Week 6 Quiz

An illustrative family farm turns seed, soil, water, and a crew's labor into boxes of vegetables, and an illustrative city transit agency turns buses, drivers, and fuel into rides. Which statement best describes operations management in both?

Select one.

• It applies only to the farm, because operations management is about making goods in factories and fields
• It applies only to the transit agency, because a service has no inputs to plan
• It is the work of planning, running, and improving the process that turns inputs into goods or services
• It is the work of advertising the vegetables and the rides to new customers

An illustrative bakery sells birthday cakes made from the same standard sponge every time, with each buyer choosing the flavor and the message on top. Which kind of production is that?

Select one.

• Mass customization
• Customization
• Mass production
• A continuous process

The illustrative coffee cart buys its beans from one supplier, and a late bean delivery can stop the whole cart. When the cart's business plan analyzed its industry with Porter's (1979) five forces, which force describes this dependence on the supplier?

Select one.

• Rivalry among existing competitors
• The threat of new entrants
• The threat of substitute products or services
• The bargaining power of suppliers

The illustrative coffee cart's opening-month Gantt chart, described in words: secure the permit first; order beans and cups and train the helper side by side; test the menu after both of those end; open last. If the bean order runs late, which tasks slide?

Select one.

• Securing the permit, because it is the first bar
• Testing the menu and opening, because they wait on the beans
• Nothing, because the chart is finished once it is drawn
• Training the helper, because it runs beside the bean order

The illustrative coffee cart's process map has two steps: the counter (order and payment) takes 1 minute per drink, and drink preparation takes 2 minutes per drink on the one espresso machine. What is the cart's capacity?

Select one.

• 20 drinks an hour, found by adding the two step times
• 30 drinks an hour, set by the 2-minute machine step
• 60 drinks an hour, set by the 1-minute counter step
• 120 drinks an hour, the drinks in a four-hour rush

With one espresso machine, the illustrative coffee cart's capacity is 30 drinks an hour. How many drinks can it make, at most, in a four-hour morning rush?

Select one.

• 34 drinks, found by adding the 4 hours to 30
• 60 drinks, the capacity with two machines
• 240 drinks, found by using the counter's speed
• 120 drinks, found as 30 × 4

The illustrative coffee cart adds a second espresso machine and a second person, so drink preparation runs at an effective 1 minute per drink. The counter still takes 1 minute per drink. What happens to capacity?

Select one.

• It rises to 60 drinks an hour, and the counter becomes the limit
• It rises to 120 drinks an hour, because both steps got faster
• It stays at 30 drinks an hour, because the counter is still the limit
• It rises to 60 drinks an hour, and the machine is still the limit

An illustrative hospital kitchen keeps sending trays with the wrong item. It names the problem, counts the wrong trays each week, finds that most errors happen at the shift change, adds a short checklist that two cooks read together at the hand-off, and keeps counting. Which quality approach do those steps follow?

Select one.

• An inspection of every tray at the kitchen door
• The ISO 9000 family of quality-management standards
• The five Six Sigma steps: define, measure, analyze, improve, control
• JIT inventory, with supplies arriving as needed

True or false: JIT inventory means a business keeps no inventory at all.

True or false.

• True
• False

An illustrative community food bank's coordinator gets a message that looks like it is from the donation website, asking for a fresh sign-in through a link to keep the account active. Which statement names the threat and a fitting protection?

Select one.

• Ransomware; the protection is to pay quickly so the files unlock
• Phishing; the protection is to recognize it, not click, and report it
• A lost device; the protection is to buy a new laptop
• Malicious software; the protection is to leave it to an IT department