Answer ALL questions. Each question in Section A is worth 2 marks.

1. Why is operations management essential to all kinds of organisations?

   1. Because every organisation needs to develop products and/or services.

   2. Because every organisation needs to create and deliver products and/or

      services.

   3. Because all organisations need to market products and/or services.

   4. All of the above.

2. All operations can be classified according to their 4Vs, volume, variety, variation and visibility. Which of the following can be considered a drawback of high visibility? a. Short waiting tolerance

   b. High standardisation c. High staff utilisation d. Low unit cost

3. The ability to deliver products or services consistently according to their specification is a measure of: a. Cost b. Flexibility

   c. Dependability d. Quality

4. The operations frontier enables organisations to:

   1. Compare its critical product or service attributes across different product

      offerings.

   2. Assess their operational effectiveness by comparing against the current

      best practices.

   3. Illustrate their current industry position with regard to critical product or

      service attributes.

   4. Identify the strategic direction of competitors with regard to product or

      service attributes.

5. Which of the following is not an essential process flow measure? a. Queuing time b. Average flow time c. Average inventory

   d. Throughput

6. A call centre operator can process 10 calls per hour on average. What is the average time a customer spends in line when there are on average 4 customers in line that are either being processed or waiting to being processed?

   a. 20 minutes b. 24 minutes c. 32 minutes d. 40 minutes

Page 2 of 6

7. In a process flowchart, the critical path denotes ... a. The shortest path from start to finish b. The path with the fewest activities between start and finish c. The path with the most activities between start and finish d. The longest path from start to finish

8. Given an effective unit load of {10,15,30} minutes per flow unit and a resource pool of 3 non-identical resource units, what is the effective capacity? a. 6 units per hour

   b. 10 units per hour c. 12 units per hour d. 18 units per hour

9. Which of the following actions is not suitable to increase the capacity level of a process?

   a. Increasing the time of operation b. Move work off the critical path c. Subcontracting and outsourcing d. Increase the speed of the operation

10. What is the difference between seasonal inventory and safety inventory?

    1. Seasonal inventory is required for level capacity strategies while safety

       inventory is required for chase-demand strategies.

    2. Seasonal inventory is for supply management while safety inventory is

       for demand management.

    3. Seasonal inventory is required for dealing with supply disruptions while

       safety inventory is required for dealing with surges in demand.

    4. Seasonalinventoryisrequiredforcopingwithpredictablefluctuationsin supply and demand while safety inventory is required for dealing with

       unpredictable fluctuations.

11. A sports retailer has to decide on its desired level of product availability well ahead of the uncertain customer demand. Given a purchase price of 300 per unit, a regular retail price of 450 per unit and a discount retail price of 250 per unit, what is the optimal level of product availability for the retailer? a. The optimal level of product availability is 50%.

    b. The optimal level of product availability is 67%. c. The optimal level of product availability is 75%. d. The optimal level of product availability is 90%.

12. Why are aggregate forecasts of more accurate than individual forecasts?

    1. Because larger than average demand values are likely to offset by

       smaller than average values when we aggregate.

    2. Because aggregation minimises the error caused by inconsistencies in

       individual forecasts.

    3. Because variance of aggregated demand is less than sum of individual

       variances.

    4. Because standard deviation of the aggregated demand is larger than the

       sum of individual standard deviations. Page 3 of 6

13. For dressings and other medical supplies, a hospital faces a weekly demand with a mean of 5000 units and a standard deviation of 1000 units. Given that the supply lead times is four weeks, how much safety inventory should the hospital keep to achieve a service level of 95% (note that z needs to be equal to 1.65 in this case)?

    a. 1000 b. 3300 c. 5000 d. 23,300

14. Which of the following is a cause of delays and queues in make-to-order operations?

    a. Variability in processing times b. High capacity utilization c. High inflow rate d. All of the above

15. A capacity management strategy that attempts to reduce fluctuations by stimulating off-peaks and constraining peaks is called: a. Level capacity strategy b. Chase demand strategy

    c. Demand management strategy d. Yield management strategy

16. Errors occurring when no action is taken as a process exhibits a measure within the control band although it is out of control are called: a. Type I error b. Sampling error

    c. Type II error d. Control error

17. Which of the following statements is correct? a. Process capability is about meeting the external expectations. b. Process capability is about keeping performance in control bands. c. Process capability is about meeting the internal expectations. d. Process capability is about eliminating abnormal normal variability.

18. Which of the following is not one of the seven types of waste identified by Toyota according to the lean methodology: a. Overproduction b. Defects

    c. Waiting d. Movement

19. Which of the following statements is correct about the Kanban system? a. It is a system of triggering production in upstream resources. b. It is a method for implementing push systems. c. It is a method for managing inventory of finished products.

    d. It is a system for stopping production when there is no customer order. Page 4 of 6

20. Which of the following measures is suitable to improve the environmental sustainability of material handling activities at warehouses and other facilities? a. Improved inventory management that allows for lowered stock levels

b. Improved logistics planning to reduce transports and traveling distances c. Using more efficient means of transportation with alternative engines d. Using modular product designs that ease disassembly and recycling