WGU C720 Operations and Supply Chain Management Exam

The process used to acquire inputs, such as people, capital, and material, and transform them into outputs, such as products and services. - Operations They allocate resources. - Operations Manager Facilities and equipment - Capital Developing capabilities that customers value, can be sustained over the long-term, and competitors find difficult to replicate. - Competitive Advantage The process of separating production from consumption; cannot be done for services because they are produced and consumed simultaneously. - Inseparability The application of knowledge, tools, processes, and procedures to solve problems. - Technology The characteristics, features, and performance of the product; how the product functions; does not fundamentally change the product. Example: changing Coca- Cola's beverage containers from glass to aluminum. - Product Design The application of knowledge to improve the product. - Product Technology How to accomplish a task. - Process How a product is made; can fundamentally alter the nature of the product. Example: changing the taste of Coca-Cola. - Process Design The application of knowledge to improve a process. - Process Technology When individuals with different expertise work towards a common goal; this is an essential business process. - Cross-Functionality Completing product design and process design simultaneously. - Concurrent Engineering Subsystems within an organization, such as marketing, finance, and accounting, that are linked together by a common organizational goal. - Functional Areas Consists of the organizational goals and the methods of implementing the goals; every element of the SWOT analysis should be considered when developing strategies. - Strategy Main goals of an organization. - Key Policies The formal relationships among different functional areas that aids in communication. - Organizational Structure Where one entity has an advantage over another; will often trade their specialized products for those that they do not produce; companies with a relative advantage are able to produce products at a lower cost than their competitors. - Relative Advantage A free trade agreement between the United State, Mexico, and Canada to reduce tariffs and other trade restrictions. - North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) A trade agreement designed to reduce tariffs and other trade restrictions. - General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) Balancing the interconnected obligations to economic viability, society, and the environment (the triple bottom line). - Sustainability 88 percent - What is the percentage of businesses that operate within the service sector? Supplies and equipment that aid in the development of products and services. - Supporting Goods The percentage of sales in a particular market. - Market Share Value, Inimitable, rare, aptitude, and lifespan. - VIRAL Analyzing the internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) environments. - SWOT Analysis SWOT, business process, competitive capabilities, and customer requirements. - Requirements for developing competitive advantage Continuously improving a product to make it better and cheaper. - Learning Curve Teamwork where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. - Synergy Strategy development, product development, system development, and order fulfillment. - Key Processes The process of producing goods and system. - System Matching strengths to opportunities. - Matching Converting weaknesses or threats into strengths or opportunities. - Converting Output / Input; the goal is achieving more output given the amount of inputs, thus saving money and reducing production costs. - Productivity Starting in the late 1800s, increases in manufacturing productivity reduced the need for physical labor and enabled a shift towards service-based jobs. - The First Revolution Productivity and efficiency improvements in manufacturing freed resources for the rapid expansion of the service industry. - The Second Revolution Also known as the post-industrial era, this revolution began in the 1950s with the development of computers. This technology has allowed fewer people to do more work. - The Third Revolution The ability to perform dependably and accurately. - Reliability Knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence. - Assurance The complete overhaul of a process to improve performance. - Process Redesign [(New Productivity - Old Productivity)/Old Productivity] * 100 - Percent Change in Productivity How quality is defined by the business; often measured as the amount of a desired attribute; objective. - Quality (internal) How quality is defined by the customer and the product's fitness for use; meets customer's needs and expectations; subjective. - Quality (external) Ask what they value (not just what they want), how do they work, what makes them happy, and feedback on specific product attributes. - Questions for Customers when Improving Products Failure costs, appraisal costs, and prevention costs. - Costs of Quality Costs accrued by the organization or customer as the result of a failure of the product. - Failure Costs Investments in measuring quality and assessing customer satisfaction. - Appraisal Costs Investments designed to prevent defects from occurring. - Prevention Costs Mistake proofing; an approach to prevent defects, such as color-coding parts so that customers assemble the product correctly. - Poka-yoke Products should be designed so that they are simple and inexpensive to produce. - Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) Services should be simple and inexpensive. - Design