Unit 5. Operations management

Question 1

What is the role of operations management?

Answer 1

• providing the right goods and services to the right quantities and quality level in a cost-effective way.

Question 2

What are the factors of production?

Answer 2

• Land
• Labour
• Capital
• Enterprise

Question 3

What is a social sustainability?

Answer 3

Optimizing quality of life for people and next generations.

Question 4

What is economis sustainability?

Answer 4

Refers to development that meets the economic needs of the present generation without compising the needs of future generations.

Question 5

What are the production methods?

Answer 5

• job production
• Batch production
• Flow production or mass production
• Cellular manufacturing

Question 6

What is job production?

Answer 6

Customizing an individual product from start to finish.
- Tailored to meet specific requirements.
- Small scale

Question 7

What are the advantages of job production?

Answer 7

• High quality
• Highly motivated especialized workers.
• Flexibility in the planning of production process.
• High uniqueness

Question 8

What are the disadvanatges for job production?

Answer 8

• Time consuming
• Labour intensicve
• Minimal economies of sclae.
• Irreglar production can lead to cas flow problems.

Question 9

What is batch production?

Answer 9

Simultaneously producing a limited number of identical products at a time.

Question 10

What are the advantages of batch production?

Answer 10

• Economies of scale
• Specialization increases productivity and quality products.
• Variaety of products can be made.
• Fewer risks than producing single products

Question 11

What are the disadvantages of batch production?

Answer 11

• Storage costs
• Division of labour caues boredom
• Inflexible
• High initial investment

Question 12

What is flow/mass/line production?

Answer 12

• Process of manufacturing large amounts of standarized products continuosly
• high level od productivity
• Specialization of labour and machinery is high.

Question 13

What are the advanatges of flow/mass/line production?

Answer 13

• Capital intensive leads to econmies of scale.
• The production needs no break
• Low defect rate
• Low labour cost.

Question 14

What are the disadvanatges of flow/mass/line production?

Answer 14

• Monotonous and boring for staff
• Inflexible
• Breakdown cause major delays
• Huge set-up costs

Question 15

What is cellular manufacturing?

Answer 15

Modern adaptation of assembly line of production where tasks are completed by teams by splitting the production into parts.

Question 16

What are the advantages of cellular manufacturing?

Answer 16

• Workers have autonomy in decision making.
• Team members have collectively responsability
• Higher levels of motivation from team work and autonomy.
• Workers can cover from absences.

Question 17

What are the disadvantages of cellular manufacturing?

Answer 17

• Lower output compared to mass and flow production.
• Capital-intemsive
• Costly to set-up and matain
• Intra team conflicts
• Team leaders can be inefficient.

Question 18

What is labour intensive production method?

Answer 18

• High proportion of labour costs compared to capital costs
• job production.

Question 19

What is capital intensive production method

Answer 19

• Higher pro portion of capital costs.
• Batch, mass and flow production

Question 20

What is location?

Answer 20

Refers to the geographical position of the business. The decsion depends on:
- Nature of the business
- Nature of the product
- Nature of human resources.

Question 21

What are the uantitative reason for specific location of production?

Answer 21

1. Availability, sustainability cost of land.
2. Availability, quality and cost of labour.
3. Proximity to customers.
4. Government incentives and limitations.
5. E-copmmerce

Question 22

What are the qualitative reason for an specific location of production?

Answer 22

1. Managemnet preferences
2. Local knowledge
3. Infrastructure
4. Political stability
5. Government restrictions and regulations
6. Ethical issues.