Section B: Manufacturing Design, Planning, & Control

Question 1

Manufacturing environments, process types, and process layouts are all interrelated to some degree based on the

Answer 1

volume of production that is needed versus the variety of items that need to be manufactured.

Question 2

Variety might also be described as

Answer 2

the degree of customer influence over design.

Question 3

The high variety, low volume end of the scale, for example, has

Answer 3

engineer-to-order (ETO), such as building construction, which is typically run using the project (project management) process type and a fixed position layout (meaning that the thing being made generally stays in one place).

Question 4

With ETO in particular, variety might best be described as

Answer 4

a high degree of customer influence over the design.

Question 5

The high volume, low variety end of the scale has

Answer 5

make-to-stock (MTS), which produces items to sell from inventory.

Question 6

A gas refinery could use a

Answer 6

continuous manufacturing process type, as the materials flow without stopping through the refinement process, with a product-based layout that is designed to work with only a limited range of products.

Question 7

environments and process choices have some overlap where

Answer 7

hybrid systems might be developed.

Question 8

Customer lead times tend to be very long for

Answer 8

high variety, low volume production, often because engineering designs need to be made.

This lead time gets shorter and shorter as variety is reduced and volume is increased. Items that can be sold from stock have only ordering and shipping time as their lead time.

Question 9

Items that can be sold from stock have only

Answer 9

ordering and shipping time as their lead time.

Question 10

Tasks are diverse and complex at the

Answer 10

high variety, low volume end, as one might expect in building unique items or items in small batches.

Question 11

Tasks at the low variety, high volume end tend to be

Answer 11

repetitive and are divided up into efficient groupings.

Question 12

There are three general categories of process types related to process frequency:

Answer 12

project, intermittent, and flow.

Question 13

Projects have project scheduling, which means

Answer 13

they proceed on their own custom schedules.

Question 14

Intermittent processes include

Answer 14

work center and batch process types, and these are items best made in lots or batches.

Question 15

Flow processes include

Answer 15

line and continuous manufacturing, and these are processes that ideally never stop, such as a bottling line.

Question 16

External influences, organizational strategy, the operations business plan, and customer and product characteristics will determine

Answer 16

which combination of these elements will be the most efficient and effective for a given product or product line.

Question 17

Manufacturing environments, also called production environments or manufacturing strategies, are

Answer 17

fundamental choices for manufacturing.

Question 18

Manufacturing environments are also called

Answer 18

production environments or manufacturing strategies

Question 19

The optimum environment is based on

Answer 19

volume, variety, and lead time.

Question 20

The nature of the product(s) being produced may also impact the choice of the manufacturing environment, and one way to analyze how products are best manufactured is with a

Answer 20

product flow analysis.

Question 21

The interplay of volume and variety strongly impacts

Answer 21

the cost of production.

Question 22

In addition to the basic product characteristics, lead time is another strong differentiator for

Answer 22

manufacturing environment.

Question 23

delivery lead time is

Answer 23

the time from the receipt of a customer order to the delivery of the product.

Question 24

supplier lead time

Answer 24

the amount of time that normally elapses between the time an order is received by a supplier and the time the order is shipped.

Question 25

Procurement lead time

Answer 25

the time required to design a product, modify or design equipment, conduct market research, and obtain all necessary materials. Lead time begins when a decision has been made to accept an order to produce a new product and ends when production commences.

Question 26

Purchasing lead time

Answer 26

the total time required to obtain a purchased item. Included here are order preparation and release time; supplier lead time; transportation time; and receiving, inspection, and put-away time.

Question 27

Manufacturing lead time

Answer 27

the total time required to manufacture an item, exclusive of lower-level purchasing lead time. For make-to-order products, it is the length of time between the release of an order to the production process and shipment to the final customer. For make-to-stock products, it is the length of time between the release of an order to the production process and receipt into inventory. Included are order preparation time, queue time, setup time, run time, move time, inspection time, and put-away time.

Question 28

One basic determinant of necessary lead time is

Answer 28

the level of involvement the customer requires during design, manufacturing, or assembly, but product volume and variety also play a strong role.

Question 29

Low-volume items are cost-prohibitive to produce in

Answer 29

advance and so often require longer lead times.

Question 30

Customized items or allowing for design flexibility will require

Answer 30

longer lead times, while standardized items will shorten lead times.

Question 31

Another influence on lead time is

Answer 31

proximity to the customer, which is why some auto parts manufacturers locate their plants right next to the auto plant that uses the parts.

Question 32

A distribution network with a distribution center near customers is another way to

Answer 32

provide flexibility in the manufacturing model chosen while still satisfying customer lead time expectations.

Question 33

Engineer-to-order

Answer 33

Products whose customer specifications require unique engineering design, significant customization, or new purchased materials. Each customer orders results in a unique set of part numbers, bills of materials, and routings.

