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production and operations management
Operations Management 10th Edition Nigel Slack ,Alistair Brandon-Jones ,Nicola Burgess - Solutions
How can the improvement process be managed?
What is lean?
How does lean consider flow?
How does lean consider (and reduce) waste?
How does lean consider improvement?
How does lean consider the role of people?
How does lean apply throughout the supply network?
What is quality and why is it so important?
What steps lead towards conformance to specification?
What is total quality management (TQM)?
How can operations assess the potential causes and consequences of failure?
How can failures be prevented?
How can operations mitigate the effects of failure?
How can operations recover from the effects of failure?
What are projects?
How is the project environment understood?
How are projects defined?
How are projects planned?
How are projects controlled and learned from?
Quentin Cakes make about 20,000 cakes per year in two sizes, both based on the same recipe. Sales peak at Christmas time, when demand is about 50 per cent higher than in the quieter summer period.Its customers (the stores that stock its products) order its cakes in advance through a simple
Re-read the ‘Operations in practice’ examples on LEGOLAND and LEGO. What kinds of operations management activities at each of these operations might come under the four headings of direct, design, deliver and develop?
Here are two examples of how operations try to reduce the negative effects of having to cope with high levels of variety. Research each of them (there is plenty of information on the web) and answer the following questions:(a) What are the common features of these two examples?(b) What other
Figure¦1.12 compares two hotel types on the four Vs dimensions. Where would the other ‘Operations in practice’ examples used in this chapter be positioned on these dimensions?
Not all surgery conforms to our preconceptions of the individual ‘super-craftsperson’, aided by their back-up team, performing the whole operation from first incision to final stitch. Many surgical procedures are fairly routine. An example is the process that was adopted by one Russian eye
Write down five services that you have ‘consumed’ in the last week. Try and make these as varied as possible. Examples could include public transport, a bank, any shop or supermarket, attendance at an education course, a cinema, a restaurant, etc. Try to identify how these services are
The transforming resources of the input–transformation–output model of operations management are classified as ‘facilities’ and ‘staff’. Should the information needed to make the transformation also be included?
What might be the ‘back-office’ processes in a theme park such as LEGOLAND?
Position pre-recorded lectures, non-interactive university lectures, small group tutorials and individual‘counselling’ tutorials on the IHIP scales.
Why do some people think that analysing enterprises in terms of their processes ‘takes the humanity out of the way in which we think of the organisation’ as outlined in the final ‘Critical commentary’in the chapter?
The environmental services department of a city has two recycling services – newspaper collection(NC) and general recycling (GR). The NC service is a door-to-door collection service that, at a fixed time every week, collects old newspapers that householders have placed in reusable plastic bags at
Xexon7 is a specialist artificial intelligence (AI) development firm that develops algorithms for various online services. As part of its client service, it has a small (10-person) helpdesk call centre to answer client queries. Clients can contact them from anywhere in the world at any time of the
The health-check clinic described in the worked example earlier in the chapter has expanded by hiring one extra employee and now has six employees. It has also leased some new health monitoring equipment, which allows patients to be processed faster. This means that its total output is now 280
A publishing company plans to replace its four proofreaders, who look for errors in manuscripts, with a new scanning machine and one proofreader in case the machine breaks down. Currently the proofreaders check 15 manuscripts every week between them. Each is paid :80,000 per year. Hiring the new
Look again at the figures in the chapter that illustrate the meaning of each performance objective for the four operations. Consider the bus company and the supermarket, and in particular consider their external customers. Draw the relative required performance for both operations on a polar
Visit the websites of two or three large oil companies such as Exxon, BP, Shell or Total. Examine how they describe their policies towards their customers, suppliers, shareholders, employees and society at large. Identify areas of the company’s operations where there may be conflicts between the
How should large supermarket companies measure their social and environmental performance?
Patagonia (the garment company) is also a ‘B Corp’, like Danone, which is described in the ‘Operations in practice’ example in the chapter. Why might it be more challenging for Danone to achieve this status than Patagonia?
