JWI550 OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Knowledge Check 1
Question 1Process Flow Diagram for Completing a Transaction with an Additional Worker All steps (A, B, C, D, and E) in the below process are necessary to complete each transaction or unit. Task times are shown for each step. A second worker has been hired to duplicate task D. Now transactions that have been through task C go to any one of the two workers on task D. The product still requires the five steps (A, B, C, D, E).
Refer to the Process Flow Diagram with an Additional Worker. Assume the entire process is running at the pace of the bottleneck. Consider only task D, with both workers performing task D. What is the capacity utilization for task D?
A. 100 %
B. 60 %
C. 50 %
D. 40 %
Question 2Process Flow Diagram for Completing a Transaction (such as a loan application, a call at a call center, an order in a fast food restaurant, a customer at a bank, or a unit being processed). Consider the following process flow diagram for completing a transaction unit. All tasks or steps (A, B, C, D, and E) are necessary to process and complete the transaction. Each task employs a single employee. Exact task times, in minutes/unit, are shown at each step. For example, it takes exactly 4 minutes to complete task C.
Refer to the Process Flow Diagram. Assume that the entire process is running at bottleneck pacing. Consider only task A, in isolation from the rest of the process. What is the approximate labor utilization at task A?
A. 5 %
B. 33 %
C. 42 %
D. 83 %
E. 100 %
Question 3Process Flow Diagram for Completing a Transaction (such as a loan application, a call at a call center, an order in a fast food restaurant, a customer at a bank, or a unit being processed). Consider the following process flow diagram for completing a transaction unit. All tasks or steps (A, B, C, D, and E) are necessary to process and complete the transaction. Each task employs a single employee. Exact task times, in minutes/unit, are shown at each step. For example, it takes exactly 4 minutes to complete task C.
Refer to the Process Flow Diagram. What is the minimum throughput time, that is, the fastest a rush order for one unit can go through the process?
A. 12 minutes
B. 26 minutes
C. 31 minutes
D. 36 minutes
E. None of these answers are .
Question 4Process Flow Diagram for Completing a Transaction (such as a loan application, a call at a call center, an order in a fast food restaurant, a customer at a bank, or a unit being processed). Consider the following process flow diagram for completing a transaction unit. All tasks or steps (A, B, C, D, and E) are necessary to process and complete the transaction. Each task employs a single employee. Exact task times, in minutes/unit, are shown at each step. For example, it takes exactly 4 minutes to complete task C.
Refer to the Process Flow Diagram. Consider the entire system (all steps). What is the entire system’s minimum cycle time?
A. 4 minutes/unit
B. 12 minutes/unit
C. 5 minutes/unit
D. 10 minutes/unit
Question 5Process Flow Diagram for Completing a Transaction with an Additional Worker All steps (A, B, C, D, and E) in the below process are necessary to complete each transaction or unit. Task times are shown for each step. A second worker has been hired to duplicate task D. Now transactions that have been through task C go to any one of the two workers on task D. The product still requires the five steps (A, B, C, D, E).
Refer to the Process Flow Diagram with an Additional Worker. If the entire system (all processes) is operating at full capacity, what is the system cycle time?
A. 4 minutes/unit
B. 12 minutes/unit
C. 5 minutes/unit
D. 10 minutes/unit
Question 6Process Flow Diagram for Completing a Transaction (such as a loan application, a call at a call center, an order in a fast food restaurant, a customer at a bank, or a unit being processed). Consider the following process flow diagram for completing a transaction unit. All tasks or steps (A, B, C, D, and E) are necessary to process and complete the transaction. Each task employs a single employee. Exact task times, in minutes/unit, are shown at each step. For example, it takes exactly 4 minutes to complete task C.
Refer to the Process Flow Diagram. Assume that the process operates eight hours a day. What is its daily capacity, in units per day?
A. 13 units/day
B. 40 units/day
C. 48 units/day
D. 96 units/day
E. None of these answers are .
Question 7 INSTRUCTIONS
NOTE: To make your calculations as straightforward as possible in the following exercises, assume unless stated otherwise that:
There are sufficient transactions or inputs, so tasks are never starved.
Task times have negligible variability and, over time, workers neither speed up nor slow down.
There are no equipment breakdowns or maintenance.
When there are buffers shown in process flow diagrams, they are large enough to accommodate any amount of work in process (WIP).
Travel time and time to move transactions from one operation to another are negligible.
All operations run with 100% yield; that is, the operations produce no defective transactions.
All processes are in steady state; thus, you may ignore any startup effects.
