Potential exam open questions Flashcards
What is the hawthorne effect?
Is an effect discovered in the 1930s, indicates that productivity increases if workers are given attention.
What is the Krajlic Matrix? Explain its components
The Krajlic matrix helps companites to classify products into categories, is a matrix whose x-axis is supply risk, and its y-axis is profit. These 4 categories are essentially:
1) Non-critical
- Product standarization
- ABUNDANT SUPPLY
- Process efficiency
2) Leverage
- Exploitation of full purchasing power
- ABUNDANT SUPPLY
- Pricing negotiations
3) Strategic
- Development of long-term relationships
- INNOVATION
- Natural scarcity
4) Bottleneck
- INNOVATION
- production-based scarcity
- low control of suppliers
What is JIT? Its benefits?
JIT (just-in-time) philosophy essentially consists of: getting the right quantity at the right place at the right time, eliminate the waste activities and surronding the entire organisation (=lean production).
Its benefits are the following:
- Inventory reduction
- Quality improvement
- Short lead times
- Lower production costs
- Increased productivity
- Increased machine utilization
- Great flexibility*
What document has all material requirements in it?
BOM (Bill of Materials) is a crucial input for MRP because it identifies:
- What materials are required
- Quantity needed
- Sequence in which they are used
What is an order qualifier? And an order winner?
Order qualifiers are the minimum criteria needed to compete.
Order winners are the features that set a product apart.
Today’s order winners may be order qualifiers in the future.
What are the 4 a’s of sustainable transportation?
They are these 4:
Avoidance
Awareness
Act & Shift
Anticipation
What are the 5 competencies of quality for manufacturing? And service quality?
- Manufacturing quality ➔ Focuses on tangible product features
- Conformance
- Performance
- Reliability
- Features
- Durability
- Service quality ➔ Focuses on the experience
- Intangible factors
- Consistency
- Responsiveness
- Courtesy, friendliness
- Promptness, timeliness
- Atmosphere
In the context of Danone, explain how the company might use forecasting models to improve its operations.
Danone uses forecasting models to predict demand for its products, improving production planning and reducing waste by aligning supply with customer demand.
Define SCM and explain the supply chain
SCM is the coordination and management of all the
activities of the supply chain ➔ prime example of OM
Hint: Supply chain consists of the network activities to deliver a finished product to a customer. (Supplier➔Manufacturer➔Distributor (e.g. MANN-FILTER)➔Retailer (e.g. AD)➔Customer)
What are the 4 techniques used by abinbev in the guest lecture?
- Localization
Bring production as close as possible to the end customer – ideally the same country - Nearshoring
Bring production as close as possible to the end customer – to a country close by if the same country is not feasible - Intermodal
Exploit the usage of all modalities to optimize for cost, lead-time, frequency and ecological footprint - Weight Per Shipment (WPS)
Maximize the fill rate and hence weight of the shipment in order to optimize cost and ecological footprint
What are the types of aggregate plans?
1) Level aggregate plan
* Maintains a constant workforce
* Capacity of labor and equipment is based on average demand
* Often used for make-to-stock products
2) Chase aggregate plan
* Produces the amount needed in each period
* Capacity of labor and equipment are adapted based on period demands
* Often used for make-to-order products
- Not suitable for information goods (intangible)
3) Hybrid aggregate plan
* Any combination of options, based on company’s current situation
Ex. Level strategy with avoidance of back orders
ISO9000 & ISO14000 difference?
ISO 9000 certification
▪ Standard for evaluating a company’s quality practices
▪ Focus → Process and conformance
▪ Requirement in many industries
▪ Periodically controlled and recertified
ISO 14000 certification
▪ Standard for evaluating a company’s environmental responsibility
▪ Focus –> Management systems, operations, environmental systems
What are the transportation types?
Rail transport:
▪ Long-distance transport of large quantities
▪ Products with low value and high density (Ex. Steel, Sugar, …)
* Natural oligopoly –> due to high entry costs
* Low accessibility
* Long transport times due to consolidation
Road transport:
▪ Small point-to-point shipments
▪ Manufactured commodities with high value (AD)
* High accessibility and reliability
* Flexible but expensive
Air transport:
▪ Emergency shipments and fragile goods
▪ Products with high value-to-weight ratio
* Highly concentrated in limited number of carriers
* Low accessibility
* Fast but very expensive
Waterway transport:
▪ Long-distance transport of large quantities
▪ Bulk products with low value, container transport, …
* Cost-efficient mode thanks to large volumes, but very slow
* Low accessibility
Pipelines:
* Suitable for transport of products in liquid form
* High capital costs but economical use and long lifetime
* Limited accessibility
Bullwhip effect? Causes? Actions to abolish problems?
a) Causes erratic replenishment orders placed on
different levels in the supply chain that have NO
apparent link to final product demand
b)
“Demand forecast updating” with every inventory review
- If information isn’t shared, everyone has to guess what is
going on downstream
→ Guessing wrong leads to too much or too little inventory: - If too much inventory, firms hold off buying more until
inventories fall (leading suppliers to think demand has
fallen). - If too little, firms demand a rush order & order more
than usual to avoid being caught short in the future
(leading suppliers to think demand has risen). - Replenishment orders become less linked to end-customer
demand
*The longer the supply chain the more demand information
becomes inaccurate or distorted
“Order batching”
- Companies wait some period of time, sums up the number
of units sold, and then places the order
→causing constant product demand changes
→variability in order timing and size
Price fluctuations
- Due to special promotions ex. Price & quantity discounts
- Cause companies to buy products before they need them
- Create more variability within the supply chain
Rationing and shortage gaming
* If you know that your suppliers only supplies 50% of the order quantity you double the order size
* This distorts true demand information
c) Solutions:
* Information Sharing = Improve information flows
* Eliminate the wholesaler and distributor
* Eliminate order batching: reduce the cost of placing an order
by using EDI (electronic data interchange)
* Stabilize prices: Eliminate wholesale price promotions &
quantity discounts
Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) analysis is a method that originates from the domain of lean manufacturing. Answer the following questions:
(a) What is the objective of SMED?
(b) Which are the different steps in the application of SMED?
(a) Reducing the downtime for transitions between two production runs.
(b) Eliminate unnecessary tasks, separate external tasks from internal tasks, reduce the duration of internal tasks.
