Questions and Answers of Operations and Supply Chain

Find an application of project management in your own life (for example, in your home, fraternity, or business organization). List the activities and events that comprise the project, and draw the
Find an application of project management in your own life (for example, in your home, fraternity, or business organization). List the activities and events that comprise the project, and draw the
Choose one of the lean tools and approaches from Section 2 of this chapter and Research and write a short paper (2 pages maximum) on how organizations use this tool, and provide specific
The worksheet C16P12 in the OM6 Data Workbook provides 5 examples of control charts. Interpret the patterns in each and determine if the processes are in control. If not, state the type of
A mail-order prescription drug vendor measured the number of errors per standard order being picked in their distribution center. Data can be found in the worksheet C16P11 in the OM6 Data Workbook.
Data showing the number of errors per thousand lines of code for a software development project are given in the worksheet C16P10 in the OM6 Data Workbook. Construct a c-chart and interpret the
Thirty samples of size 3, available in the worksheet C16P4 in the OM6 Data Workbook were taken from a machining process over a 15-hour period. Construct control charts using the Excel template
Identify an organization that uses the Six Sigma DMAIC improvement approach. Describe (maximum of two pages) some of the ways that this organization has applied DMAIC and the results they have
Do an Internet search of "vehicle-routing software" and "vehicle routing." Write a two-page report of the capabilities, advantages, and disadvantages of these vehicle-routing and dispatching systems.
Draw a supply chain flowchart similar to Exhibit 12.1 using the SCOR Model for a business you have worked in or have experience with. Describe how the supply chain works. If you have little or no
Perform an ABC analysis for the data provided in worksheet C11P5 in the OM5 Data Workbook. Clearly explain why you classified items as A, B, or C.Data From OM5 Data Workbook:Optional Topic (Do not
Perform an ABC analysis for the data provided in worksheet C11P4 in the OM5 Data Workbook. Clearly explain why you classified items as A, B, or C. The data set is as follows (in OM6 Data
Perform an ABC analysis for the data provided in worksheet C11P4 in the OM5 Data Workbook. Clearly explain why you classified items as A, B, or C. The data set is as follows (in OM6 Data
Research and write a short paper (2 pages maximum) on how an organization has applied the Theory of Constraints.
Perform a capacity analysis using the process structure defined in Problem #12 with the following changes. Demand on the process has increased to 36 units per hour and each unit must be worked on by
In Problem 2, use single exponential smoothing with a = 0.2 and compute the exponential smoothing forecasts for February through July.Data From Problem 2:The historical sales for a certain model of a
The historical sales for a certain model of a single serve coffee maker in units is: January, 26; February, 21; March, 20; April, 23; May, 17, and June, 20. Using a 2-month moving average, what is
In Problem 6, suppose the line is balanced using 14 workstations and a finished product can be produced every 4.5 minutes.a. What is the production rate in units per day?b. What is the assembly line
An assembly line with 30 activities is to be balanced. The total amount of time to complete all 30 activities is 60 minutes. The longest activity takes 2.4 minutes and the shortest takes .3 minutes.
5. Peter’s Paper Clips uses a three-stage production process: cutting wire to prescribed lengths, inner bending, and outer bending. The cutting process can produce at a rate of 200 pieces per
An express checkout line at a grocery store takes an average of 3 minutes to ring-up a customer’s order. On average 6 customers are in the checkout line. What is the average number of customers per
An express checkout line at a grocery store takes an average of 3 minutes to ring-up a customer’s order. On average 6 customers are in the checkout line. What is the average number of customers per
Refer to Exhibit 7.7 and recomputed the total value-added and non-value-added time and cost given the following new information. If a restaurant uses iPads to place orders and notify waiters when the
Discuss how sustainability might be incorporated into a process or value chain improvement initiative. Try to find an example and summarize it in a manner similar to that in the box feature on
1. Using the center-of-gravity model and Exhibit 6.15, compute the center of gravity for the population of the county. Show all computations, explain, and justify. Based solely on this criterion,
Research the topic of “reshoring” in the USA and evaluate its impact. Develop an incentive system for USA firms to bring work back to the USA. Be ready to present to the class.
The service center for a brokerage company provides three functions to callers: account status, order confirmations, and stock quotes. The reliability was measured for each of these services over 1
How can social media enhance the sale of a physical good? A service? Provide examples. Explain.
Apply Hill’s strategy framework to one of the companies in problem/question 2. This will require research to identify corporate objectives and competitive priorities. See the McDonald’s example
Explore the Web sites for several competing companies on the Fortune 500 list. Based on the information you find, on which competitive priorities do these firms appear to focus? What can you say
How does General Electric use the competitive priority “innovation” to its competitive advantage? Research, then explain and provide examples in a short paper (maximum of two typed pages).
