WGU C215 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT 2026 –
COMPETENCIES 1–4 EXAM REVIEW, SIX SIGMA,
CAPACITY PLANNING, FACILITY LAYOUT, SCHEDULING
& JIT LATEST REVIEWED STUDY GUIDE GRADED A+
C215 Objective Assessment Prep Guide
Review Chapter 5: Total Quality Management
o Total Quality Management (TQM) Philosophy (See Table 5:3) The meaning of quality
as defined by the customer. Total, Whole Org, Quality: Specific Definitions of
customer requirements, Management: System of managing the entire process.
o Quality Gurus and their Contributions to TQM (See Table 5:2)
▪ Walter A. Shewhart, W. Edwards Deming, Joseph M. Juran, Armand V.
Feigenbaum, Philip
B. Crosby, Kaoru Ishikawa, Genichi Taguchi
o Definitions of Quality
▪ According to Dr. Taguchi’s view of quality, as conformance values move away from
the target, loss increases as a quadratic function
o Four Costs of Quality (See Figure 5:1): There are four categories of quality costs. The
first two are prevention and appraisal costs, which are incurred by a company in
attempting to improve quality. The last two costs are internal and external failure costs,
which are the costs of quality failures that the company wishes to prevent.
o The Organizational impact of quality
o Plan-Do-Act-Study Cycle- A diagram that describes the activities that need to be
performed to incorporate continuous improvement into the operation.
o ISO 9000 Standards-Yr. 2000, 13 published standards A set of international quality
standards and a certification demonstrating that companies have met all the standards
specified
o ISO 14000 Standards-A set of international standards and a certification focusing on a
company's environmental responsibility.
Review Chapter 6: Statistical Quality Control
o Definition of Statistical Quality Control- The general category of statistical tools used to
evaluate organizational quality
o Sources of Variation
▪ Common (Random Variation) and Assignable Causes
o Process Capability: The ability of a production process to meet or exceed preset
specifications
o Process Capability Index (Cpk) An index used to measure process capability
▪ Cp:6~O, formula: specification width / process width
▪ Cp) value of 1 means that what percent of products produced will fall within the
specification limits? 99.74%
▪ What is the relationship between Cp and Cpk? Cp ≥ Cpk
▪ Which continuous improvement method does C pk measure? How close
one is to a target and how consistent one is with the average
performance
o Six Sigma- A high level of quality associated with approx. 3.4 defective parts per million
▪ Five-Step Plan The Six Sigma approach is organized around a plan known as
. five step DMAIC
▪ Six-sigma quality implies how many average defects per million? 3.4
o Acceptance Sampling- The process of randomly inspecting a sample of goods and
deciding whether to accept the entire lost based on the results.
▪ Sampling Plan precisely specifies the parameters of the sampling process
and the acceptance/rejection criteria
, o Control Charts-A graph that shows whether a sample of data falls within the common
or normal range of variation.
▪ Types of control charts
• Variables- a product characteristic that can be measured and has a
continuum of values.
• Attributes- A product characteristic that has a discrete value and
can be counted.
• C-charts and P-charts (what they are and used for)
• C Charts: A control chart used to monitor the number of defects per
unit.
• P Charts: A control chart that monitors the proportion of
defects in a sample.
Competency 2: Capacity Planning& Location Analysis (26%)
Review Chapter 9: Capacity Planning and Facility Location
o Capacity Planning: is deciding on the maximum output rate of a facility.
▪ Definition and Importance to an organization
• is the process of establishing the max output rate that can be
achieved by a facility
• If a company does not plan its capacity correctly, it may find that it
either does not have enough output capability to meet customer
demands or has too much capacity sitting idle
o Design and Effective Capacity
Design capacity
is the maximum output rate that can be achieved by a facility under ideal
conditions. In our example, this is 30 pies per day. Design capacity can be sustained
only for a relatively short period of time. A company achieves this output rate by using
many temporary measures, such as overtime, overstaffing, maximum use of equipment,
and subcontracting.
Effective capacity
is the maximum output rate that can be sustained under normal conditions. These
conditions include realistic work schedules and breaks, regular staff levels, scheduled
machine maintenance, and none of the temporary measures that are used to achieve
design capacity. Note that effective capacity is usually lower than design capacity. In our
example, effective capacity is 20 pies per day.
