Operations Management- Steeds Flashcards
What does STEEPLE stand for?
Social, political, economic, ethical,political, legal, environmental factors
What is the difference between product and market orientation?
Product- develops products that its good at
Market- responds to customer needs/ wants
Difference between invention and innovation?
Invention-creation of a product or first introduction of a process
Innovation-improving or making a contribution to an existing product, process or service
What is research and development?
The process that enables the creation of new and improved products to meet the needs of customers.
Factors that effect R&D
Level of competition, product, external environment, state of economy, specific issues
What is job production? Ad/dis
Each product is individually made
Ad- higher quality, charge more, flexible, motivation for workers, directly meets customer needs
Dis-slow, higher costs, need skilled workers, no eos
Batch production+ ad/dis
When goods are made in batches- similar items made together
Ad- lots made at same time, lower costs, eos, handle unexpected orders, meets customer needs, some flexibility
Dis- greater error risk, boring for workers, higher initial costs, down time,cash flow issues
Flow production+ ad/dis
Continuous movement of items through production
Ad-quicker, lower cots, eos, large quantities, no down time, less training and skills needed
Dis- high initial costs, demotivated workers, inflexible, lots of resources stored, less differentiation
What is lead time?
The time between ordering and receiving goods
What is process production?
A series of processes which raw materials go through, end product is a large amount of a finished product
Cell production+ ad/dis
Flow production split into self contained units with each having a particular task.
Ad- improved communication, adaptable/ motivated workers, improved quality
Dis- invest in new tech, machinery not fully used, trust and participation from workers needed,has to have sufficient demand
Formula for productivity
Output/ input
What is productivity?
Is the output per unit of input which can be applied to any factor of production
Division of labour
Occurs when production is broken down into many separate tasks
What is the critical path?
The path where the activities have the same EST and LFT
What is total float?
The longest time which an activities start may be delayed without effecting the length of the project as a whole.
What is free float?
It is the effect upon the next activity and not the project as a whole .
What are Gantt charts?
It is a chart that can be used to calculate how long a project will take, which activities are dependant on others and which activities should be completed at any given time.
What are the benefits of using critical path analysis?
It is a simple visual representation, knowing EST allows JIT to be used, it shows managers the consequences of delay, it identifies which method is critical.
What are the limitations of critical path?
It depends on the accuracy of the activity times, knowing that some activities are critical may cause rushing which reduces quality, it only considers the time not the cost.
What are the benefits of Gantt charts?
It can be used to easily monitor progress, activities that should be happening can be seen at a glance, it shows time and resource allocation.
What are the limitations of Gantt charts?
It doesn’t show which activities are critical, it doesn’t show at a glance EST and LFT, calculation of floats isn’t straightforward.
How do you calculate PERT?
Optimistic time+4 x likely time+ pessimistic time /6
Advantages of PERT?
More realistic including the pessimistic time, simple formula to apply, able to see critical path within activities, a lot of data can be represented visually
Disadvantages of PERT?
Gauging the optimistic time is hard unless done before, gauging pessimistic time is guesswork, complicated to use.
What are economies of scale?
A reduction in unit costs as the scale of production increases.
What are diseconomies of scale?
An increase in unit costs as production increases.
What is capacity utilisation?
Using the resources in a effective and efficient way.
What is capacity management?
It is concerned with usage of resources
How do you calculate capacity utilisation?
Actual or current level of output/ maximum possible output x 100
Benefits of operating at full capacity?
The average unit cost will fall, economies of scale, less wastage of resources, opportunities of bonus payments or overtime for employees, more competitive due to reduced costs.
What are disadvantages of operating at full capacity?
There is no time for maintenance, additional orders are impossible, employees may become stressed, the level of quality may be effected.
Benefits of holding stock?
Satisfying demand, coping with fluctuations of demand, buffer stock to meet late deliveries, cost savings due to economies of scale.
Costs of holding stock?
Storage costs, opportunity costs, depreciation costs, security costs, administrative costs, insurance costs, out-of-stock costs
