3.4 decision making to improve operational performance

Question 1

operational objectives

Answer 1

costs
quality - customer service/ returns
speed of response - labour productivity
added value

Question 2

resource mix

Answer 2

labour intensive
capital intensive

Question 3

why quality is important

Answer 3

customers are more knowledgeable
more able to share information on social media
reputation for quality can be a competitive advantage

Question 4

quality control

Answer 4

based on inspection
takes defects out of

Question 5

quality insurance

Answer 5

based on processes
builds quality in
kaizen, continuous improvement for TQM, all employees are looking for improvement

Question 6

cost of poor quality

Answer 6

competitive disadvantage
remaking product
waste materials
losing customers
damage business reputation

Question 7

outsourcing

Answer 7

delegate a process to an external provider
call centre/delivery/computer systems

Question 8

outsourcing benefits and risks

Answer 8

B - economies of scale
- specialist suppliers
R - may not meet quality
- costs may not be lower

Question 9

internal influences on operational objectives

Answer 9

corperate - the business goals can’t be countered
finance - investment and cost of the operations
hr - targets for productivity, effected by training and automation
marketing - product changes may strain operations if the production isn’t flexible

Question 10

external influences on operational objectives

Answer 10

economic environment- changes in interest rate, cost of investment
technological change - innovation is rife, hard to change production
regulations can mean they have to change it