The five performance objectives (quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost) measure the output from operations. Why might some operations also want to measure their internal processes?
What trade-offs are involved when airlines decide how many business-class seats to install in their aircraft?
ZNR Financial, a large accountancy corporation, is looking to assess the operations functions in three of its locations around the world. The ZNR Malaysia operations is marginally better than the operations of many of its competitors in the region, but still behind the very best players. The
Giordano is one of the most widespread clothes retailers. It is based in Hong Kong and employs more than 8,000 staff in over 2,000 shops. But when it was founded, upmarket shops sold high-quality products and gave good service. Cheaper clothes were piled high and sold by sales assistants more
Carry out an importance–performance analysis for an amusement park. In doing this, think about the competitive factors (i.e. the key ingredients) for this offering, their level of importance and their performance using the scale shown in Figure¦3.14. Then map these onto an
The Managing Partner of The Branding Partnership (TBP) was describing her business. ‘It is about four years now since we specialised in the small to medium firms market. Before that we also used to provide brand consultancy services for anyone who walked in the door. However, within the firm, I
DSD designs, makes and supplies medical equipment to hospitals and clinics. Its success was based on its research and development culture. Around 50 per cent of manufacturing was done in-house.Its products were relatively highly priced, but customers were willing to pay for its technical excellence
During manoeuvres in the Alps, a detachment of soldiers got lost. The weather was severe and the snow was deep. In these freezing conditions, after two days of wandering, the soldiers gave up hope and became reconciled to a frozen death on the mountains. Then, to their delight, one of the soldiers
Greenwashing is a derogatory term used to indicate that a business is exaggerating its environmental activities, or even deliberately conveying a false impression about how its activities are environmentally sound. Why might large technology companies be particularly vulnerable to this type of
Why can operations strategy never be exclusively concerned with ‘strategic level’ decisions?
Why might the ‘order winner’, ‘qualifier’, ‘less important’ classification underemphasise the importance of innovation?
Re-read the ‘Operations in practice’ example on Ocado. Why do you think has the company moved to sell its technology to other retailers?
One product where customers value a very wide range of product types is domestic paint. Most people like to express their creativity in the choice of paints and other home decorating products that they use in their homes. Clearly, offering a wide range of paint must have serious cost implications
‘We have to get this new product, and fast!’, said the operations director. ‘Our competitors are close behind us and I believe their products will be almost as good as ours when they launch them’. She was talking about a new product that the company hoped would establish it as the leader in
Innovation becomes particularly important at the interface between offerings and the people who use them. Consider two types of websites:(a) those that are trying to sell something, such as amazon.com; and(b) those that are primarily concerned with giving information, for example reuters.com or
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a circular economy is ‘a systemic approach to economic development designed to benefit businesses, society, and the environment’.10 Also see the example earlier in this chapter. What do you see as the main barriers to a more widespread adoption of
A janitor called Murray Spangler invented the vacuum cleaner in 1907. One year later he sold his patented idea to William Hoover, whose company went on to dominate the market. Now, the Dyson vacuum cleaner has jumped from nothing to a position where it dominates the market. The Dyson product dates
It sounds like a joke, but it is a genuine product innovation. It’s green, it’s square and it comes originally from Japan. It’s a square watermelon. Why square? Because Japanese grocery stores are not large and space cannot be wasted. Similarly, a round watermelon does not fit into a
Is there a fundamental conflict between encouraging creativity in the product and service innovation process and the very concept of a ‘process’?
What do you think are the differences between innovation in product design and innovation in service design?
Standardisation is an important concept in design. In addition to the examples mentioned in the chapter, what other examples of standardisation can you think of?
How could conventional ‘bricks-and-mortar’ bookshops innovate their services in order to compete with online book retailers?
Consider the music business as a supply network. How did music downloads and streaming affect each artist’s sales? What implications has online music transmission had for traditional music retailers?