Process Flow Diagram for Completing a Transaction (such as a loan application, a call at a call center, an order in a fast food restaurant, a customer at a bank, or a unit being processed). Consider the following process flow diagram for completing a transaction unit. All tasks or steps (A, B, C, D, and E) are necessary to process and complete the transaction. Each task employs a single employee. Exact task times, in minutes/unit, are shown at each step. For example, it takes exactly 4 minutes to complete task C.
Refer to the Process Flow Diagram. Consider only task A, in isolation from the rest of the process. What is task A’s cycle time?
A. 10 minutes/unit
B. 5 minutes/unit
C. 12 minutes/unit
Question 8Process Flow Diagram for Completing a Transaction with an Additional Worker All steps (A, B, C, D, and E) in the below process are necessary to complete each transaction or unit. Task times are shown for each step. A second worker has been hired to duplicate task D. Now transactions that have been through task C go to any one of the two workers on task D. The product still requires the five steps (A, B, C, D, E).
Refer to the Process Flow Diagram with an Additional Worker. What is the minimum throughput time, that is, the fastest a rush order of one unit can go through the process?
A. 12 minutes
B. 26 minutes
C. 31 minutes
D. 36 minutes
E. None of the answers are .
Question 9NOTE: To make your calculations as straightforward as possible in the following exercises, assume unless stated otherwise that:
There are sufficient transactions or inputs, so tasks are never starved.
Task times have negligible variability and, over time, workers neither speed up nor slow down.
There are no equipment breakdowns or maintenance.
When there are buffers shown in process flow diagrams, they are large enough to accommodate any amount of work in process (WIP).
Travel time and time to move transactions from one operation to another are negligible.
All operations run with 100% yield; that is, the operations produce no defective transactions.
All processes are in steady state; thus, you may ignore any startup effects.
Process Flow Diagram for Completing a Transaction (such as a loan application, a call at a call center, an order in a fast food restaurant, a customer at a bank, or a unit being processed). Consider the following process flow diagram for completing a transaction unit. All tasks or steps (A, B, C, D, and E) are necessary to process and complete the transaction. Each task employs a single employee. Exact task times, in minutes/unit, are shown at each step. For example, it takes exactly 4 minutes to complete task C.
Refer to the Process Flow Diagram. Consider only task A, in isolation from the rest of the process. What is task A’s cycle time?
A. 10 minutes/unit
B. 5 minutes/unit
C. 12 minutes/unit
Question 10Process Flow Diagram for Completing a Transaction with an Additional Worker All steps (A, B, C, D, and E) in the below process are necessary to complete each transaction or unit. Task times are shown for each step. A second worker has been hired to duplicate task D. Now transactions that have been through task C go to any one of the two workers on task D. The product still requires the five steps (A, B, C, D, E).
Refer to the Process Flow Diagram with an Additional Worker. Assume the entire process is running at the pace of the bottleneck. Consider only task B. What is the capacity utilization for task B?
A. 100 %
B. 60 %
C. 50 %
D. 40 %
JWI550 OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Knowledge Check 2
Question 1Which of the following process types is the best fit for producing high volumes of a commodity liquid detergent?
A. Job shop
B. Batch flow process
C. Machine-paced line
D. Continuous flow process
Question 2Which of the following process types is the best fit for producing a wide range of consumer electronics (several product categories, where the mix of demand among the categories is quite stable) characterized by very short product life cycles and a rapid rate of new product introduction?
A. Job shop
B. Batch flow process
C. Cell
D. Continuous flow process
Question 3True or false: A highly customized product could typically be produced more efficiently in a continuous flow process than in a job shop.
True
False
Question 4Reliance on human judgment and expertise becomes ______ efficient when the degree of proceduralization of a process is _____.
A. least; high
B. least; low
C. least; medium
D. most; medium
Question 5With multiple departments arranged by resource type, conventional general hospitals are _____. The routes by which patients flow though departments are highly variable and depend on the condition for which a patient is being treated. However, at the beginning of cold and flu season, a hospital designates an area only for flu shots. There are four stations in the area for flu shots: registration, blood pressure check, shot administration, and debriefing. All patients flow through the four stations in the same order. This type of process most closely resembles a(n) ____.
A. job shops; unpaced line
B. continuous flow processes; machine-paced line
C. unpaced lines; machine-paced line
D. job shops; batch flow process
Question 6Which of the following is most important in designing and/or managing continuous flow processes?
A. Scheduling work so that workers are fully utilized
B. Keeping raw material inventories low
C. Matching system capacity to demand
D. Keeping work-in-process inventories low
Question 7How does the cost of learning change as the division of labor increases (having more workers, doing more narrowly defined tasks)?