▪
o Capacity Utilization
o Selecting an ideal location
o Location analysis: deciding on the best location for a facility
▪ Factors affecting locationdecisions
Key factors in location analysis include proximity to customers, transportation, source of labor, community
attitude,
and proximity to supplies. Service and manufacturing firms focus on different factors. Profit-making and
nonprofit organizations also focus on different factors.
o Decision support tools
o Globalization
▪ Advantages and Disadvantages
Review Chapter 3: Product Design and Process Selection
o Product Design
▪ Services Versus Goods
▪ Steps in Product Design
▪ Factors Impacting Product Design
COMPETENCIES 1–4 EXAM REVIEW, SIX SIGMA,
CAPACITY PLANNING, FACILITY LAYOUT, SCHEDULING
& JIT LATEST REVIEWED STUDY GUIDE GRADED A+
C215 Objective Assessment Prep Guide
Review Chapter 5: Total Quality Management
o Total Quality Management (TQM) Philosophy (See Table 5:3) The meaning of quality
as defined by the customer. Total, Whole Org, Quality: Specific Definitions of
customer requirements, Management: System of managing the entire process.
o Quality Gurus and their Contributions to TQM (See Table 5:2)
▪ Walter A. Shewhart, W. Edwards Deming, Joseph M. Juran, Armand V.
Feigenbaum, Philip
B. Crosby, Kaoru Ishikawa, Genichi Taguchi
o Definitions of Quality
▪ According to Dr. Taguchi’s view of quality, as conformance values move away from
the target, loss increases as a quadratic function
o Four Costs of Quality (See Figure 5:1): There are four categories of quality costs. The
first two are prevention and appraisal costs, which are incurred by a company in
attempting to improve quality. The last two costs are internal and external failure costs,
which are the costs of quality failures that the company wishes to prevent.
o The Organizational impact of quality
o Plan-Do-Act-Study Cycle- A diagram that describes the activities that need to be
performed to incorporate continuous improvement into the operation.
o ISO 9000 Standards-Yr. 2000, 13 published standards A set of international quality
standards and a certification demonstrating that companies have met all the standards
specified
o ISO 14000 Standards-A set of international standards and a certification focusing on a
company's environmental responsibility.
Review Chapter 6: Statistical Quality Control
o Definition of Statistical Quality Control- The general category of statistical tools used to
evaluate organizational quality
o Sources of Variation
▪ Common (Random Variation) and Assignable Causes
o Process Capability: The ability of a production process to meet or exceed preset
specifications
o Process Capability Index (Cpk) An index used to measure process capability
▪ Cp:6~O, formula: specification width / process width
▪ Cp) value of 1 means that what percent of products produced will fall within the
specification limits? 99.74%
▪ What is the relationship between Cp and Cpk? Cp ≥ Cpk
▪ Which continuous improvement method does C pk measure? How close
one is to a target and how consistent one is with the average
performance
o Six Sigma- A high level of quality associated with approx. 3.4 defective parts per million
▪ Five-Step Plan The Six Sigma approach is organized around a plan known as
. five step DMAIC
▪ Six-sigma quality implies how many average defects per million? 3.4
o Acceptance Sampling- The process of randomly inspecting a sample of goods and
deciding whether to accept the entire lost based on the results.
▪ Sampling Plan precisely specifies the parameters of the sampling process
and the acceptance/rejection criteria
, o Control Charts-A graph that shows whether a sample of data falls within the common
or normal range of variation.
▪ Types of control charts
• Variables- a product characteristic that can be measured and has a
continuum of values.
• Attributes- A product characteristic that has a discrete value and
can be counted.
• C-charts and P-charts (what they are and used for)
• C Charts: A control chart used to monitor the number of defects per
unit.
• P Charts: A control chart that monitors the proportion of
defects in a sample.
Competency 2: Capacity Planning& Location Analysis (26%)
Review Chapter 9: Capacity Planning and Facility Location
o Capacity Planning: is deciding on the maximum output rate of a facility.
▪ Definition and Importance to an organization
• is the process of establishing the max output rate that can be
achieved by a facility
• If a company does not plan its capacity correctly, it may find that it
either does not have enough output capability to meet customer
demands or has too much capacity sitting idle
o Design and Effective Capacity
Design capacity
is the maximum output rate that can be achieved by a facility under ideal
conditions. In our example, this is 30 pies per day. Design capacity can be sustained
only for a relatively short period of time. A company achieves this output rate by using
many temporary measures, such as overtime, overstaffing, maximum use of equipment,
and subcontracting.
Effective capacity
is the maximum output rate that can be sustained under normal conditions. These
conditions include realistic work schedules and breaks, regular staff levels, scheduled
machine maintenance, and none of the temporary measures that are used to achieve
design capacity. Note that effective capacity is usually lower than design capacity. In our
example, effective capacity is 20 pies per day.
▪
o Capacity Utilization
o Selecting an ideal location
o Location analysis: deciding on the best location for a facility
▪ Factors affecting locationdecisions
Key factors in location analysis include proximity to customers, transportation, source of labor, community
attitude,
and proximity to supplies. Service and manufacturing firms focus on different factors. Profit-making and
nonprofit organizations also focus on different factors.
o Decision support tools
o Globalization
▪ Advantages and Disadvantages
Review Chapter 3: Product Design and Process Selection
o Product Design
▪ Services Versus Goods
▪ Steps in Product Design
▪ Factors Impacting Product Design
