Operations Management – Chapter 4

Global teams provide diversity while eliminating conflicts and miscommunication.

FALSE Using globally diverse design teams increases the risks of conflicts and miscommunication.

A ‘House of Quality’ is achieved when no department in a single location has more than 15% rejects.

FALSE The house of quality is a means of integrating the voice of the customer into the product or service development process.

Concurrent Engineering is another term for sequential development.

FALSE Concurrent engineering involves simultaneous product and production development.

One of the main advantages of standardization is that it increases the potential variety of products

FALSE Standardization reduces the variety of products.

A disadvantage of standardization is the possibility of standardizing designs too early, which may make it difficult to modify in the future.

TRUE Standardization locks firms into designs that aren’t easily changed.

Reducing consumer choices makes service more efficient.

TRUE Efficiency comes from the standardization that results from reduced consumer choices.

Modular design increases costs of purchasing and controlling inventory compared to non-modular.

FALSE Modular designs make inventory management easier and cheaper.

Product failures can be easier to remedy with modular design.

TRUE Modular designs make it easy to change only portions of the design.

One motivation for an organization to redesign its product or service is to avoid the alternative of downsizing the organization.

TRUE The threat of downsizing often spurs product or service redesign.

A major benefit of Computer Aided Design (CAD) is the increased productivity of designers.

TRUE CAD tends to greatly increase designers’ productivity.

Most of the time what is called product or service design is actually a redesign of an existing product or service.

TRUE Usually the core product or service remains relatively unchanged even though other features are modified or enhanced.

A service blueprint is quite similar to an architectural drawing.

TRUE A service blueprint shows the basic customer and service actions involved in a service operation.

The process of dismantling and inspecting a competitor’s product to discover product improvement is called benchmarking.

FALSE Dismantling and inspecting a competitor’s product to discover product improvement is called reverse engineering.

To save money, it is essential that designers revise the production capabilities to meet the requirements of the new products.

FALSE Saving money requires designers to ensure that new products can be produced using existing production capabilities.

Many US manufacturers are now shifting their focus from products to both product and process improvements.

TRUE Both product and process must be considered in the product/service design question.

Applied research has the objective of achieving commercial applications for new ideas.

TRUE Applied research is aimed at commercializing basic research.

Basic research is done with the expectation that discoveries will have near-term commercial application

FALSE Basic research is done with no clear expectations regarding commercial application.

"Design for production" takes into account the capabilities of the organization to produce or deliver a given product or service.

TRUE Design for production is important to ensure that product or service design decisions are feasible.

Consumers tend to resist purchasing products containing recycled materials.

FALSE Consumers are beginning to respond positively when informed that their purchases contain recycled materials.

"Concurrent engineering" brings people concerned with manufacturing into the design phase earlier than in the "over-the-wall" approach.

TRUE Concurrent engineering people concerned with manufacturing are actively engaged in the design phase.

"Concurrent engineering" means that at least two engineers are involved in product design at the same time.

FALSE Concurrent engineering means that engineers, marketing, manufacturing and purchasing personnel often are jointly involved in the product design.

One approach to extending a product’s life cycle is to promote alternate uses of the product.

TRUE Alternate uses extend product life cycles.

"Quality Function Deployment" is a structured approach that guarantees that the highest quality product or service will be designed.

FALSE Quality Function Deployment ensures that the voice of the customer is integrated into the product or service design question.

Product liability means that a manufacturer is liable for any injuries and damages caused by a faulty product because of poor workmanship or design.

TRUE Product liability is a serious issue for manufacturers.

The process of dismantling and inspecting a competitor’s product to discover improvement is called reverse engineering.

TRUE Reverse engineering is a legitimate means of evaluating the competitive landscape.

Research and development (R&D) refers to organized efforts that are directed toward increasing scientific knowledge and product (or process) innovation.

TRUE Product or process innovations often result from deliberate R&D programs.

