1. Operations management refers to: A. only manufacturing types of operation B. the steel industry C. the automotive industry D. either product or service types of organizations 2. Which of the following is NOT a type of decision involved in production and operations management? A. matrix management B. production planning C. production control D. improving production and operations 3. Among the decisions that must be made in the production planning process are: A. the engineering of the product B. project management techniques C. facilities layout D. customer service contact requirements 4. In general there are three types of production processes: A. intermittent, job shop, and continuous B. functional, product, and geographical C. line-staff, line, and functional D. mass, mass customization, and customization 5. Production processes can also be broken down into: A. continuous or intermittent B. matrix or functional C. none of the above D. a and b 6. Site selection is an issue for the following reason(s): A. operating costs are not affected B. the price of the product is not affected C. he site must be near available input or resources such as labor or raw materials D. local incentives are not an issue 7. One of the types of facilities layout options is "process". In this type: A. a continuous or repetitive production process is utilized where the line of work moves along and workers perform different operations at the various stages B. the work is grouped around similar processes, but the product may not move to each station C. the product stays in one place and required work is brought to it D. none of the above 8. Resource planning, as part of the production planning process, involves ensuring that the following will be available at strategic moments: A. financial capital B. raw materials, parts, and equipment C. geographical locations D. top management 9. The goal of inventory management is to: A. keep down the costs of ordering B. maintain enough inventory C. keep down the costs of holding inventory D. all of the above
10. Which of the following items would NOT typically be considered a descriptor of the new A. supply chain management process? B. reduction of the number of suppliers C. asking suppliers to offer more service D. sharing employees 1. (D) 2. (A) 3. (C) 4. (D) 5. (D) 6. (C) 7. (B) 8 (B) 9 (D) 10 (D) 1. The coordination of materials, equipment, and human resources to achieve production and operating efficiencies is called: A. routing production B. production control C. scheduling D. gaant charting 2. Gantt charts are visual bar graphs plotted on a time line showing the relationship between scheduled and actual production. They work best when: A. many tasks are involved B. when task times are relatively short C. when the jobs are short and simple D. all of the above 3. A good example of a situation involving the use of CPM (Critical path management) would be: A. the production of an automobile B. the production of a bicycle C. the processing of an insurance policy D. the building of a house 4. Lean manufacturing is a concept related to improving production and operations management. It might best be defined as: A. removing steps in production B. cutting costs in production C. getting materials to the site in time D. eliminating steps in the production process that do not add benefits customers are willing to pay for 5. Social stratification refers to: A. the division of labour according to the possession of natural abilities. B. the possession of psychological traits which signify differences in status and rewards. C. the differences between people which are structured and persist over time. D. the differences between people in terms of rewards. 6. Which form of stratification is based upon land ownership and an interlocking system of rights and obligations? A. Slavery. B. Patriarchy. C. Class. D. Feudalism. 7. Which explanation of stratification does the 'great chain of being' refer to? A. Egalitarian.
B. Libertarian. C. Biological. D. Divine. 8. What is Marx's concept of class position based upon? A. Authority relations. B. Innate abilities. C. Power relations. D. Economic position. 9. The embourgeoisment thesis is best described as: A. the introduction of political and social reform. B. an explanation for increased levels of social mobility. C. the equalization of income and wealth distribution. D. the incorporation of working class people into the middle class value system. 10. Social mobility refers to: A. the expansion of service sector employment. B. the demise of manufacturing industry. C. the opportunity to move up or down the social scale. D. the increasing support for conservative policies by working class people. 1. (B) 2. (C) 3. (D) 4. (D) 5. (C) 6. (D) 7. (D) 8 (D) 9 (D) 10 (C) 1. The 'establishment' refers to: A. a network of social and personal relationships which preserve the privileges of the elite. B. the creation of a new class of upwardly mobile and wealthy young people. C. the ownership of skills, manners and aspirations which are valued by those in positions of power. D. the use of private education to gain social advantage over others. 2. The 'service class' refers to: A. that sector of the middle class who work in the public sector. B. those who are rewarded in kind rather than money. C. a section of the middle class which is part of the dominant class. D. a section of the working class who work in the service sector. 3. Proletarianization refers to: A. the increasing number of people from working class backgrounds in middle class jobs. B. the process by which middle class people experience downward social mobility. C. those people who fall outside the class schema because they have no stable relationship to the 'mode of production'. D. the process by which routine white collar jobs have become de-skilled and poorly paid. 4. Britain has a growing population of work-aged, healthy people who live in a different world from other Britons, who are raising their children to live in it, and whose values are now contaminating the life of entire communities. Which author described the 'underclass' in this way? A. Ray Pahl. B. Simon Charlesworth. C. Charles Murray. D. Anthony Heath.
