exhibit 11.31. a. Where is the bottleneck workstation? Cite one TOC principle from Exhibit 11.23 that explains your answer. b. Where should the manager position extra
> Jefferson Manufacturing machines parts for assembly in air compressors. The process is shown in Exhibit 11.30. a. Where is the bottleneck workstation? Cite one TOC principle from Exhibit 11.22 that explains your answer. b. What is the longest throughput
> I know what we can do next; everything has been so successful so far,” said Kay Ebelhar, marketing services division manager. “How about designing and offering a courtesy service guarantee? We will promise to greet customers, give them our undivided atte
> An airport limousine service has one employee work the airport counter. A customer arrives on the average of once every three minutes, and it takes on average two minutes to process the transaction. a. What is the probability that the system is empty? b.
> A manufacturer of air conditioner compressors is concerned that too much money is tied up in its value chain. Average raw material inventory is $50 million and work-in-process (WIP) production inventory is $20 million. Sales are $20 million per week and
> The Wilcox Student Health Center has just implemented a new computer system and service process to “improve efficiency.” The process flowchart and analysis framework is also provided. As pharmacy manager, you are conce
> What is the average time a loaf of sliced bread stays in an urban sandwich shop if the restaurant uses 46 loaves per day and they maintain an average inventory of 150 loaves?
> An accounting firm is capable of processing 20 EZ tax forms per day, and the average number of forms on-hand in the office is 64 forms. What is the average processing time per EZ tax form?
> A medical equipment testing and calibration service is depicted in Exhibit 11.28. The customer usually brings the equipment to the service center. The service process requires service technicians to per- form three process steps #1 to #3. Each technician
> How can you improve throughput for the process in part (b) of problem 35? Assume that all 17 workers have the ability to perform the work at each stage but that no additional workers may be hired.
> For Solved Problem 11.3 on processing driver’s licenses at the Archer County Courthouse in this chapter, if 40 drivers are to be processed each hour, how many clerks and typists should be hired assuming a 90 percent target utilization rate?
> Due to county and state budget cuts Archer County Courthouse now has only two clerks and two typists and expects to process 40 drivers/hour (see Solved Problem 11.3). What is the current labor utilization of each labor type, and where is the bottleneck i
> A car rental company at a major airport has 70 percent of its fleet of 200 cars rented each day on average. Cars are rented for an average of four days. How many rentals are processed each day on average?
> The Hudson Jewelers case study found in MindTap inte- grates material found in each chapter of this book. Case Questions for Discussion: 1. What are the advantages and disadvantages from the service provider’s (jeweler’s) perspective of using “design you
> Marion Health Clinic sees patients on a walk-in basis only. On average, 10 patients per hour enter the clinic. All patients register at the registration window with a registration clerk (RC), which takes three minutes. After registration, but before bein
> The production process shown in Exhibit 11.27 consists of five stages. The numbers in parentheses are the times in minutes to complete one unit before it moves on to the next stage. The demand rate is 36 units per hour. a. How many workers are needed at
> After two years in your first job, you are promoted to call center manager for a major hotel chain. The expected service rate is 3.0 minutes per telephone call per customer service representative (CSR). With three telephone CSRs on-duty during the 6:30 t
> What is the implied service rate per service counter employee at an airport automobile rental counter if customer demand is 36 customers per hour, two service counter employees are on duty, and their labor utilization is 90 percent?
> What is the implied service rate at a bank teller window if customer demand is 26 customers per hour, two bank tellers are on duty, and their labor utilization is 90 percent?
> A telephone call center uses three customer service representatives (CSRs) during the 8:30 to 9:00 a.m. time period. The standard service rate is 3.0 min- utes per telephone call per CSR. Assuming a target labor utilization rate of 80 percent, how many c
> The demand for intensive care services in an urban hospital is nine patients per hour on Mon- days while intensive care nurses can handle four patients per hour. What is nurse (labor) utilization if five intensive care nurses are scheduled to be on duty
> A plant manufactures three products, A, B, and C. A drill press is required to perform one operation for each product. Machine operators work at 75 percent utilization, and the machines have 95 percent utilization. The plant operates one eight-hour shift
> The consumer loan division of a major bank wants to determine the size of the staff it would need to process up to 200 loan applications per day. It estimated that each loan officer can process a loan application in approximately 20 minutes. If the utili
> A big city automobile quick-service oil change shop can process 20 autos per hour over its multiple bays. Each mechanic can change the oil and do other related tasks at a rate of one car every 30 minutes. If the center wanted a target labor utilization o
> Jack Bracket, the CEO of Bracket International (BI), has grown his business to sales last year of $78 million, with a cost of goods sold of $61 million. Average inventory levels are about $14 million. As a small manufacturer of steel shelving and bracket
> An automobile-emissions center tests 50 autos per hour. Each inspector can inspect one auto every four minutes. If the center wanted a target utilization of 90 percent, how many inspectors would they require?