A data centre is ‘a facility composed of networked computers and storage that businesses or other organisations use to organise, process, store and disseminate large amounts of data. A business typically relies heavily upon the applications, services and data contained within a data centre,
A company that produces concrete paving slabs is introducing a new range of ‘textured’ non-slip products. To do this it must invest in a new machine. Demand is forecast to be around 10,000 units per month for the first year and approximately 24,000 units per month after that. The machines that
The Fast and Efficient (FAC) transport group is reviewing its fleet maintenance operations. ‘Our lease on our current maintenance and repair facilities site will expire in a year, and we need to decide how to operate in the future. Currently we have the one site with
repair bays. This can cope with our fleet of 40 trucks. But demand is growing and within two or three years we hope to be operating around 55–60 trucks. So we will have to choose a site (or sites) that allows for this increase. And that leads me to the next issue – should we stick to operating
How could universities adopt the practice of outsourcing more?
Some people say that globalisation is a ‘mixed blessing’. It has lifted millions out of poverty, but it can also lead to the distortion of traditional cultures in some low-cost countries and many jobs in higher-cost countries. Draw up lists of what you see as the advantages and disadvantages of
Reread the ‘Operations in practice’ example on ‘Aalsmeer: a flower auction hub’. How could it counter accusations that shipping flowers around the world is not an environmentally sustainable business?
It was back in 2006 that Apple first incorporated Intel chips in its phones. Fourteen years later Apple made the (to many) shock announcement that it would be launching its first laptops and desktops built on processors designed wholly in-house. Why might it have decided to do this?
The demand for cobalt has risen in recent years because it is an essential element in rechargeable lithium batteries, and demand will increase as electric cars become popular. However, a lawsuit has been filed against companies including Apple, Tesla and Microsoft by the International Rights
Elevators are one of the many products and services integral in our everyday lives whose smooth performance we take for granted. Yet their efficient operation really does depend on maintenance services. What are the arguments for and against an elevator manufacturer moving into the provision of
2 Most of us are familiar with the ‘drive-through’ fast-food operations described in the chapter. Think about (or better still, visit) a drive-through service and try mapping what you can see (or remember)of the process (plus what you can infer from what may be happening ‘behind the
3 The International Frozen Pizza Company (IFPC) operates in three markets globally. Market 1 is its largest market, where it sells 25,000 tons of pizza per year. In this market it trades under the name‘Aunt Bridget’s Pizza’ and positions itself as making pizza ‘just as your Aunt Bridget
4 A direct marketing company sells kitchen equipment through a network of local representatives working from home. Typically, individual orders usually contain 20 to 50 individual items. Much of the packing process is standardised and automatic. The Vice President of Distribution is proud of his
5 Revisit the case example that examines Legal and General’s modular housing venture. Does their use of a factory to ‘build’ houses invalidate the idea that volume and variety govern the nature of operations processes?
6 A gourmet burger shop has a daily demand for 250 burgers and operates for 10 hours.(a) What is the required cycle time in minutes?(b) Assuming that each burger requires 7.2 minutes of work, how many servers are required?(c) The burger shop has a three-stage process for making burgers. Stage 1
7 At the theatre, the interval during a performance of King Lear lasts for 20 minutes and in that time 86 people need to use the toilet cubicles. On average, a person spends three minutes in the cubicle.There are 10 cubicles available.(a) Does the theatre have enough toilets to deal with the
8 ‘It is a real problem for us’, said Angnyeta Larson, ‘We now have only ten working days between all the expense claims coming from the departmental coordinators and authorising payments on the next month’s payroll. This really is not long enough and we are already having problems during
9 The headquarters of a major creative agency offered a service to all its global subsidiaries that included the preparation of a budget estimate that was submitted to potential clients when making a ‘pitch’ for new work. This service had been offered previously only to a few of the group’s
10 Re-read the ‘Operations in practice’ example ‘London’s underground tackles a bottleneck’. What general lessons about designing processes for crowds of people would you draw from this example?
