Week 5: Operations

Question 1

What is Operational Planning?

Answer 1

The process of linking strategic goals and objectives to tactical goals and objectives, directly tied to operational budget

Question 2

What is a Value Chain?

Answer 2

All activities related to design, production, market, delivery, and support of the product/service through cost advantages and differentiation

Question 3

What is the Value Chain Analysis?

Answer 3

The process of breaking down the sequence of business functions into strategically relevant activities to add value to the product by reducing costs and increasing efficiencies/margins

Question 4

What is the Industry Value Chain Analysis comprised of?

Answer 4

All value-creating activities within the industry; beginning with raw materials and ending with completed product delivered to customer

Question 5

What is the Internal Value Chain Analysis comprised of?

Answer 5

All physically and technologically distinct activities within the firm that add value to the customers’ experience

Question 6

What are the Primary Activities of an Internal VCA?

Answer 6

Directly concerned with creating and delivering a product (ex. Inbound/outbound logistics, operations, marketing/sales, service/support)

Question 7

What are the Support Activities of an Internal VCA?

Answer 7

Not directly involved in production buy may increase effectiveness or efficiency (ex. Organization infrastructure, HR management, technology development, procurement)

Question 8

What is a Value Web?

Answer 8

Used to describe non-linear value-creating processes comprised of a grid of interrelated operational activities without a center

Question 9

What are Lean Systems?

Answer 9

Operational systems designed for flexibility and efficiency through use of key processes to allow quick responses to changes in demand, supply, or process without cost or time penalty

Question 10

What is Just-in-Time?

Answer 10

An approach focusing on reducing inventory and non-value-added activities by producing or acquiring product only as needed

Question 11

What is Strategic Control?

Answer 11

The process used by firms to monitor activities, evaluate efficiency and performance, and take corrective action to improve performance

Question 12

What is the Operational Plan?

Answer 12

Describes the physical necessities of a business’ operation and outlines the capital and expense requirements needed to operate day-to-day

Question 13

What is Operations Management?

Answer 13

The supervising, monitoring, and coordinating of the activities of a firm carried out along the value chain

Question 14

What is a Process?

Answer 14

Any activity that takes one or more inputs, transforms and adds values to them, then provides one or more outputs

Question 15

What is Ergonomics?

Answer 15

Making a physical task easier and less stressful to accomplish

Question 16

What is Six-Sigma?

Answer 16

A data-driven approach and methodology for improving the quality of process outputs by reducing defects to near-zero

Question 17

What is Supply-Chain Management?

Answer 17

The synchronization of a firm’s processes with those of its suppliers to match flow of materials/etc with customer demand

Question 18

What are the 4 Operations Management Functions?

Answer 18

1. Process design
2. Quality control
3. Capacity
4. Operations infrastructure

Question 19

What are the 5 Operational Goals?

Answer 19

1. Low cost
2. Quality - Product performance and reliability
3. On-time speed - Pace of lead-time, delivery, and product development
4. Flexibility - Ability to react to customer needs quickly
5. Worker safety

Question 20

What is a Balanced Scorecard?

Answer 20

A set of measurements unique to a company including financial and operational metrics