> As the assistant manager of a restaurant, how many servers will you need given the following information for Saturday night’s dinner menu: • Demand (dinners served) 5 100 dinners per hour • Server target utilization 5 85% • Service rate per server 5 16 d
> A 30,000-seat college football stadium is used 18 times for games, concerts, and graduation ceremonies. Each event averages six hours and assumes the stadium is full for each event. The stadium is available 365 days a year from 6 a.m. to midnight. What i
> A state department of transportation district is responsible for 300 miles of highway. During a winter storm, salt trucks spread an average of 400 pounds of salt per mile and travel at an average speed of 25 mph. Because of nonproductive travel time, the
> Tony’s Income Tax Service is determining its staffing requirements for the next income tax season. Income tax preparers work 50 hours per week from January 15 through April 15 (assume four weeks per month). There are two major tasks: preparation of short
> Worthington Hills grocery store has five regular checkout lines and one express line (12 items or less). Based on a sampling study, it takes 11 minutes on the average for a customer to go through the regular line and four minutes to go through the expres
> Given the following data for Alice’s assembly shop: Number of machines = 6 Number of working days in year = 340 Processing time per unit = 40 minutes a. What is the annual capacity with a single eight-hour shift? b. What is the capacity with two shifts
> We know the following data for Albert's fabricating production area: Number of machines = 5 Number of working days in year = 340 Processing time per unit = 60 minutes a. What is the annual capacity with a single eight-hour shift? b. What is the annual
> Define the concept of value.
> Explain how goods differ from services.
> Define a good and a service.
> State three of the key activities that operations managers perform and briefly explain them.
> Describe how operations management is used in work throughout business organizations
> Explain the concept and importance of operations management.
> Define critical path. Describe, in your own words, the procedure for finding a critical path.
> What information do you need to collect to conduct a basic CPM model and analysis?
> As the assistant manager of a restaurant, how many servers will you need given the following information for Saturday night’s dinner menu? • Demand (dinners served) = 100 dinners per hour • Service rate per server = 16 dinners/hour What assumptions mig
> What do arcs and nodes represent in a project network?
> Define and give an example of an immediate predecessor.
> Identify and discuss three contributors and impediments to project success.
> Describe the role of the project manager. What skills should he or she possess?
> Describe the logic of computing the probability of completing a project.
> Discuss the three key factors of the project- planning process.
> How is the expected time and variance of each activity computed using PERT?
> Explain the PERT concepts of optimistic time, most probable time, and pessimistic time estimates. How would you estimate these times for a specific activity?
> Explain how to evaluate the effect of uncertainty of activity times on the total project completion time.
> Bennington Products makes four products on three machines. The production schedule for the next six months is as follows: The number of hours (hours/product/machine) each product requires on each machine is as follows: Setup times are roughly 20 percent
> Drew Ebel was contemplating buying an automated car wash franchise as a family business. His wife Caroline, their two kids, Jasmine and Luke, and their dog, Lilly, were a close-knit family that were tired of the bureaucracy of corporate and government jo
> When Walt Disney created the Disney empire in the 1950s, he forbid its star characters such as Mickey Mouse and Pluto to talk. Mr. Disney thought it would be too difficult to control the service encounters between customers and the Disney characters, and
> How does the Salvation Army manage to be “several different kinds of organization at the same time”? Does the Salvation Army’s approach seem workable for a large media company like Comcast or Disney that wants to reduce bureaucracy?
> Government organizations often seem more bureaucratic than for-profit organizations. Could this partly be the result of the type of control used in government organizations? Explain.
> In writing about types of control, William Ouchi said, “The Market is like the trout and the Clan like the salmon, each a beautiful highly specialized species which requires uncommon conditions for its survival. In comparison, the bureaucratic method o
> Look through several recent issues of a business magazine such as Fortune, Businessweek, or Fast Company and find examples of two companies that are using approaches to busting bureaucracy. Discuss the techniques these companies are applying.
> Describe the three bases of authority identified by Weber. Is it possible for each of these types of authority to function at the same time within an organization? Discuss.
> Why do you think organizations feel pressure to grow?
> Apply the concept of life cycle to an organization with which you are familiar, such as a local business. What stage is the organization in now? How did the organization handle or pass through its life-cycle crises?
