Controlling Processes

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following is NOT a problem commonly found when monitoring? a) Organizations collect data that are easily gathered
b) Gathered data are not the most important to reach the organization’s goals c) There is an undue emphasis on measuring objective output performance d) Inputs measurements are used as a proxy for output completion

Answer: c
Difficulty: Hard
Response: Page 96
Reference: Monitoring and Control

2. In this stage of operational effectiveness, organizations use core capabilities residing in the operations area to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage.
a) Stage 1, internally supportive
b) Stage 2, externally neutral
c) Stage 3, internally supportive
d) Stage 4, externally supportive

Answer: d
Difficulty: Hard
Response: This occurs in the last stage (4). Page 98
Reference: Process Monitoring

3. Which one of the following perceptual measures corresponds to a company that is in the internally supportive stage of operational effectiveness?

a) Outside experts are called in for strategic decisions
b) Aim is to achieve competitive parity
c) A manufacturing strategy is formulated and pursued
d) Goal is to achieve competitive superiority

Answer: c
Difficulty: Hard
Response: See page 99
Reference: Process Monitoring

4. Which one of the following perceptual measures corresponds to a company that is in the internally neutral stage of operational effectiveness? a) Outside experts are called in for strategic decisions

b) Aim is to achieve competitive parity
c) A manufacturing strategy is formulated and pursued
d) Goal is to achieve competitive superiority

Answer: a
Difficulty: Hard
Response: See page 99
Reference: Process Monitoring

5. Some benefits of the balanced scorecard include:
a) It helps align departmental and personal goals to the organization b) It is an effective way to clarify and gain authority within the organization c) It is a mechanism for aligning personal goals with societal goals d) It helps organizations track their competitors

Answer: a
Difficulty: Hard
Response: Only A is among the benefits of the balanced scorecard. Page 99 Reference: Process Monitoring

6. With respect to strategy maps and balanced scorecards, which of the following is FALSE? a) Both address four perspectives: financial, customer, internal business process, and learning and growing perspectives b) Strategy maps represent an easier way to develop a balanced scorecard c) Both serve to monitor the cause-and-effect relationships identified through the development of a balanced scorecard d) Employees’ understanding of strategy interactions is enhanced through their use

Answer: b
Difficulty: Easy
Response: See page 101
Reference: Process Monitoring

7. Which of the following statements is FALSE?
a) ISO is a strictly European standard
b) ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 are two of the best known ISO standards c) ISO 14000 has been updated in December 2008 and is known as ISO 14000:2008 d) Over 630,000 organizations in 152 countries have implemented ISO standards

Answer: c
Difficulty: Hard
Response: See pages 101-102
Reference: Process Monitoring

8. FMEA stands for:
a) Fail safe Mode and Effectuation Analysis
b) Failure in Massive Effects Analysis
c) Failure Mode in Eviction Analytics
d) Failure Mode and Effect Analysis

Answer: d
Difficulty: Medium
Response: See page 103
Reference: Process Monitoring

9. As control involves both mechanistic and human elements, it is one of the manager’s most difficult tasks. Which of the following is the best answer about desirable characteristics of control systems?

a) Should be as simple as possible to operate and maintain
b) Should signal managers if they go out of order
c) Should be focused and admit the least amount of variation d) Both A and B

Answer: d
Difficulty: Hard
Response: See page 104
Reference: Process Control

10. Which of the following is FALSE regarding statistical sampling for control purposes? a) The more samples are taken, the higher the likelihood of accidentally selecting a sample with excessive values when the process actually is still under control b) Deciding what indicators are high or low enough to be considered out of control is the simplest of the problems facing operation managers c) Measuring upper and lower control limits are the basis for management by exception d) Using high thresholds for control increases the risk of not detecting processes that are getting out of control