for Operations (DFO) The use of statistical methods to determine when a process that produces goods is getting close to producing too many defects. - Statistical Process Control (SPC) The most influential individual within the specialty of quality; After World War II, he went to Japan to help rebuild their economy, and he was heralded for his influence. He went on to lecture in the United States in the 1980s; he developed his 14 Points for the Transformation of Management. - W. Edwards Deming The system, not employees, cause defects; management is responsible for changing the system, and they must take responsibility instead of blaming employees; Deming also stressed the use of Statistical Process Control (SPC) and encouraged training in its use. Other highlights include creating purpose, reduce fear, provide training and leadership, break down barriers between departments, and eliminate slogans, work standards, and quotas. - Deming's 14 Points for the Transformation of Management He defined quality as "fitness for use", from the customer's perspective; he emphasized the need for continuous improvement and stressed that quality must be built on quality planning, quality control, and quality improvement. - Joseph M. Juran The development of products that appeal to the changing wants and needs of customers. - Quality Planning Ensure that the product fits the customer's perception of fitness for use. - Quality Control Leadership ought to lead efforts to eliminate waste and errors. - Quality Improvement Wrote Quality is Free; he emphasized the complete elimination of failures to save money, as most firms underestimate their failure costs and should evaluate all costs of quality; "Do it right the first time". - Philip Crosby He helped develop Japan's telephone system post-World War II. He designed experiments to extract more data from each test. He argues for "robust design", designs that guarantee high quality despite variations, such as employee errors, that may occur during the processes that produce the product; quality must, therefore, be built into the product. - Genichi Taguchi He developed the Ishikawa/Fishbone diagram and quality circles. - Kaoru Ishikawa Helps establish cause-and-effect by identifying factors that contribute to outcomes or problems; the factors are categories as People, Machines, Methods, Measurements, Materials, and Environment and include intentional and unintentional consequences and influence quality performance. - Ishikawa/Fishbone Diagram A team from all levels who meet to discuss, analyze, and eliminate quality issues using Deming's 14 points; a senior manager overseas their progress and approves their changes. - Quality Circles An organization-wide philosophy that calls for 1) focusing on the customer, 2) quality function deployment, 3) responsibility for quality, 4) team problem-solving, 5) employee training, and 6) fact-based management. - Total Quality Management (TQM) Describes what customers want and what they like and dislike; can get to know customers, hold focus groups, and request improvement suggestions; the business can also use their knowledge of how the customer would benefit from a new technology that they are not familiar with to create a future need on behalf of the customer. - Voice of the Customer Relating customer needs and expectations to specific design characteristics through a series of grids or matrices. - Quality Function Deployment (QFD) The matrix used in Quality Function Deployment (QFD); lists customer needs (WHATs), design characteristics related to these needs (HOWs), the nature of the relationship between each customer's need and design characteristic (WHAT versus HOW), the reasons for WHATs (WHYs), and performance comparisons on design characteristics against competitors (HOW MUCH). - House of Quality Where quality control obligations traditionally fell; now, it is up to everyone to ensure quality. - Quality Control Department Developing a preset procedure. - Standardization The act of putting a procedure into writing. - Documentation 2000: An international quality standard. - ISO 9000 A cycle of continuous improvement that is repeated indefinitely. Planning involves using appropriate tools to identify problems or improvement opportunities. Doing involves acting upon the plan. Checking involves analyzing the actions performed to ensure that goals were achieved. Acting involves standardizing and documenting the changes, communicating changes to other, and determining why goals were not achieved. - Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle/Deming Wheel/Shewhart Cycle Fishbone diagrams, check sheets, control charts, histograms, Pareto charts, scatter diagrams, and control charts (classified as flow/run charts). - Seven Tools of Statistical Process Control (SPC) Used to record data points in real-time at the site where the data is generated; raw data is collected without interpretation and then depicted using a different statistical tool. - Check Sheets Shows the frequency of data observations within a preset range of values. - Histogram/Box Chart Displays data as a relationship between two variables; correlations can be drawn based upon the data. The controlled variable is the independent variable. - Scatter Plot A bar chart that reflects data values in a descending order. - Pareto Chart A graphical depiction of process outputs where the raw data is plotted in real-time within upper control limits (UCL) and lower control limits (LCL); this allows one to determine if a process is stable or trending towards instability and take corrective action before variations result in non-conforming products (see Page 30 for example). - Control Chart