1 Revisit the ‘Operations in practice’ example ‘Supermarket layout’. Then visit a supermarket and observe people’s behaviour. You may wish to try to observe which areas they move past slowly and which areas they seem to move past without paying attention to the products. (You may have to
2 Humans (known as ‘Trackers’) are still used by some retailers to follow customers (discreetly) through stores to see the flow between the various parts of a store, but technology is replacing them. These include video surveillance, thermal sensing, lasers, face recognition and so-called
3 In an assembly operation for customised laboratory equipment, the flow of materials through eight departments is as shown in Table¦7.2. Assuming that the direction of the flow of materials is not important, construct a relationship chart, a schematic layout and a suggested layout, given that
4 The assembler of customised laboratory equipment negotiates a long-term arrangement to supply a simplified standard product to be sold to forensic laboratories worldwide. This product requires an assembly sequence that takes it, in order, from Departments 2 to 4 to 8 to 5. Estimates of demand
5 A company that produces a wide range of specialist educational kits for 5–10-year-olds is based in an industrial unit arranged in a simple layout of six departments, each performing a separate task.The layout is shown in Figure¦7.19, together with the results of an investigation of the flow of
6 A computer games developer is moving into new offices. The new office has a floor space of approximately 300 square metres in the form 20 metres by 15 metres. The company has six departments, as identified in Figure¦7.21. This also shows the approximate area required by each department and the
7 The operations manager of a specialist company assembling seabed monitors that record pollution levels had a dilemma. ‘At the moment, we are producing around 40 seabed monitoring stations per year, using what is basically a fixed-position layout. However, as volume increases over the next few
8 Normally, patients undergoing surgery remain stationary with surgeons and other theatre staff performing their tasks around the patient. A surgeon frustrated by spending time drinking tea while patients were prepared for surgery redesigned the process so he moves continually between two theatres.
9 Re-read the ‘Operations in practice’ example ‘Rolls-Royce factory is designed on environmental principles’.Why is designing such a factory particularly important for a company like Rolls-Royce?
10 Why do tech companies such as Google design particularly exciting offices?
1 It is a new job, as yet without a formal title, but one commentator has called it being a ‘robot wrangler’.They even proposed a possible job advert: ‘Wranglers wanted for growing fleets of robots. Your responsibilities will include evaluating robot performance, providing real-time analysis
2 Modern aircraft fly on automatic pilot for most of the time. Most people are blissfully unaware that when an aircraft lands in mist or fog, it is a computer that is landing it. When autopilots can do something better than a human pilot, it makes sense to use autopilots. They can take control of
3 The ‘robot milkmaid’ can milk between 60 and 100 cows a day. Computer-controlled gates activated by transmitters around the cows’ necks allow the cows to enter. The machine then checks their health, connects them to the milking machine and feeds them while they are being milked. If illness
4 The Boeing 737 MAX was grounded in 2019 following two crashes. A Lion Air 737 MAX crashed killing 189 people; a few months later, a second, operated by Ethiopian Airlines, crashed, leaving no survivors. To blame was a new flight-control feature, Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System
5 Process technology can impact all of the operations performance objectives (quality, speed, dependability, flexibility and cost). Think through, and identify, how process technology could affect these performance objectives in the airline industry.
6 There have been a number of changes in medical process technology that have had a huge impact on the way healthcare operations manage themselves. In particular, telemedicine has challenged one of the most fundamental assumptions of medical treatment – that medical staff need to be physically
7 What are known as ‘care robots’ are being used in Japanese nursing homes to interact with people for social and therapeutic purposes, including dementia patients. What value do you think such technology is adding? And why Japan?
8 Artificial intelligence (AI) is starting to be used for military applications such as making decisions in fighter planes. What do you see as the practical and ethical implications of this?
9 Of all sectors of the economy, robots were particularly slow to be adopted in farming, and agriculture generally. Why do you think that was?
10 Re-read the ‘Operations in practice’ example on ‘Bionic duckweed’. Under what circumstances would the criticism of ‘always waiting for the next breakthrough stopping you from taking action now’ be misplaced?
1 Using technology for staff surveillance is clearly a controversial issue. Re-read the ‘Operations in practice’ example that discusses using technology for surveillance.(a) Draw up a list of possible positives and negatives that could result from staff surveillance.(b) Which industries do you
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