Standardization refers to the extent to which there is absence of variety in a product, service, or process.

TRUE Standardization reduces variety and leads to greater efficiency.

Re-manufacturing refers to removing some of the components of old products and reusing them in new products.

TRUE Re-manufacturing is a way of increasing sustainability.

The demand for a product and the rate of technological change have significant impact on the length of a given phase of the product life cycle.

TRUE How long a product stays in a particular phase of its life cycle depends greatly on the rate of technological change.

Robust design describes a product that will perform satisfactorily so long as it is used in a very narrow range of conditions.

FALSE Robust designs perform satisfactorily across a wide range of conditions.

Taguchi design methods involve identifying the optimal operating or environmental conditions for a given product.

FALSE Taguchi design methods involve designing products that are relatively insensitive to environmental factors.

Quality function deployment (QFD) is based on a set of standards which relate customer requirements to company capabilities.

FALSE QFD relates customer requirements to product designs and the capabilities necessary to carry these designs out.

The quality function deployment (QFD) matrices are often referred to as the "House of Quality" because, when completed, they "house" all of the customer’s quality requirements.

FALSE QFD matrices link customer requirements with other product/process design elements.

Service design often must take into account the degree of customer contact required.

TRUE Customer contact is a critical service design issue.

Reliability refers to the ability of a product to perform its intended function under normal conditions.

TRUE Greater reliability translates into a greater likelihood of the product working in normal conditions.

Applied research is the major R & D effort of business organizations because of the desire for commercial applications.

TRUE Most business organizations focus on applied rather than basic research.

Commonality of components is beneficial for manufacturing but not for services.

FALSE Services can benefit from commonality in service elements.

Standardization can at times lead to serious difficulties and competitive struggles, particularly when systems are running under different conditions.

FALSE It is the lack of standardization that can at times lead to serious difficulties and competitive struggles.

The term failure as applied to reliability means that a part or item does not function at all.

FALSE Failure means that the part or item does not function as it should.

Reliability can be defined in terms of a particular point in time or in terms of length of service.

TRUE Reliable designs can be counted on to work over time.

Reliability can be improved by the use of backup components.

TRUE Adding a backup component is often cheaper than increasing the reliability of a given component.

Delayed differentiation and modular design are tactics for mass customization.

TRUE These allow variety without giving up too much in the way of standardization.

Life-cycle assessment involves incorporating where the product or service is in its life-cycle into system-design decision-making.

FALSE Life-cycle assessment involves assessing the environmental impact of a product or service as it goes through its useful life.

The goal of life-cycle assessment is to incorporate the environmental impact of products or services into product-design or service-design decision-making.

TRUE Life-cycle assessment involves assessing the environmental impact of a product or service as it goes through its useful life.

The three R’s – Reduce, Re-use and Recycle – are more applicable in service design than in product design.

FALSE Services cannot be re-used or recycled.

The goal of value analysis is to find ways of _______.
A. I. Reducing the cost of parts and materials
B. II. Improving the performance of the product or service
C. III. Incorporating multiple cultural values in global system design
D. Both I and III
E. Both I and II

E. Both I and II In value analysis an attempt is made to reduce the cost and/or improve the performance of the product.

When considering re-use issues for a given product, an important factor to take into account is that product’s _______.

E. None of the above Remanufacturing refers to refurbishing used products.

Incorporating design for disassembly (DFD) principles in product design helps firms with ___________ design issues.

C. Re-use Refurbished products must first be disassembled.

Designing for recycling helps facilitate ______.

B. Compliance with regulatory environments Regulatory environments are increasingly focused on encouraging recycling.

One way to increase reliability is to:

A. improve component design Another way is to add backup components.

One way to increase reliability is to:

B. improve preventive maintenance procedures Preventative maintenance leads to longer intervals between breakdowns.

Which of the following is not a reason for redesigning a product or service?