5. Historical comparison examines organisational performance against: A. The organisation's competitors B. The last six months of organisational trading C. The organisation's previous five years' trading D. All of the above 6. Industry norms compare: A. Organisational performance between firms/public sector organisations in different industries or sectors B. Organisational performance between firms/public sector organisations in the same industry or sector C. Organisational performance between firms/public sector organisations in different countries D. All of these 7. Strategic stretch involves: A. The fit between the organisation and its environment. B. Creating new opportunities by stretching and exploiting capabilities in new ways. C. The skills of the senior management. D. Utilising all the resources of an organisation to their full capacity. 8. What are core competences? A. Resources which critically underpin competitive advantage and that others cannot obtain. B. Activities and processes needed to meet customers' minimum requirements and therefore to continue to exist. C. Key skills required for success in a particular business. D. Activities that underpin competitive advantage and are difficult for competitors to imitate or obtain. 9. The value chain attempts to identify those activities which add value to: A. The organisation's stakeholders. B. The senior strategic managers in the organisation. C. The organisation's shareholders. D. The customer or final user. 10. The value chain is composed of primary & support activities. Which answer below provides the correct components for primary activities? A. Service, human resource management, marketing & sales, operations and outbound logistics. B. Marketing & Sales, Operations, Outbound Logistics and Service. C. Procurement, Firm Infrastructure, Human Resource Management, Technology Development and Marketing & Sales. D. Inbound Logistics, Operations, Outbound Logistics, Marketing & Sales and Service. 1. (A) 2. (C) 3. (D) 4. (C) 5. (D) 6. (D) 7. (B) 8 (D) 9 (D) 10 (D) 1. What is the purpose of an activity map? A) A system to facilitate better time-planning. B) It is used in business process reengineering to show how the different activities of an organisation are linked together. C) It is used to identify and understand strategic capability by mapping how the different activities of an organisation are linked together. D) A list of activities undertaken by an organisation.
2. Competitive advantage through linkages between the organisation and its value network can be achieved by: A) Vertical integration. B) Adopting common quality standards internally and externally (with suppliers). C) Examining supplier specifications, common merchandising, applying quality management principles or by collaborating with other organisations in the form of strategic alliances or joint ventures. D) Outsourcing customer service to India. 3. Cost efficiency is determined by which of the following drivers? A) Supply Costs, Experience, Product/Process Design and Economies of Scale. B) Supply Costs & Economies of Scale. C) Product/Process Design and Economies of Scale. D) Experience. 4. Robustness of strategic capabilities is more likely when: A) Linkages in the value network are exploited. B) Core competences are complex, ambiguous and dependent on culture/history. C) Competences lie with specific individuals. D) Core competences lie in separate parts of the organisation's value chain. 5. Which types of organisational knowledge are a source of competitive advantage? A) Explicit knowledge which is classified and formalised in a planned and systematic way. B) Personal knowledge which is hard to communicate and formalise. C) Customer databases, market research reports, management reports. D) Collective and shared experience accumulated through systems, routines and activities of sharing across the organisation. 6. In the resource-based view of strategy, what type of strategic capabilities are the source of sustainable competitive advantage? A) Unique resources and core competences. B) Dynamic capabilities. C) Operational excellence. D) Strategic capabilities which are valuable to buyers, rare, robust and non-substitutable. 7. What are the three criteria for the robustness of strategic capability? A) Core competences, unique resources and dynamic capabilities. B) Complexity, causal ambiguity and value to customers. C) Complexity, causal ambiguity and rarity. D) Complexity, causal ambiguity and culture/history. 8. Industry/sector benchmarking compares: A) Organisational performance between firms/public sector organisations in different industries or sectors. B) Organisational performance between firms/public sector organisations in the same industry or sector. C) Organisational performance between firms/public sector organisations in different countries. D) Organisational performance between different divisions of the firm. 9. Best in Class Benchmarking seeks to assess organisational performance against: A) The nearest geographical competitor. B) The competitor who is 'best in class' wherever that may be. C) The competitor who is the best in the industry. D) The nearest principal competitor. 10. The purpose of a SWOT analysis is to analyse: A) The business environment in which an organisation operates. B) The strategic capability of an organisation. C) The business environment and the strategic capability of an organisation relative to its competitors. D) External and organisational environments.