A. It tends to decrease at first but eventually starts growing again.
B. It tends to increase at first but eventually starts decreasing.
C. It tends to decrease with the growing degree of division of labor.
D. It is unchanged by the division of labor.
Question 8True or false: Consider the differences between a high-end stock brokerage, where each client is assigned to a specialist and each client receives an individualized portfolio, versus a mutual fund, where there is a much higher volume of clients, with each client receiving the exact same portfolio (the bundle of securities that the fund holds). In Figure 4: Product-Process Matrix in the reading, the high-end stock brokerage would be positioned above and to the left of the mutual fund.
True
False
Question 9Last month, a processing facility (such as a check processing facility or a distribution center) transitioned from an unpaced assembly line to a machine-paced assembly line, so that now work is done to the product while it stays on the conveyor belt. Yesterday, the worker at the bottleneck station was replaced by another worker who works more slowly than the original worker (and nothing was done to compensate). Which of the following is most likely to result?
A. Inventory piles up before the new bottleneck worker.
B. Quality problems occur.
C. Cycle time increases.
D. The direction of the workflow changes.
Question 10Which of the following is usually TRUE?
A. a. Cells have a slower quality feedback loop than do job shops.
B. Cells have a faster quality feedback loop than do job shops.
C. Cells have a similar quality feedback loop to that of job shops.?
D. Quality feedback loops cannot be compared in general terms between cells and job shops.
JWI550 OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Knowledge Check 3
Question 1A car-service center orders new tires using the continuous review system. The expected demand is 420 tires per year, and the lead time (the time necessary for the shipment of tires to arrive after it has been ordered) is one week on average. The manager decides to hold safety stock of 20 tires. Find the reorder point, the number of tires in stock when it is time for the car-service center to order the next tire delivery. Assume 52 weeks in each year.
A. 20
B. 26
C. 28
D. 30
Question 2A company has days of inventory equal to 23.6 days. Which of the following best describes the meaning of this number?
A. The company replenishes its inventory every 23.6 days on average.
B. It takes about 23.6 days for an inventory replenishing order to come through.
C. An item typically stays 23.6 days in inventory before being sold.
D. It is estimated that the whole inventory can be sold in 23.6 days.
Question 3What does it mean when we say that a furniture-making company has a reorder point of 150 for its stock of chairs?
A. The manager orders stock replenishment every 150 days in a periodic review system.
B. Stock replenishment orders are always for 150 chairs.
C. Stock replenishment orders take 150 days to fulfill.
D. The manager orders stock replenishment as soon as the current inventory is at or below 150 chairs.
Question 4A restaurant requires 200 lbs of coffee beans per year. The coffee beans are delivered in 10-lb bags. To keep the coffee quality high (that is, at peak freshness), the restaurant does not store the coffee beans for more than a year. There is no perceptible carrying cost for keeping the coffee bean bags in the restaurant storage. Ordering cost is $5. How often should the restaurant order the coffee beans in order to minimize the cost of replenishment?
A. 1 bag once every month
B. 10 bags once every 6 months
C. 20 bags once every year
D. 200 bags once every year
Question 5An event that indicates that it is time to order stock replenishment is called a replenishment trigger.
A. True
B. False
Question 6A company replenishes its inventory using a periodic review system, and it uses service factor z to calculate the safety stock required for a target in-stock rate. What would be the consequence of using a negative service factor z less than zero?
A. At the ends of order intervals, the company is more likely to be out of stock than not.
B. At the ends of order intervals, the company will be always out of stock.
C. Using negative z is mathematically forbidden in this calculation because it is akin to division by zero.
D. Only the absolute value of z matters because normal distribution is symmetric.
Question 7The formula for the critical fractile of a single-period model in terms of the cost of underage, cu, and the cost of overage, co, is cu/(cu + co).
A. True
B. False
Question 8In a periodic review inventory model, the order quantity is calculated as:
A. Expected demand during the order interval + safety stock
B. The target order-up-to inventory level - current inventory on hand and on order.
C. The maximum target inventory level - the minimum target inventory level.
D. The optimal order quantity given by the economic order quantity formula.
E. Expected demand during lead time + safety stock.
Question 9A company replenishes its inventory using a periodic review system. How will the annual inventory turns of the company be affected if the company increases the frequency of this review system?
A. It will not be affected at all.
B. It will decrease.
C. It will increase.
D. There is no way to tell from this information.
Question 10A newsvendor sells all of her newspapers toward the end of most days because she always orders fewer copies of newspapers than the average daily demand. Assume that this is a rational choice rather than a mistake. Which of the following is the explanation for this strategy?
