MGT 3789 Operations Management — Review Questions (Chapter 13)

What is the effort to plan the coordination of demand forecasts with functional areas of the firm and its supply chain?

• enterprise resource planning

• material requirements planning

• capacity planning

• sales and operations planning

• new product development

Disaggregation:

• breaks the aggregate plan into greater detail.

• transforms the master production schedule into an aggregate plan.

• calculates the optimal price points for yield management.

• converts product schedules and labor assignments to a facility-wide plan.

• is an assumption required for the use of the transportation model in aggregate planning.

The main purpose of aggregate operations planning is to specify the optimal combination of which of the following?

• Workforce levels and inventory on hand

• Inventory on hand and financing costs for that inventory

• The strategic plan and the products available for sale

• The workforce level and the degree of automation

• Operational costs and the cash flow to support operations

Which of the following best describes aggregate planning?

• the link between intermediate term planning and short term operating decisions

• a collection of objective planning tools

• make or buy decisions

• an attempt to respond to predicted demand within the constraints set by product, process and location decisions

• manpower planning

In doing "aggregate planning" for a firm producing paint, the aggregate planners would most likely deal with:

• just gallons of paint, without concern for the different colors and sizes

• all the different sizes and all the different colors by size

• gallons, quarts, pints, and all the different sizes to be produced

• gallons of paint, but be concerned with the different colors to be produced

• none of the above

Dependence on an external source of supply is found in which of the following aggregate planning strategies?

• varying production rates through overtime or idle time

• subcontracting

• using part-time workers

• back ordering during high demand periods

• hiring and laying off

Which of the following is a disadvantage of subcontracting for aggregate planning?

• loss of quality control

• lost sales

• high training costs

• overtime premiums

• high inventory costs

Which of the following aggregate planning strategies is known to lower employee morale?

• yield management

• counterseasonal product and service mixing

• changing inventory levels

• varying workforce size by hiring or layoffs

• back ordering during high demand periods

Which of the following aggregate planning strategies is a demand option?

• changing price

• subcontracting

• varying production levels

• changing inventory levels

• using part-time workers

Which of the following statements about aggregate planning is TRUE?

• An advantage of the counterseasonal product and service mixing option is that it matches seasonal fluctuations without hiring/training costs.

• In aggregate planning, back orders are a means of manipulating supply while part-time workers are a way of manipulating product or service demand.

• A pure chase strategy allows lower inventories when compared to a pure level scheduling.

• A disadvantage of subcontracting is that it may require skills or equipment outside the firm's areas of expertise.

• The option of varying workforce size by hiring or layoffs is used where the size of the labor pool is small.