Unite 3 Business Operations

Question 1

What is a supply chain?

Answer 1

A supply chain consists of the group of firms involved in all the various processes required to make a finished product or service available to the customer.

Question 2

LIst four types of business that are usually part of a supply chain.

Answer 2

Suppliers
Manufacturers
Distributors
Retailers

Question 3

What does procurement mean?

Answer 3

Procurement means finding and buying things that a firm needs from suppliers outside of the firm.

Question 4

What does logistics mean?

Answer 4

Logistics means getting goods or services from one part of the supply chain to another.

Question 5

What is job production?

Answer 5

Job production is used when a firm manufactures individual, unique products.

Question 6

Give an example of a product made by job production.

Answer 6

An example would be made to measure clothes.

Question 7

What is flow production?

Answer 7

This is where all products made are identical and the aim is to produce as many as possible along an assembly line.

Question 8

Give an example of a product made by flow production.

Answer 8

An example would be chocolate bars.

Question 9

What is lean production?

Answer 9

Lean production is a strategy businesses can use to make production more efficient. The business aims to use few resources as possible.

Question 10

Give an example of a product made by lean production.

Answer 10

An example would be

Question 11

What is ‘Just-In-Time’ production and what does it aim to do?

Answer 11

Just-In-Time is a form of lean production and it aims to keep stock levels to the bare minimum.

Question 12

State three reasons why it is good for a business to ensure customers get products that are good quality.

Answer 12

Every product should be of good quality.
Service needs to be good quality.
Good customer service.

Question 13

State two costs associated with maintaining quality standards.

Answer 13

Staff training- Staff need to be doing their job correctly.

Inspection- Products need to be inspected to check that the quality is good enough.

Question 14

What does TQM stand for and what does it involve?

Answer 14

TQM stands for ‘Total Quality Managment’. This aims to make quality the responsibility of every employee in a form, in order to make sure that quality remains consistent. Employees are encouraged to think about the needs of the customer.

Question 15

Briefly describe the steps in a sales process.

Answer 15

1. Finding potential new customers.
2. Approaching potential new customers.
3. Assessing the customers needs.
4. Presenting.
5. Closing
6. Follow up.

Question 16

Give one way in which sales staff could make sure they engage positively with their customers.

Answer 16

Firms should ensure that any experience customers have with them is as positive as possible.