Question 34

Make-to-order

Answer 34

A production environment where a good or service can be made after receipt of a customer’s order. The final product is usually a combination of standard items and items custom-designed to meet the special needs of the customer.
Where options are or accessories are stocked before customer orders arrive, the term assemble-to-order is frequently used.

Question 35

Make-to-order produces

Answer 35

nothing until a customer order is received.

The organization may still cary inventory, but it is in the form of raw materials.

Question 36

The delivery lead time for make-to-order includes

Answer 36

production, assembly, and shipping, so lead time is still fairly long.

Question 37

Make-to-order is best when variety is

Answer 37

medium to high and volume is low to medium.

A window produced to custom dimensions is one example; a high end guitar is another.

Question 38

What manufacturing environment are these examples of?

A window produced to custom dimensions.
A high end guitar is another.

Answer 38

Make-to-order

Question 39

Assemble-to-order (ATO)

Answer 39

A production environment where a good or service can be assembled after receipt of a customer’s order. The kay components (bulk, semi-finished, intermediate, subassembly, fabricated, purchased, packing, and so on) used in the assembly or finishing process are planned and usually stocked in anticipation of a customer order. Receipt of an order initiates assembly of the customized product. This strategy is useful where a large number of end precuts (based on the selection of options and accessories) can be assembled from common components.

Question 40

Assemble-to-order is useful where a

Answer 40

large number of end products (based on the selection of options and accessories) can be assembled from common components.

Question 41

Assemble-to-order builds standard components based on forecasts but waits to assemble or complete the processing of the components until

Answer 41

actual customer orders are received.

Question 42

Components

Answer 42

The raw material, part, or subassembly that goes into higher-level assembly, compound, or other item. This term may also include packaging materials for finished items.

Question 43

Depending on what is actually being done during the assembly stage, ATO is sometimes called

Answer 43

build-to-order, finish-to-order, or even package-to-order.

Question 44

Assemble-to-order is often made more economical through a process called

Answer 44

modularization..

Question 45

Modularization

Answer 45

In product development, the use of standardized parts for flexibility and variety. Permits product development cost reductions by using the same item(s) to build a variety of finished goods. This is the first step in developing a planning bill of material process.

Question 46

In assemble-to-order, since the components are in inventory, the lead time is

Answer 46

short, consisting only of assembly and shipping. This results in lower inventory costs than a make-to-stock environment, because the components can be made into a wide variety of end products that, if all built, would require significantly more inventory overall.

Question 47

Assemble-to-order also reduces risks because

Answer 47

varieties that are not in demand will never be produced.

Question 48

ATO is best when

Answer 48

variety is low to medium and volume is medium to high. Customers will be involved in assembly decisions only.

Question 49

Examples of assemble-to-order are

Answer 49

motorcycles.

Laptop ordered online from a manufacturer (e.g., Dell or Apple).

Question 50

Make-to-stock (MTS)

Answer 50

A production environment where produces can be and usually are finished before receipt of a customer order. Customer orders are typically filled from existing stocks, and production orders are used to replenish those stocks.

Question 51

Make-to-stock produces items for inventory based on

Answer 51

forecasts of demand.

Question 52

In make-to-stock, lead time can be very short, as it is limited to

Answer 52

shipping and a variety of methods can be used to ship or to position the inventory closer to the customer.

Question 53

In make-to-stock, customers are not able to make design decisions but may indirectly influence

Answer 53

designs of future products or product enhancements. This strategy entails high inventory costs.

Question 54

An example of make-to-stock is

Answer 54

a can of soup.

a clothing store’s inventory of underwear or plain t-shirts.

Question 55

Mass customization is an attempt to

Answer 55

serve markets that desire both high volume and high variety.

Question 56

Mass customization is

Answer 56

the creation of a high-volume product with large variety whose manufacturing cost is low due to the large volume, allowing customers to specify an exact model out of a large volume of possible end items. An example is a personal computer order in which the customer specifies processor speed, memory size, hard disk size and speed, removable storage device characteristics, and many other options when PCs are assembled on one line and at low cost.

Question 57

In mass customization, customers get some degree of customization, which manufacturing processes the products at

Answer 57

near the same cost as that of a high-volume process,

Question 58

Mass customization is usually considered to be a subset of

Answer 58

assemble-to-order because the customer is choosing among previously manufactured or purchased items; lead times can, however, be longer than for ATO.

Question 59

Configure-to-order has the same lead time as

Answer 59

make-to-order because the customer chooses a unique combination of features and options early in the manufacturing process.

Question 60

Postponement

Answer 60

A product design, or supply chain strategy that deliberately delays final differentiation of a product (assembly, production, packaging, tagging, etc.) until the latest possible time in the process. This shifts product differentiation closer to the consumer to reduce the anticipatory risk of producing the wrong product. The practice eliminates excess finished goods in the supply chain. Sometimes referred to as delayed differentiation.