B. to increase the level of employee satisfaction A product or service redesign does not necessarily involve improving employee satisfaction.

A disadvantage of global teams for product design is that:

D. Ease of face to face meetings is absent since members are located everywhere If face to face interaction is required, global design teams might not be a viable option.

Mobile phones have evolved from devices intended to place and receive phone calls into handheld multimedia communications devices, but in the eyes of some customers these new features make the phones less desirable. This is an example of _________.

B. creeping featurism Customer satisfaction isn’t strictly dependent on the number of features a product offers.

One step that isn’t part of service blueprinting is:

A. Eliminate boundaries for the service and decide on the level of interaction needed Defining boundaries is a critical part of service blueprinting.

The research and development activity which starts after positive research results are available and attempts to turn these results into useful commercial applications is:

C. development Development is the conversion of applied research into useful commercial applications.

The advantages of standardization include which of the following?
(I.) The opportunity to freeze design at a very early stage
(II.) Fewer parts to deal with in inventory
(III.) Reduced training cost and time
(IV.) Purchasing is more routine

D. II, III, IV Standardization doesn’t necessarily help in freezing designs early.

Products or services with a high degree of similarity of features and components are called:

D. product family’s Delineating product families helps lead to component commonality.

"Must have", "expected" and "excitement" characteristics are categories in the ____ model.

B. Kano The Kano model is an alternative to "more is better" design approaches

One possible disadvantage of modular design is that:

C. number of configurations of modules decreases Modular designs do have the effect of reducing variety.

In the area of product and service design, the acronym CAD refers to:

B. computer aided design CAD can increase the productivity of product designers.

Which of the following statements about CAD is not true?

E. It is used successfully by all manufacturing companies. Not all manufacturers use CAD.

Which one of the following is not a factor of successful product and service design?

D. use computerized design techniques Computerized design techniques don’t necessarily lead to successful product and service design.

A software company is weighing whether to release a new version of its software. The company can go ahead and release the version now and correct flaws with subsequent patches or upgrades, or it can wait until the new version is reasonably bug-free. This is an example of _____.

C. vaporware Vaporware is attractive from some perspectives but not from others

Ideas for new or improved designs can come from:

E. all of the above Companies look to many sources for ideas for new or improved designs.

The process of dismantling and inspecting a competitor’s new or revised product for the purpose of gleaning design ideas is called:

C. reverse engineering Reverse engineering can be a good source of ideas for product design.

The term ‘degrees of newness’ is associated with:

D. degree of design change Superficial design changes are low in ‘degrees of newness.

The term ‘standardization’ is closely associated with:

E. interchangeability Modular designs depend on standardized parts that are interchangeable.

Service design generally differs from product design in which of the following ways?

B. There is less latitude in detecting and correcting errors prior to delivery. Often service design flaws are not discovered until some customers have been served.

The structural approach for integrating customer requirements into every aspect of product development is known as:

C. quality function deployment Quality Function Deployment brings the voice of the customer into the product development process.

Which of the following is an issue that designers must take into account in product and service design?

E. all of the above Designs must reflect a large number of factors.

One of these is not a characteristic of a well-designed service system:

C. Distributed computer networks Well-designed service systems tend to be user friendly, robust, cost-effective and easy to sustain.

A formal way to document customer requirements is:

B. quality function deployment (QFD) QFD brings the voice of the customer into the design process.

Which of the following is not true about re-manufacturing?

D. It produces high quality products easily. Re-manufacturing can be a very difficult and costly process.

Which of the following is not one of the phases of product design and development?

E. performance applied research Product design and development begins after applied research has been done.

Elements of the service process in which there is little to no contact with the customer are referred to as ____________.

C. back-of-the-house Those elements involving substantial contact with the customer are referred to as "front-of-the-house" operations.

In services, flowcharts are useful for ____________.

B. identifying and determining the sequence of customer and service actions and interactions The customer-service interaction is depicted using flowcharts.