> Do you think a “no growth” philosophy of management should be taught in business schools? Discuss.
> Why do large organizations tend to have larger ratios of clerical and administrative support staff? Why are they typically more formalized than small organizations?
> Caesars Entertainment centralized its big data analytics function to be more efficient. Can you think of some competitive issues that might lead a company to go from a centralized big data function to a function that decentralizes to various units?
> Bradford Chemicals manufactures high-quality plastics and resins for use in a variety of products, from lawn ornaments and patio furniture to automobiles. The Bradford plant located near Beatty, a town of about 45,000 in a South-eastern state, employs ab
> Why is knowledge management particularly important to a company that wants to learn and change continuously rather than operate at a stable state?
> Describe your use of codified knowledge when you research and write a term paper. Do you also use tacit knowledge regarding this activity? Discuss.
> Discuss some ways a large insurance company such as Allstate, Progressive, or State Farm might use social media tools such as microblogs or social networking. Do you think these tools are more applicable to a service company than to a manufacturing organ
> How might a hospital administrator trying to implement cross-functional teams use social network analysis to improve communication and collaboration among nurses, doctors, technicians, and other staff?
> Is Amazon an exchange platform or maker platform organization? Explain.
> In what ways might artificial intelligence incorporate bias into its decision making? Explain.
> How do the underlying assumptions differ for a traditional “pipe” organization and a new platform-based digital organization?
> Why do you think the application of digital technology typically leads to greater decentralization in an organization? Might it also be used for greater centralization in some organizations? Explain.
> How has the Internet of Things caused an explosion in the data available for analysis in organizations?
> Do you think the characteristics of a high reliability organization could be applied in non-HRO organizations? Explain.
> Vito Brassimo immigrated to the United States six years ago after working as design leader for an Italian company specializing in home sound systems. Armed with a vision and 15 years of experience, he founded his own com- pany, Technomagia, as the suppli
> A top executive claimed that top-level management is a craft technology because the work contains intangibles, such as handling personnel issues, interpreting an ambiguous environment, and coping with unusual situations. Do you agree? What type of
> Why might administrators at a hospital such as Seattle Children’s Hospital, described in this chapter, want to foster relational coordination?
> What is a service technology? Are different types of service technologies likely to be associated with different organization designs? Explain.
> How do smart factories differ from other manufacturing technologies? How might the transformation to a smart factory change how a manufacturing organization hires and trains employees?
> Why does Woodward suggest that span of control needs to decrease as technological complexity increases? Can you think of any circumstances that might change the relationship between the two?
> What is the level of interdependence among departments (finance, marketing) in a business school? What kinds of coordination mechanisms might be used to handle that interdependence?
> What is the difference between “reluctance to simplify” and “sensitivity to operations” in a high reliability organization?
> To what extent does the development of new technologies simplify and routinize the jobs of employees? Can you give an example? Can new technology also lead to jobs with greater variety and complexity? Discuss.
> Where would your university or college department be located on Perrow’s technology framework? Should a department devoted exclusively to teaching be in a different quadrant from a department devoted exclusively to research?
> There is research evidence to suggest that employees are happier working for a company that provides them with opportunities to contribute to environmental sustainability. Why do you think this would be the case?
> Benjamin and William Farrington started a small manufacturing business with their father, Samuel Farrington, who was a professor of biomedical science at a major university. They began the business by making a line of smaller and more precise non-reusabl
> A survey found that 69 percent of MBA students view maximizing shareholder value as the primary responsibility of a company. How would that philosophy fit into a hybrid organization?
> Is it reasonable to expect that managers can measure their social and environmental performance with the same accuracy as they measure financial outcomes when using a triple bottom line approach?
> What do you think would happen if a hybrid organization focused on profit goals to the exclusion of social goals? If vice-versa? Explain.
> Why would a social enterprise be better able to maintain a strong social welfare purpose by choosing other like-minded organizations with which to collaborate?
> Do you personally embrace a commercial logic or a social welfare logic? Why do you think you hold to that perspective?
> How might “mission drift” hurt the performance of a social enterprise?
> Compare and contrast the two major “logics” that organization members might hold in a hybrid organization.
> Explain the concept of conscious capitalism. Do you think managers and companies that espouse this kind of shared value approach are more likely to behave in socially responsible ways?
> What is a hybrid organization? How does it differ from a typical nonprofit or profit-seeking organization?
> Do you believe it is possible for a global company to simultaneously achieve the goals of global efficiency and integration, national responsiveness and flexibility, and the worldwide transfer of knowledge and innovation? Discuss.