Research and write a short paper (two pages maximum) about your cell phone provider. What are their mission, strategy, and competitive priorities? How is sustainability incorporated into their
Research and write a short paper (two pages maximum) about your cell phone provider. What are their mission, strategy, and competitive priorities? How is sustainability incorporated into their
Select a business with which you are familiar and identify examples of order qualifiers and winners. You might also research the businesses on the Internet or visit the library.
What is the average defection rate for grocery store shoppers in a local area of a large city if they spend $45 per visit, shop 52 weeks per year, the grocery store has a 4 percent gross margin, and
Describe new ways for how your college or university can apply the sustainability practices in Exhibit 1.12. Summarize your results in a short paper.Students must take the topics below and apply
Referring to Table 2.3, research the winner of an international quality award at one of the award Web sites and write a brief report.Table 2.3:
Access a Web site of a company that sells products to the general public on the Internet. Discuss the quality attributes of the site, and evaluate the quality of the Web site.
Select two competing service companies that you are familiar with or can visit, such as fast-food restaurants, banks, or retail stores, and compare how they interact with customers in terms of
Select a service company or organization and discuss the dimensions of quality on which a customer might evaluate it.
The Weight Club started out as a student organization of 25 individuals who gathered together to discuss fitness goals and lift weights in the campus gym. When budget cutbacks cut gym hours and
Examine the annual reports of a company of your choosing over three years. Use quotes from the reports to describe the company’s overall strategy and its specific goals each year. How well do you
Look for articles related to supply chain online or at Fortune, BusinessWeek, or CNN. How do they relate to the primary topics discussed in this chapter?
Describe the global activities of a corporation of your choice. How many foreign plants do they have? Where are they located? How much of their business is foreign? Are any global strategies evident?
Investigate the role of government in improving industrial competitiveness. Begin with the U.S. Council on Competitiveness at www.compete.org. Find a similar site for at least one other country.
Complete the available-to-promise table below.
Explain what the numerical value of the slope of the linear regression equation in Problem 12-30 means.Data From Problem 12-30:The manager of Sarah’s Ice Cream store needs an accurate forecast of
Compute the coefficient of determination for the data in Problem 12-30 and explain its meaning.Data From Problem 12-30:The manager of Sarah’s Ice Cream store needs an accurate forecast of the
In Problem S11-8, the Adams Brewing Company management has negotiated a new shipping contract with a trucking firm between its Tampa brewery and its distributor in Kentucky that reduces the shipping
Using the Internet or your library find an article and write a report about how an actual company is achieving sustainability though improved processes in its transportation and distribution
Purchasing is a trade magazine that focuses on supply chain management and e-Procurement. Its articles include many examples of supply chain management at various companies. Research an article from
Locate an e-marketplace on the Internet and describe it and the type of suppliers, and producers it connects.
Purchasing is a trade magazine with articles that include many examples of supply chain management at various companies. Research an article from Purchasing and write a brief paper on a company
The Backwoods American company operates a telephone order system for a catalogue of its outdoor clothing products. The catalogue orders are processed in three stages. In the first stage, the
The Backwoods American company operates a telephone order system for a catalogue of its outdoor clothing products. The catalogue orders are processed in three stages. In the first stage, the
Identify a specific company that has an extensive global supply chain, and using the Internet and the company’s website discuss how the company is achieving workplace sustainability with its
Research the new types of databases and platforms needed to process big data and analytics, such as SAP’s HANA and Apache’s Hadoop or Spark. What new capabilities do these system bring? How do
From articles in recent business magazines, describe the newest trends in big data, business analytics software, cloud computing and in-memory computing.
APICS is a professional organization for operations and supply chain management. Find out if there is a local APICS chapter in your area. Attend a meeting and write a summary of the speaker’s
Interview managers at three companies in your area about their use of ERP. How have their experiences been similar? What accounts for the similarities and differences?
Amy and Matt are getting married in their hometown the same weekend as the Battle of Bristol, the largest college football game ever played. That’s good news for the couple, but bad news for the
Compare the ERP/CRM/SCM off erings of two diff erent software vendors.
Complete the available-to-promise table below. PERIOD 1 2 3 4 ON HAND = 30 5 Forecast 100 50 100 50 100 50 Customer Orders 75 50 116 73 45 23 Master Production Schedule 100 50 100 50 100 50
Using the Internet, identify an “international trade specialist” and describe the services it provides companies with a global supply chain.