Answer: b
Difficulty: Hard
Response: See pages 106
Reference: Process Control

11. Which of the following is NOT a step in constructing control charts?
a) Initial samples of the process to be monitored need to be taken
b) Means and ranges for the samples must be calculated
c) Deriving the means by the ranges previously calculated
d) Graphing sample means and ranges chronologically

Answer: c
Difficulty: Hard
Response: See pages 108-112
Reference: Process Control

12. Which of the following distributions can best represent the number-of-defects c chart? a) Dichotomous
b) Poisson
c) Binomial
d) Chi square

Answer: b
Difficulty: Hard
Response: See pages 112
Reference: Process Control

13. Which of the following characteristics makes it EASIER to measure the quality of a service, relative to that of a product or facilitating good? a) Service portions are abstract, rather than concrete

b) Service portions are transient, rather than permanent
c) Service portions are psychological, rather than physical
d) None of the above characteristics make it easier to measure service quality

Answer: d
Difficulty: Hard
Response: See page 112
Reference: Controlling Service Quality

14. Among the best-known companies that use customer satisfaction surveys to evaluate service quality in various industries is: a) J.D. Power and Associates
b) McDonald’s
c) American Express
d) Alaska Airlines

Answer: a
Difficulty: Medium
Response: See page 113
Reference: Controlling Service Quality

15. Service defections are important in process control for services because:
a) No advertising is necessary to get the business of long-term customers b) They are equally important to organizations that produce tangible outputs c) A customer who takes their business elsewhere is analogous to a product defect d) Long-time customers are more likely to purchase additional products

Answer: c
Difficulty: Hard
Response: See pages 113-114
Reference: Controlling Service Quality

True/False

16. One of the most common errors when monitoring data is to gather information that has little or no probability of changing significantly from one collection period to the next.

Answer: True
Difficulty: Easy
Response: Page 97
Reference: Monitoring and Control

17. There are five stages of effectiveness in terms of the role their operations play in terms of strategic business objectives.

Answer: False
Difficulty: Easy
Response: Wheelwright and Hayes offer four stages; see page 98 Reference: Process Monitoring

18. Departments within a stage 2 organization may exhibit a stage 3 orientation, thereby upgrading the organization to a stage 3 categorization.

Answer: False
Difficulty: Medium
Response: See page 98
Reference: Process Monitoring

19. The balanced scorecard approach relies not only on financial performance measures, but includes customers, internal business processes, and organizational learning and growth.

Answer: True
Difficulty: Easy
Response: See page 100
Reference: Process Monitoring

20. Benchmarking is a process that helps compare a company against its competitors on a variety of relevant indicators.

Answer: True
Difficulty: Easy
Response: See page 100
Reference: Process Monitoring

21. Strategy maps can help define a balanced scorecard.

Answer: False
Difficulty: Medium
Response: See page 101
Reference: Process Monitoring

22. ISO 9000 is a series of standards covering environmental management systems, auditing, labeling, and life-cycle assessment.

Answer: False
Difficulty: Medium
Response: ISO 14000 is the series of standards about the environment; see page 102 Reference: Process Monitoring

23. In quality control there are two major types of inspection: measurement
of a scaled variable and existence of a characteristic.

Answer: True
Difficulty: Medium
Response: See page 105
Reference: Process Control

24. When calculating ranges for particular variables, it is mathematically possible to obtain negative variables; in such an event, one should set zero for that variable range.

Answer: True
Difficulty: Medium
Response: See page 108
Reference: Process Control

25. In services, a product defect is analogous to a defecting customer–a customer who takes their business elsewhere.

Answer: True
Difficulty: Medium
Response: See page 113
Reference: Quality in Services

Short Answer

26. A useful tool for controlling processes such as quality, scrap, turnover, revenues, progress, costs, and so on is the _________ _________.

Answer: Control Chart
Response: See page 105
Difficulty: Easy
Reference: Process Control

27. Measuring _________ _________ is analogous to product defects in service
quality.

Answer: service defections
Response: See page 113
Difficulty: Medium
Reference: Quality in Services