Business 111 Chapters 9 and 13

Aaron is a freshman in college who has not yet decided on his major. He is thinking about majoring in operations management and is exploring job opportunities in this field. Which of the following statements about jobs for operations management majors is most accurate? If he majors in operations management, Aaron will:

• have limited job opportunities because operations management positions are only available in the slowly growing manufacturing sector.

• acquire skills and knowledge that are valuable to firms in both the manufacturing and service sectors.

• have plenty of job offers, but they will mainly be in low-wage positions in the service sector.

• find plenty of employment opportunities in the government and education, but not very many in the private sector.

The Ritz-Carlton hotel offers restaurants with the finest service, elevators that run smoothly, and a front desk that processes people quickly. Many times fresh-cut flowers are in the lobbies and dishes of fruit are in each room. __________ is responsible for implementing these customer benefits.

• Human resources management

• The management staff

• Operations management

• Production management

Wild Bill's Cap Emporium offers to produce hats and caps according to customers' requests. Wild Bill's utilizes a(n):

• analytic system.

• just-in-time system.

• intermittent process.

• continuous process.

The National Bicycle Company of Japan makes 18 bicycle models in more than 2 million combinations, with each combination designed to fit the needs of a specific customer. The customer chooses the model, size, color, and design. An analysis of this company's operation would indicate that it uses:

• lean manufacturing.

• flexible production.

• mass customization.

• continuous production.

Marilyn's Travel Inc. is a medium-sized travel agency that specializes in vacation packages. It has packages available around the globe—everything from cruises, to beach resort vacations, to historical tours. The customer chooses the amount they would like to pay, the area of the world they would like to visit and what they would like to do. Based on this information Marilyn's Travel uses __________ to delight the customers.

• excellent human resources management

• the Internet

• mass customization

• lean manufacturing

To create their Deluxe Beef Sandwiches, Robbie's Roast Beef finely slices prime roast beef, stacks it on a sesame bun, adds special seasonings, cheese, onions, and mushrooms. The value added by Robbie's when it combines these ingredients to make a sandwich is known as:

• consumer surplus.

• the analytic function.

• marginal utility.

• form utility.

Operations managers at Alumax Corporation have found that they can achieve efficient production only by producing very large quantities of aluminum without shutting down the production process. This indicates that Alumax should use a(n) ___________ production process.

• intermittent

• assembly

• continuous

• systematic

X-Sport Industries is a U.S.-based manufacturer of sporting goods. Recently, it has decided to make a major push to sell its products in the European Union. In order to succeed in this new market X-Sport will need to:

• become certified in ISO 9000 standards.

• convert its financial assets into euros.

• avoid reliance on the Deming cycle.

• reduce the wages of its production workers.

For the past two years, Mountain High Bike Company used suppliers from India, Japan, and Malaysia to provide them with precision parts for its custom bikes. There was only one problem: the quality of the parts from all locations lacked precision and consistency. Skilled technicians complained that as many as three out of five parts had to be discarded due to imperfections. The quality control manager convinced the owners to partner with a slightly higher-priced company in Omaha, Nebraska, which utilized _________________ to test samples of product components for deviations in quality and precision, prior to sending them to Mountain High Bike Company. The bike company realized savings in both time and money.

• statistical process control

• just-in-time inventory control

• lean manufacturing

• flexible manufacturing

As businesses strive for market expansion, companies add to their sales force, but opt to eliminate sales offices across the nation and internationally. How are these firms able to remotely operate a sales force that contributes toward increasing the bottom line?

• A sensible strategy is to transport sales professionals to the world headquarters on a bi-weekly basis.

• The business strategically moves manufacturing facilities to low-cost areas and allocates more funds toward the sales professionals to meet face-to-face with management.

• The operation is maintained with an advanced MRP system.

• The operation is managed with teleconferencing information technology, and telecommuting.