1. (C) 2. (C) 3. (A) 4. (A) 5. (D) 6. (D) 7. (D) 8 (B) 9 (B) 10 (C) 1. SWOT should be: A. A general list of issues under each heading. B. Focused on key issues and as specific as possible. C. Completed when an analysis of the external environment has been conducted. D. SWOT analysis is the best strategic management framework for analysing the competitive positioning of an organisation. 2. A just in time manufacturing system should lead to: A. Higher levels of stock being held in the warehouse B. A wider range of stock items being made available C. Lower stock holding costs being incurred D. An increase in the number of suppliers of stocks. 3. TQM revolves around the concept of: A. Making the best quality products regardless of the cost B. Recruiting the best managers in their field C. Providing adequate back up support once the product leaves the factory D. Getting things right first time 5. Which of the following management accounting systems places a very strong emphasis on incorporating external data into the preparation of management reports? A. Activity based management B. Sales variance analysis C. Flexible budgeting D. Strategic management accounting 6. What term is given to the idea that traditional budgeting should be replaced by a new type of budgeting? A. Better budgeting B. Behavioural budgeting C. Beyond budgeting D. Flexible budgeting 7. Which of the following statements is true? A. There is an accounting standard covering environmental reporting B. By law company directors must report to shareholders on environmental matters. C. The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) requires its members to prepare reports on environmental issues for company directors D. Professional accountancy bodies are encouraging the development of environmental reporting 8. What term best describes the use of both financial and non-financial measures in assessing whether an entity has achieved its objectives? A. target setting B. balanced scorecard C. Benchmarking D. performance measurement
9. Which management accounting technique is sometimes referred to as super variable costing? A. Throughput accounting B. Product life cycle costing C. Direct costing D. Marginal costing 10. Which management accounting technique involves the identification of value adding activities? A. Value chain analysis B. Activity based management C. Backflush costing D. Target costing 1. (B) 2. (C) 3. (D) 4. (A) 5. (D) 6. (C) 7. (D) 8 (D) 9 (A) 10 (A) 1. The many types of benchmarking do not include: A. Competitive benchmarking B. Performance benchmarking C. Purchaser-pays benchmarking D. Internal benchmarking 2. The principles of the business process re-engineering (BPR) approach do NOT include: A. Scrapping any process line over two years old and starting again from scratch B. Checking that all internal customers act as their own suppliers to identify problems C. Striving for improvements in performance by radical rethinking and redesigning the process D. Rethinking business processes cross-functionally to organize work around natural information flows 3. Qualifying competitive factors are those which: A. Need to be better than a good industry standard B. Directly win business for the operation C. May not win extra business if the operation improves its performance but can certainly lose business if performance falls below a particular point D. Are relatively unimportant compared with the others 4. An input-output analysis does not include the following step: A. Clarify the requirements of internal customers served by the process outputs B. Identify connections between the two sets of data C. Identify the destination of outputs D. Identify the source of inputs 5. Cause-effect, or fish-bone, diagrams cluster problems into categories. Which of the following is not normally used as a category: A. Markets B. Materials C. Methods D. Manpower 6. Cause and Effect Diagrams are also known as: A. Quality Function Deployment Models B. Fishbone Diagrams
C. Quality Loss Charts D. Taguchi diagrams 7. Which of the following is not an example of a business process? A. designing a new product B. hiring an employee C. purchasing services D. testing software 8. Which of the following is not a principle that should guide business process reengineering? A. capture data at each source B. fully redocument legacy processes C. organize around outcomes D. put decision point where work is performed 9. Business process reengineering has no start or end it is an evolutionary process. A. True B. False 10. Business process reengineering is just another silver bullet fad with no real benefits to anyone. A. True B. False 1. (C) 2. (A) 3. (C) 4. (B) 5. (A) 6. (B) 7. (D) 8 (B) 9 (A) 10 (B) 1. How much of software maintenance work involves fixing errors? A) 20 percent B) 40 percent C) 60 percent D) 80 percent 2. Which of the following activities is not part of the software reengineering process model? A) forward engineering B) inventory analysis C) prototyping D) reverse engineering 3. The software reengineering process model includes restructuring activities for which of the following work items? A) code B) documentation C) data D) all of the above 4. Which of the following is not an issue to consider when reverse engineering? A) abstraction level B) completeness C) connectivity D) directionality
5. Reverse engineering of data focuses on A) database structures B) internal data structures C) both a and b D) none of the above 6. The first reverse engineering activity involves seeking to understand A) data B) processing C) user interfaces D) none of the above 7. Reverse engineering should preceed the reengineering of any user interface. A) True B) False 8. Which of these benefits can be achieved when software is restructured? A) higher quality programs B) reduced maintenance effort C) software easier to test D) all of the above 9. Code restructuring is the most important activity performed as part of software reengineering. A) True B) False 10. Which of these is not an example of data redesign? A) data analysis B) data name rationalization C) data record standardization D) none of the above 1. (A) 2. (C) 3. (D) 4. (C) 5. (C) 6. (B) 7. (A) 8 (D) 9 (B) 10 (A) 1. Forward engineering is not necessary if an existing software product is producing the correct output. A. True B. False 2. Reengineering client/server systems begins with a thorough analysis of the business environment that encompasses the existing computing system. A. True B. False 3. The only time reengineering enters into work with a legacy system is when its components will be implemented as objects. A. True B. False 4. Which of these activities would not be part of a process model for reengineering a user interface?
A. correct ergonomic failings of the interface B. design or expert users only C. remodel the interface behavior D. understanding the original interface 5. A good brainstorming session has the following characteristics. A. Good judgment skills B. Ability to think of creative ideas, no matter how far fetched C. Skill in identifying the best payoffs D. Ability to analyze a process analytically 6. There are several types of benchmarking. These include: A. distributive benchmarking. B. functional benchmarking. C. integration benchmarking. D. technical benchmarking. 1. (B) 2. (A) 3. (B) 4. (B) 5. (B) 6. (B)