Question 61

Postponement is sometimes referred to as

Answer 61

delayed differentiation.

Question 62

Postponement is an assemble-to-order strategy that often performs final assembly in a distribution center because

Answer 62

the assembly usually does not require specialized equipment or extensive manufacturing expertise. This may involve putting a country-specific power supply in a unit or labeling for a specific language. It could also involve shipping units by air with no individual packaging and adding the bulky packaging at the distribution center, which is what Hewlett Packard does. To the degree that high volumes can be output at a low cost per unit, this can also be considered a type of mass customization.

Question 63

Package-to-order is a type of assemble-to-order that uses

Answer 63

postponement to delay packaging items produced and stored in bulk until orders for specific package sizes are received.

Question 64

Package-to-order

Answer 64

A production environment in which a good or service can be packaged after receipt of a customer order. The item is common across many different customers; packaging determines the end product.

Question 65

A product flow analysis indicates the

Answer 65

logical flow of manufacturing processes as raw materials are transformed into finished goods.

Question 66

Product flow analysis is also useful in the

Answer 66

theory of constraints.

Question 67

A product flow analysis is often called a

Answer 67

VATI analysis because there are four basic conceptual flows that materials transformation processes can use at a plant, and the shapes of the letters V, A, T, and I indicate how materials flow through the process.

Question 68

VATI analysis

Answer 68

In the theory of constraints, a procedure for determining the general flow of parts and products from raw materials to finished products (logical product structure)… Once the general parts flow is determined, the system control points (gating operations, convergent points, divergent points, constraints, and shipping points) can be identified and managed.

Question 69

V-plants

Answer 69

A basic raw material (the bottom of the V) is split off into two or more products that diverge rather than being interrelated later. “A V logical structure starts with one or a few raw materials, and the product expands into a number of different products as it flows through divergent points in its routings.” For example, an organization that harvests trees might make various types of lumber.

Question 70

A-plants

Answer 70

Various raw materials are transformed in their own production processes and converge (at the top of the A) into one or more final materials, for example, complex products assembled from multiple subcomponents. “The shape of an A logical structure is dominated by converging points. Many raw materials are fabricated and assembled into a few finished products.

Question 71

T-plants

Answer 71

Raw materials are transformed using a single logical flow production line, but at some point, a limited number of basic units can be configured into many different end products (at the top of the T). “A T logical structure consists of numerous similar finished products assembled from common assemblies, subassemblies, and parts.

Question 72

I-plants

Answer 72

This is a basic linear flow for operations that use a production line or continuous flow process to produce one type of end product. “An I logical structure is the simplest of production flows, where resources are shared between different products and the flow is in a straight line sequence (e.g., an assembly line).

Question 73

The product life cycle is a way of describing the

Answer 73

progression of a product through predicable life stages.

Question 74

Product life cycle

Answer 74

1) The stages a new product goes through from beginning to end (i.e., the stages that a product passes through from introduction through growth, maturity, and decline). 2) The time from initial research and development to the time at which sales and support of the product to customers are withdrawn. 3) The period of time during which a product can be produced and marketed profitably.

Question 75

Most product life cycles have these phases:

Answer 75

• Introduction
• Growth
• Maturity
• Decline

Question 76

Introduction

Answer 76

Organizations usually need to spend a lot on marketing to raise awareness of the product. Design can be a differentiator, and ensuring availability may be an issue for distribution. Sales are very low during this phase, and the organization generally incurs losses rather than making a profit. Many products fail before they get to the next stage, highlighting the importance of needing good information on customer requirements and demand.

Question 77

Growth

Answer 77

Successful products gain market share rapidly, for example, as retailers start carrying the product. This phase puts a lot of stress on manufacturing and distribution to scale upward or downward quickly if demand differs from what was projected during development, and quality or delivery service levels could suffer. If economies of scale can be generated, unit costs drop rapidly and high profits result, at least until competitors enter the market and force prices down. However, other competitors exit the market if their designs are proven less scalable. Thus product designs tend to stabilize during this phase.

Question 78

Maturity

Answer 78

The product is no longer new, and many customers have already bought it. Or the market may be saturated with competitors, further reducing profit margins. Sales can still be steady for a long period. When sales volumes are sufficient, products might be enhanced to keep them profitable for longer or to allow time for replacement products to be developed. This could take the form of price reductions or additional services such as faster or more reliable delivery.

Question 79

Decline

Answer 79

The product is no longer in demand, or demand may be falling at a steady or increasing rate. This may be due to new alternatives or changing tastes. Profits might still be made in this phase, but this usually requires changing to a less expensive production environment such as make-to-order. There may be an ongoing need for spare parts or service. Other products must be phased out and replaced with new or improved products, and an exit strategy may be needed (in some versions of the life cycle, phase out might be shown as a separate phase).

