Chapter 2 - Competiveness, Strategy, and Productivity

Question 1

Competitiveness

Answer 1

the ability and performance of an organization in the market compared to other organizations that offer similar goods or services.

Question 2

Strategy

Answer 2

The long-term plans that determine the direction an organization takes to become (or remain) competitive.

Question 3

Strategic planning

Answer 3

the managerial process that determines a strategy for the organization and implements it through allocation of resources and action plans.

Question 4

Productivity

Answer 4

a measure of productive use of resources

Question 5

what are the key purchasing criteria factors?

Answer 5

Price
Quality
Variety
On-Time

Question 6

Order Qualifiers

Answer 6

the competitive standard characteristics of a product or service that cause it to be viewed for purchase by a consumer.

Question 7

Order winners

Answer 7

The characteristics that distinguish the product or service from others to be more competitive and better for a customer and win the customer’s purchase

Question 8

What are the four competitive priority factors

Answer 8

1) Cost
2) Quality
3) Flexibility
4) On-Time & Reliable Delivery

Question 9

What are the three basic business strategies?

Answer 9

1) Low cost
2) Responsiveness
3) Differentiation from competitors

Question 10

What are some examples of different strategies an organization might choose?

Answer 10

1) Low Cost
2) Scale-Based strategies
3) Specialization
4) Newness
5) Flexible operations
6) High Quality
7) Service
8) Sustainability

Question 11

Low Cost

Answer 11

Outsource operations to third world countries that have low labour costs

Question 12

Scale-based strategies

Answer 12

Use Capital-intensive methods to achieve high output volume and low unit costs

Question 13

Specialization

Answer 13

Focus on narrow product lines or limited service to achieve higher quality

Question 14

Newness

Answer 14

Focus on innovation to create new products or services

Question 15

Flexible operations

Answer 15

Focus on quick response and/or customization

Question 16

High quality

Answer 16

Focus on achieving higher quality than competitors

Question 17

Service

Answer 17

Focus on various aspects of service (e.g. helpful, courteous, reliable, etc.

Question 18

Sustainability

Answer 18

Focus on environmentally friendly and energy-efficient operations

Question 19

Operations strategy

Answer 19

Comprises a set of well coordinated policies, objectives, and action plans, directly affecting the operations function, which is aimed at securing a long-term sustainable advantage over the competition.

Question 20

What are the 9 strategic decision categories?

Answer 20

1) Facility
2) Capacity
3) Vertical integration/outsourcing
4) Supplier relationship/partnership
5) product mix and new products
6) production process types and technology
7) human resources
8) quality
9) operations infrastructure and systems

Question 21

How does the formulation of an operations strategy look like?

Answer 21

1) Link the organizational goals
2_ categorize/segment the customers into types
3) Group product lines into types
4) Conduct an operations audit to determine the strengths/weaknesses of the current operations strategy
5) For a multi-plan corporation, assess the degree of focus at each plan
6) Develop an operations strategy and reallocate product liens to plants if necessary.

Question 22

What are the 5 generic operations strategies?

Answer 22

1) Low labour-cost strategy
2) Scale-based strategy
3) focused factories strategy
4) Flexible factories strategy
5) Continuous improvement strategy.

Question 23

Enterprise resource planning

Answer 23

also known as enterprise software, ERP is used to manage and coordinate all the resources, information, and functions of an organization from a shared database.

Question 24

Quality based strategy

Answer 24

focuses on improving the quality of an organization’s goods or services

Question 25

Time-based strategy

Answer 25

focuses on reducing the time required to accomplish various activities

Question 26

Supply chain strategy

Answer 26

specifies how to cooperate with the organization’ supply chain to achieve supply chain goals and to be competitive.

Question 27

Sustainability strategy

Answer 27

refers to the plans developing a sustainability vision to the level of organizational governance, which includes formulating goals for products and services, processes, and the entire supply chain.

Question 28

balanacced scorecard

Answer 28

top-down management strategic planning system that organizations can use to clarify their vision and strategy and transform them into action .

Question 29

What are the 9 steps in strategic planning?

Answer 29

1) Get started
2) Analyze the industry and source of competitive advantage
3) analyze customers
4) analyze competitors
5) assess our relative position
6) assess the state of our business
7) develop and evaluate alternative strategies
8) choose and refine the recommended strategy
9)identify major actions and implement them.

Question 30

what are some examples of partial productivity measures

Answer 30

labour productivity
machine productivity
material productivity
energy productivity

Question 31

What are some factors that affect productivity?

Answer 31

Methods
Management
Equipment
Technology
Labour

Question 32

Value =

Answer 32

Value = Benefit (Quality, Timeliness, Variety)/Price (cost)