Operations Management

Question 1

Activity

Answer 1

as used in project management, it is an identifiable and defined task, used together with event activities to form network planning diagrams

Question 2

Back-office

Answer 2

the low-visibility part of an operation

Question 3

Business process re-engineering (BPR)

Answer 3

the philosophy that recommends the redesign of processes to fulfil defined external customer needs

Question 4

Processes

Answer 4

an arrangement of resources that produces some mixture of products and services

Question 5

Co-creation

Answer 5

where the customer or customers play an important part in the character of the product or service offering

Question 6

Broad definition of operations

Answer 6

all the activities necessary for the fulfilment of customer requests

Question 7

Core functions

Answer 7

the functions that manage the three core processes of any business

Question 8

Customer contact skills

Answer 8

the skills and knowledge that operations staff need to meet customer expectations

Question 9

Directing

Answer 9

operations activities that create a general understanding of an operation’s strategic purpose and performance

Question 10

End-to-end business processes

Answer 10

processes that totally fulfil a defined external customer need

Question 11

Facilitating products

Answer 11

products that are produced by an operation to support its services

Question 12

Facilitating services

Answer 12

services that are produced by an operation to support its products

Question 13

Front-office

Answer 13

the high-visibility part of an operation

Question 14

Hierarchy of operations

Answer 14

the idea that all operations processes are made up of smaller operations processes

Question 15

Information technology (IT)

Answer 15

any device, or collection of devices, that collects, manipulates, stores or distributes information, nearly always used to mean computer­ based devices

Question 16

Input resources

Answer 16

the transforming and transformed resources that form the input to operations

Question 17

Internal customers

Answer 17

processes or individuals within an operation that are the customers for other internal processes or individuals’ outputs

Question 18

Internal suppliers

Answer 18

processes or individuals within an operation that supply products or services to other processes or individuals within the operation

Question 19

Market requirements

Answer 19

the performance objectives that reflect the market position of an operation’s products or services, also a perspective on operations strategy

Question 20

Operations function

Answer 20

the arrangement of resources that are devoted to the production and delivery of products and services

Question 21

Operations management

Answer 21

the activities, decisions and responsibilities of managing the production and delivery of products and services

Question 22

Operations managers

Answer 22

the staff of the organisation who have particular responsibility for managing some or all of the resources which compose the operation’s function

Question 23

Operations strategy

Answer 23

the overall direction and contribution of the operation’s function with the business; the way in which market requirements and operations resource capabilities are reconciled within the operation

Question 24

Process outputs

Answer 24

the mixture of goods and services produced by processes

Question 25

Received variety

Answer 25

the variety that occurs because the process is not designed to prevent it

Question 26

Repeatability

Answer 26

the extent to which an activity does not vary

Question 27

Standardization

Answer 27

the degree to which processes, products or services are prevented from varying over time

Question 28

Support functions

Answer 28

the functions that facilitate the working of the core functions, for example accounting and finance, human resources, etc

Question 29

Supply network

Answer 29

the network of supplier and customer operations that have relationships with an operation

Question 30

Systemization

Answer 30

the extent to which standard procedures are made explicit

Question 31

Tangibility

Answer 31

the main characteristic that distinguishes products (usually tangible) from services (usually intangible)

Question 32

Transformation process model

Answer 32

model that describes operations in terms of their input resources, transforming processes and outputs of goods and services

Question 33

Transformed resources

Answer 33

the resources that are treated, transformed or converted in a process, usually a mixture of materials, information and customers

Question 34

Transforming resources

Answer 34

the resources that act upon the transformed resources, usually classified as facilities (the buildings, equipment and plant of an operation) and staff (the people who operate, maintain and manage the operation)

Question 35

Volume

Answer 35

the level or rate of output from a process, a key characteristic that determines process behaviour

Question 36

Visibility

Answer 36

the amount of value-added activity that takes place in the presence (in reality or virtually) of the customer, also called ‘customer contact’

Question 37

Variety

Answer 37

the range of different products and services produced by a process, a key characteristic that determines process behaviour

Question 38

Variation

Answer 38

the degree to which the rate or level of output varies from a process over time, a key characteristic in determining process behaviour