Question 80

Which manufacturing environments work best with this life cycle phase - Introduction?

Answer 80

ETO

MTO

Question 81

Which manufacturing environments work best with this life cycle phase - Growth?

Answer 81

MTO
ATO
MTS

Question 82

Which manufacturing environments work best with this life cycle phase - Maturity?

Answer 82

MTO
ATO
MTS

Question 83

Which manufacturing environments work best with this life cycle phase - Decline?

Answer 83

MTO

ATO

Question 84

Engineer-to-order for the introduction phase

Answer 84

refers primarily to prototypes.

Question 85

Make-to-order may work well in the introduction and growth phases until the

Answer 85

volume demanded becomes high enough to switch to a different method. If this strategy is pursued, the organization needs a plan in place to transition to assemble-to-order or make-to-stock quickly enough to satisfy demand.

Question 86

Make-to-stock works well in the growth and maturity stages but quickly becomes

Answer 86

unprofitable in decline, where assemble- or make-to-order are again recommended when feasible.

Question 87

If a product is to be phased out,

Answer 87

make-to-order may be the only way to allow this phase-out period to be of sufficient duration while remaining profitable.

Question 88

Buildings, ships, aircraft, and other large, complex deliverables are produced

Answer 88

using project manufacturing.

Question 89

Whenever the product is primarily made at one site, is unique, and has a deadline for completion,

Answer 89

project management techniques are recommended.

Question 90

Project management

Answer 90

The use of skills and knowledge in coordinating the organizing, planning, scheduling, directing, controlling, monitoring, and evaluating of prescribed activities to ensure that the stated objectives of a project, manufactured good, or service are achieved.

Question 91

Gantt Chart

Answer 91

The earliest and best-known type of planning and control chart, especially designed to show graphically the relationship between planned performance and actual performance over time. Named after its originator, Henry L. Gantt, the chart is used for (1) machine loading, in which one horizontal line is used to represent capacity and another to represent load against that capacity; or (2) monitoring job progress, in which one horizontal line represents the production schedule and another parallel line represents the actual progress of the job against the schedule in time.

Question 92

Project management has two key elements that differentiate it from normal operations:

Answer 92

It is time-delimited and it produces unique deliverables.

Question 93

Project process type uses a

Answer 93

fixed position layout

Question 94

Intermittent production

Answer 94

a form of manufacturing in which the jobs pass through the functional departments in lots, and each lot may have a different routing.

Question 95

Intermittent process types are useful when

Answer 95

there are many product design variants that have different process requirements and therefore have unbalanced workflows between work centers.

Question 96

Benefits of intermittent process types include

Answer 96

the flexibility to change order quantities or orders quickly and the relative ease of introducing new products.

Question 97

Intermittent processes might use

Answer 97

fixed position, functional, or cellular layouts.

Question 98

Two types of intermittent manufacturing are

Answer 98

work center and batch

Question 99

The work center process type, also called job shop or intermittent manufacturing, is

Answer 99

organized around similar processes and usually involves smaller lots or batches.

Question 100

Work centers are production areas that are grouped by

Answer 100

function, such as all lathes in one area and all sanding in a different work area.

Question 101

Products are routed between work centers in odd patterns depending on

Answer 101

what process needs to be done next. The emphasis in planning is to have fast changeovers with skilled, flexible labor.

Question 102

The batch process type, also called batch flow or lot manufacturing, is a

Answer 102

version of intermittent manufacturing for higher production volume.

Question 103

Lots or batches are larger, and the flow between the chain of activities is optimized to

Answer 103

minimize distances traveled between workstations. The emphasis in planning is to have longer production runs and fewer changeovers.

Question 104

As we move into the higher volume, lower variety end of the scale,

Answer 104

flow manufacturing takes over.

Question 105

Flow processing

Answer 105

In process systems development, work flows from one workstation to another at a nearly constant rate and with no delays. When producing discrete (geometric) units, the process is called repetitive manufacturing; when producing non-geometric units over time, the process is called continuous manufacturing. A physical-chemical reaction takes place in the continuous flow process.

Question 106

Flow shop

Answer 106

A form of manufacturing organization in which machines and operators handle a standard, usually uninterrupted, material flow.
The operators generally perform the same operations for each production run. A flow shop is often referred to as a mass production shop or is said to have a continuous manufacturing layout. The plant layout (arrangement of machines, benches, assembly lines, etc.) is designed to facilitate a product “flow.” Some process industries (chemicals, oil, paint, etc.) are extreme examples of flow shops. Each product, though variable in material specifications, uses the same flow pattern through the shop. Production is set at a given rate, and the products are generally manufactured in bulk.