For each of the principal modes of product transportation—rail, air, truck, inter-modal, water, package carriers, and pipeline—identify a company that employs the mode of transportation, and for
The two magazines in question 11.12 also include articles on logistics, transportation, and distribution. Select an article (or articles) and write a brief paper about these processes similar to the
Supply Chain Management Review (at www.scmr.com) and Inside Supply Management are trade magazines that focus on all aspects of supply chain management. Its articles include examples of supply chain
Locate a transportation exchange on the Internet, describe the services it provides to its users, and indicate some of the customers that use it.
Select a service provider and a manufacturer from Gartner’s annual “Supply Chain Top 25” and write a brief profile comparing the supply chain attributes of each company.
Select a local business and discuss how it is applying any auto-ID technologies.
Identify some applications of barcode technology at your school. Would switching to RFID technology for any of these applications be cost-effective?
Using the Internet, identify three U.S. companies with a strong reputation for sustainability. Describe the common characteristics of their sustainability efforts.
Surf the Internet and identify a company with a strong commitment to sustainability and discuss its green initiatives.
Many websites and trade magazines focusing on supply chain management include numerous articles reporting on specific companies’ experiences with different aspects of supply chain management. Using
Supply Chain Management Review is a trade magazine with articles that include many examples of supply chain management at various companies. Research an article from Supply Chain Management Review
Describe and discuss the cultural differences between the United States and a country of your choice that might affect the management of a project in this foreign country.
Write a paper summarizing an actual project reported on in the magazine PM Network.
A traditional performance rating benchmark (or guideline) for “normal” effort, or speed, is dealing 52 cards into four piles, forming a square with each pile one foot apart, in 0.50 minute.
Zippos.com is an online shoe retail store. While most customers shop online at the company’s Internet site, many others call the company directly for specialized assistance with questions. After
Global Distribution Systems installs warehouse management software systems for it clients and trains client employees in its use. As the company expands and contracts with new clients it hires and
Select a workplace at your university such as an academic department office, the athletic department, the bookstore, or the cafeteria, and describe the compensation program for rank-and-file
Select an article (or articles) from HR Magazine and write a report on a human resource management application in a company similar to the “Along the Supply Chain” boxes in this chapter.
Pick an activity you are familiar with in your daily life such as washing a car, cutting grass, or taking a shower, and develop a process flowchart for it.
Workplace diversity has become an important corporate objective for many companies, partly because of the media scrutiny this issue receives. Research three company websites and discuss their
Research the Baldrige Award website and describe some of the award-winning companies initiatives and efforts related to employee training and education.
Using the Internet, identify a specific company that has adopted telecommuting and discuss how and to what extent the company is using telecommuting and its impact.
The Western Jeans Company is going to select a new overseas supplier for denim jeans. The company has identified suppliers in Bangladesh, India, the Philippines, China, Pakistan, and Turkey. The
Federated Electronics, Ltd., manufactures display screens and monitors for computers and televisions, which it sells to companies around the world. It wants to construct a new warehouse and
Select a major (light or heavy) manufacturing facility in your community or immediate geographic area (within a radius of 100 miles), and identify the factors that make it a good or poor site, in
Find a virtual plant tour on the Internet and describe the production system according to the criteria in Table 7.1. PRODUCT LAYOUT PROCESS LAYOUT 1. Description Sequential arrangement of activities
Explore capacity planning at your university or place of business. How is capacity measured? What factors influence the acquisition and allocation of resources?
Blake is an intern in the Department of Performing Arts (DPA) at State University. One of his duties is to schedule end-of-term recitals for the department’s graduating seniors and to create and
Track your waiting line experience over a week’s time. What was the longest time you waited in line? What was the longest length of a line? What kind of line behavior did you observe (balking,
Compare traditional car rental services with Zipcar and Uber. Each of these has a different service concept. Explain.
Use the following instructions to construct and test a prototype paper airplane. Are the instructions clear? How would you improve the design of the airplane or the manner in which the design is
Search the Internet for two or more companies that publish sustainability reports. What are the main components of each company’s green initiatives? How do their approaches differ?
Access the Environmental Protection Agency http://www.epa. gov/ to read about the U.S. government’s commitment to environmental product design. Compare the U.S. approach to that of other countries.
Automakers often post concept cars on their websites. Find out how the design process for these cars differs. Which cars do you think will be commercially successful? Why?
Sometimes failures provide the best opportunities for new products and services. Search for the Post-It Note story on the web, and at least one other failure-to-success story. What do these stories
In the ongoing national debate about healthcare that is likely to continue for years, one view holds that quality improvement (and corresponding cost reduction) across the industry is fundamentally

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