MANGT 421 EVALUATION SET ANSWERS AND
QUESTIONS SET A+
✔✔Productivity variable: capital - ✔✔Human beings are tool-using animals. Capital
investment provides those tools. Inflation and taxes increase the cost of capital, making
capital investment increasingly expensive. When the capital invested per employee
drops, we can expect a drop in productivity.
✔✔Productivity variable: management - ✔✔Management is a factor of production and
an economic resource. Management is responsible for ensuring that labor and capital
are effectively used to increase productivity. Management accounts for over half of the
annual increase in productivity. This increase includes improvements made through the
use of knowledge and the application of technology.
✔✔Productivity of the service sector has proven difficult to improve because service-
sector work is: - ✔✔1. Typically labor intensive (e.g., counseling, teaching)
2. Frequently focused on unique individual attributes or desires (e.g., investment advice)
3. Often an intellectual task performed by professionals (e.g., medical diagnosis)
4. Often difficult to mechanize and automate (e.g., a haircut)
5. Often difficult to evaluate for quality (e.g, performance of a law firm)
✔✔Current Challenges in OM - ✔✔-Globalization: The rapid decline in the cost of
communication and transportation has made markets global
-Supply-chain partnering: Shorter product life cycles, demanding customers, and fast
changes in technology, materials, and processes require supply-chain partners to be in
tune with the needs of end users
-Sustainability: Operations managers' continuing battle to improve productivity is
concerned with designing products and processes that are ecologically sustainable
-Rapid product development: Technology combined with rapid international
communication of news, entertainment, and lifestyles is dramatically chopping away at
the life span of products
-Mass customization: Once manages recognize the world as the marketplace, the
cultural and individual differences become quite obvious
-Lean operations: Lean is the management model sweeping the world and providing the
standard against which operations mangers must compete
, ✔✔Stakeholders - ✔✔Those with a vested interest in an organization, including
customers, distributors, suppliers, owners, leaders, employees, and community
members
✔✔Identifying ethical and socially responsible responses while developing sustainable
processes that are also effective and efficient productive systems is not easy. Managers
are also challenged to: - ✔✔1. Develop and produce safe, high-quality green products
2. Train, retain, and motivate employees in a safe workplace
3. Honor stakeholder commitments
✔✔Chapter 2 - ✔✔Chapter 2
✔✔Six reasons domestic business operations decide to change to some form of
international operation. They are: - ✔✔1. Improve the supply chain
2. Reduce costs and exchange rate risk
3. Improve operations
4. Understand markets
5. Improve products
6. Attract and retain global talent
✔✔World Trade Organization (WTO) - ✔✔An international organization that promotes
world trade by lowering barriers to the free flow of goods across borders
✔✔North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) - ✔✔A free trade agreement
between Canada, Mexico, and the United States
✔✔European Union (EU) - ✔✔A European trade group that has 28 member states
✔✔Developing Missions and Strategies - ✔✔An effective operations management effort
must have a mission so it knows where it is going and a strategy so it knows how to get
there. This is a case for a small domestic organization as well as a large international
organization.
✔✔Mission - ✔✔The purpose or rationale for an organization's existence
✔✔Strategy - ✔✔How an organization expects to achieve its missions and goals
✔✔Competitive Advantage - ✔✔The creation of a unique advantage over competitors
✔✔Managers achieve competitive advantage via... - ✔✔Differentiation, low cost, and
response
QUESTIONS SET A+
✔✔Productivity variable: capital - ✔✔Human beings are tool-using animals. Capital
investment provides those tools. Inflation and taxes increase the cost of capital, making
capital investment increasingly expensive. When the capital invested per employee
drops, we can expect a drop in productivity.
✔✔Productivity variable: management - ✔✔Management is a factor of production and
an economic resource. Management is responsible for ensuring that labor and capital
are effectively used to increase productivity. Management accounts for over half of the
annual increase in productivity. This increase includes improvements made through the
use of knowledge and the application of technology.
✔✔Productivity of the service sector has proven difficult to improve because service-
sector work is: - ✔✔1. Typically labor intensive (e.g., counseling, teaching)
2. Frequently focused on unique individual attributes or desires (e.g., investment advice)
3. Often an intellectual task performed by professionals (e.g., medical diagnosis)
4. Often difficult to mechanize and automate (e.g., a haircut)
5. Often difficult to evaluate for quality (e.g, performance of a law firm)
✔✔Current Challenges in OM - ✔✔-Globalization: The rapid decline in the cost of
communication and transportation has made markets global
-Supply-chain partnering: Shorter product life cycles, demanding customers, and fast
changes in technology, materials, and processes require supply-chain partners to be in
tune with the needs of end users
-Sustainability: Operations managers' continuing battle to improve productivity is
concerned with designing products and processes that are ecologically sustainable
-Rapid product development: Technology combined with rapid international
communication of news, entertainment, and lifestyles is dramatically chopping away at
the life span of products
-Mass customization: Once manages recognize the world as the marketplace, the
cultural and individual differences become quite obvious
-Lean operations: Lean is the management model sweeping the world and providing the
standard against which operations mangers must compete
, ✔✔Stakeholders - ✔✔Those with a vested interest in an organization, including
customers, distributors, suppliers, owners, leaders, employees, and community
members
✔✔Identifying ethical and socially responsible responses while developing sustainable
processes that are also effective and efficient productive systems is not easy. Managers
are also challenged to: - ✔✔1. Develop and produce safe, high-quality green products
2. Train, retain, and motivate employees in a safe workplace
3. Honor stakeholder commitments
✔✔Chapter 2 - ✔✔Chapter 2
✔✔Six reasons domestic business operations decide to change to some form of
international operation. They are: - ✔✔1. Improve the supply chain
2. Reduce costs and exchange rate risk
3. Improve operations
4. Understand markets
5. Improve products
6. Attract and retain global talent
✔✔World Trade Organization (WTO) - ✔✔An international organization that promotes
world trade by lowering barriers to the free flow of goods across borders
✔✔North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) - ✔✔A free trade agreement
between Canada, Mexico, and the United States
✔✔European Union (EU) - ✔✔A European trade group that has 28 member states
✔✔Developing Missions and Strategies - ✔✔An effective operations management effort
must have a mission so it knows where it is going and a strategy so it knows how to get
there. This is a case for a small domestic organization as well as a large international
organization.
✔✔Mission - ✔✔The purpose or rationale for an organization's existence
✔✔Strategy - ✔✔How an organization expects to achieve its missions and goals
✔✔Competitive Advantage - ✔✔The creation of a unique advantage over competitors
✔✔Managers achieve competitive advantage via... - ✔✔Differentiation, low cost, and
response