A. The cost of overage is zero.
B. The cost of overage must be greater than the cost of underage.
C. The cost of underage must be high.
D. The cost of underage must be greater than the cost of overage.
JWI550 OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Knowledge Check 4
Question 1The degree to which a product or service meets the specifications of its design and achieves the specified performance is called ___.
A. quality
B. conformance quality
C. performance quality
D. zero defect
Question 2Which of the following is NOT a quality attribute for watching a video on YouTube or a similar website?
A. Resolution of the video (e.g., 720p)
B. An ad on Google directing people to the video
C. Being able to pause the video while watching
D. A short ad that must play before the main video
Question 3Each of the following is an example of external failure costs EXCEPT:
A. warranty claims.
B. loss of customer loyalty and goodwill.
C. rework as a result of final inspection.
D. litigation/reputational costs.
Question 4Which of the following is an example of appraisal costs?
A. “Secret shopper” tests of retail services
B. Product design verification
C. Responding to customer complaints
D. Process downtime
Question 5Which of the following is NOT a method used in modern approaches to quality management?
A. When something goes wrong, the whole system is responsible for situations that lead to errors.
B. Find and fix the root cause so the problem does not recur in the production process.
C. Locate defects through inspection and remove defective products before they reach the customer.
D. Eliminate the need for incoming inspection by sharing process information between suppliers and customers.
Question 6Which of the following is an example of internal failure costs?
A. Refunding service fees
B. Product recalls
C. Lost sales/market share
D. Process downtime
Question 7Each of the following is an example of prevention costs EXCEPT:
A. testing and inspecting purchased materials and components from suppliers.
B. training and development.?
C. working with suppliers to increase quality.?
D. collecting data from each step of production to validate the process.
Question 8The concept of an optimal quality level is considered controversial. Some companies argue that the goal of zero defects is not a reasonable one. In which of the following products would management be most likely to argue that the goal of zero defects is very desirable?
A. Living-room furniture such as couches
B. Aircraft tires
C. Aircraft entertainment systems
D. All of the answers are
Question 9Which of the following is an example of the quality dimension of core performance?
A. The availability of an app to manage a bank account
B. An online order menu that allows customers to choose their own pizza toppings
C. An online store with options to customize athletic shoes
D. The speed of an Internet connection from a network provider
Question 10In the context of quality management, which of the following terms is a formal statement of the attributes of a product or service?
A. Contract
B. Specification
C. Agreement
D. Warranty
JWI550 OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
Knowledge Check 5
• Question 1 What is key to sustaining operational excellence in daily work?
A. Launch more operational excellence projects
B. Value creation for customers
C. Process discipline
D. Pep talks on operational excellence
• Question 2 The number of proven causes on a cause-effect diagram after brainstorming and 5-whys is: A. Zero
B. One
C. At least five
D. Unlimited
• Question 3 What is NOT one of the three E’s in the Triple E model for sustainable change?
A. Empower
B. Encourage
C. Enable
D. Enlighten
• Question 4 CTQs are the performance characteristics of a process, product, or service that are critically important to:
A. Suppliers
B. Process owners
C. Customers
D. Employees
• Question 5 To encourage operational excellence, rewards and recognition should be _______.
A. Based on inputs from employees in the organization
B. Consistent and aligned across all departments and functions
C. Distributed equally to all employees
D. Limited to employees directly involved in revenue-generating activities.
• Question 6 If causes of poor performance are easily determined using the collective knowledge and experience of the right people, then select and launch a _______.
A. Process management effort
B. Lean project using workout(s) or kaizen event(s)
C. Six Sigma DMAIC project
D. Design for Six Sigma DMADV project
• Question 7 If there are no procedures, lack of adherence to procedures, or lack of measurement and accountability, then that process requires _________ on an on-going basis.
A. DMAIC projects
B. DMADV projects
C. Lean projects
D. Process or value stream management
• Question 8 The following graphs and charts are used for displaying variation of continuous data EXCEPT:
A. Boxplots
B. Pareto charts
C. Dot plots
D. Histograms
• Question 9 Challenges in implementing and sustaining Operational Excellence include the following EXCEPT:
A. Fear of job loss
B. Too many key performance metrics (KPIs)
C. Projects are selected by senior managers
D. Not enough bandwidth due to too many initiatives and projects
• Question 10 To drive operational excellence, senior management should do all of the following EXCEPT:
A. Ensure there is alignment of projects with annual and strategic goals
B. Review proposed projects, evaluate, and select projects
C. Encourage all employees to select and launch projects
D. Assign senior managers to be project champions
