Chapter 6 & 7 Deck Flashcards
High-volume goods are produced efficiently by people, equipment, or departments arranged in a(n) ( ).
assembly line
All of the following are true about industrial robots except they:
can replace about 80% of faculty workers
( ) refers to “the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.”
Quality
Making decisions on how to hold down the costs of materials and labor is the job of ( ).
the operations manager
In order to draw up a(n) ( ), managers need to know where materials are located and headed at every step in the production process.
master production schedule
In many companies, employees who perform similar jobs work in ( ) to identify efficiency and to propose solutions.
quality circles
Companies decide to outsource for the following reasons with the exception of:
reduce product design costs.
A computer-integrated manufacturing system is a common element in ( ) systems, in which computer-controlled equipment can easily be adapted to produce a variety of goods.
flexible manufacturing
( ) is a manufacturing strategy whereby a firm produces products outside of its own plant.
Outsourcing
McDonald’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and KFC restaurants, all of which operate in many different countries, are best characterized as ( ) corporations.
multinational
Usually driven by the size and attractiveness of the foreign market, ( ) is generally the most expensive commitment that a company can make in an overseas market.
foreign direct investment
Among other things, many MNCs (multinational corporations) have increased their sensitivity to local market conditions by ( ).
decentralizing decision making
( ) is a common method of protecting domestic goods and trade.
Adding taxes to imported goods
In ( ) cultures, personal and work relationships tend to be compartmentalized.
low-context
If a foreign currency ( ) relative to the U.S. dollar, Americans will pay less for goods and services bought from sellers in the country that issues the currency.
goes down
The formal establishment of business operations on foreign soil, such as factories, sales offices, or branch stores, is called ( ).
foreign direct investment
By their very nature, products were customized to meet the needs of the buyers who ordered them. This process, which is called a ( ).
make-to-order strategy
is the practice of producing high volumes of identical goods at a cost low enough to price them for large numbers of customers.
mass production (or make-to-stock strategy)
High volumes of customized goods are made.
mass customization
Managers estimate the quantity of products to be produced by ( ) for their product and then calculating the capacity requirements of the production facility.
forecasting demand
The ( ) layout groups together workers or departments that perform similar tasks. At each position, workers use specialized equipment to perform a particular step in the production process.
process
In a ( ) layout, high-volume goods are produced in assembly-line fashion—that is, a series of workstations at which already-made parts are assembled.
product
In a ( ) layout, small teams of workers handle all aspects of building a component, a “family of components,” or even a finished product.
cellular
A ( ) layout is used to make large items (such as ships or buildings) that stay in one place while workers and equipment go to the product.
fixed-position
( ) encompasses the following activities: purchasing, inventory control, and work scheduling.
materials management
A ( ) is an easy-to-use graphical tool that helps operations managers determine the status of projects.
Gantt chart
( ) are used to diagram the activities required to produce a good, specify the time required to perform each activity in the process, and organize activities in the most efficient sequence.
PERT charts
What are the three things that differentiate manufacturers from service providers?
- Intangibility
- Customization
- Customer contact
( ) or quality assurance includes all the steps that a company takes to ensure that its goods or services are of sufficiently high quality to meet customers’ needs.
Total quality management (TQM)
This technique monitors production quality by testing a sample of output to see whether goods in process are being made according to predetermined specifications.
statistical process control
Companies routinely use ( ) to compare their performance on a number of dimensions with the performance of other companies that excel in particular areas.
benchmarking
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has established the ( ) family of international standards for quality management.
ISO 9000
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has established the ( ) family of international standards for environmental management.
ISO 14000
A nation has an ( ) advantage if (1) it’s the only source of a particular product or (2) it can make more of a product using the same amount of or fewer resources than other countries.
absolute
The concept of ( ) advantage exists when a country can produce a product at a lower opportunity cost compared to another nation.
comparative
( ) are the products that a country must decline to make in order to produce something else.
Opportunity costs
We determine a country’s ( ) by subtracting the value of its imports from the value of its exports.
balance of trade
A ( ) is an agreement between two companies (or a company and a nation) to pool resources in order to achieve business goals that benefit both partners.
strategic alliance
Alliances range in scope from informal cooperative agreements to ( ). Alliances in which the partners fund a separate entity (perhaps a partnership or a corporation) to manage their joint operation.
joint ventures
( ) occurs when a company sets up facilities in a foreign country that replaces U.S. manufacturing facilities to produce goods that will be sent back to the United States for sale. Shifting production to low-wage countries is often criticized as it results in the loss of jobs for U.S. workers.
offshoring
A common form of FDI is the ( ), an independent company owned by a foreign firm.
foreign subsidiary
In ( ), the numerous interlocking (and often unstated) personal and family connections that hold people together have an effect on almost all interactions.
high-context cultures
If a foreign currency ( ) relative to the U.S. dollar, Americans must pay more for goods and services purchased from sellers in the country issuing the currency (foreign products are more expensive).
goes up
Because they protect domestic industries by reducing foreign competition, the use of controls to restrict free trade is often called ( ).
protectionism
( ) are taxes on imports. Because they raise the price of the foreign-made goods, they make them less competitive.
tariffs
( ) are restrictions on imports that impose a limit on the quantity of a good that can be imported over a period of time. They’re used to protect specific industries, usually new industries or those facing strong competitive pressure from foreign firms.
quotas
An ( ) is a quota that, for economic or political reasons, bans the import or export of certain goods to or from a specific country.
embargo
A common rationale for tariffs and quotas is the need to combat ( )—the practice of selling exported goods below the price that producers would normally charge in their home markets (and often below the costs of producing the goods).
dumping
Groups of countries that have joined together to allow goods and services to flow without restrictions across their mutual borders.
trading blocs
