ANSWERS 2025/2026 GRADED A+
Pareto Dominated - A firm that performs equally or worse on all attributes of the
customers utility function than another firm
Efficient Frontier - The set of firms that are not Pareto dominated
Inefficient - The gap between a firm and the efficient frontier
Profit - The difference between the revenue a company earns and the costs it incurs
Costs for inputs - Inputs are the things that a business purchases to make their products
Costs for resources - Resources are the things in a business that help transform input
into out - put and thereby help provide supply for what customers demand
Waste - the consumption of inputs and resources that do not add value to the customer
Variability - predictable or unpredictable changes in the demand or the supply process
Inflexibility - the inability to adjust to either changes in the supply process or changes in
customer demand
What are three common sources of variability in demand? - Customer Arrivals
Customer Requests
Customer behavior
Customer arrivals - Customers can come at very different times of the day
Customer requests - Not all customers want the same food
Customer behavior - It may take you less time to pay the cashier for your meal than it
does me
Three common sources of variability in supply - Time to serve a customer
Disruptions
Defects
Time to serve a customer - different employees perform the same task at different
speeds
Disruptions - People get sick, weather is bad
Defects - Sometimes we make mistakes and work has to be redone
, Flexibility - defined as an operations ability to react to variability
Inflexibility - an operations inability to react to variability
A long waiting line at the checkout of a supermarket at some moments in the day is an
example of ______ and a symptom of _______: - Variability, inflexibility
Having a great produce is not sufficient for _______________ - Profitability
Gantt Chart - A time and activity bar chart that is used for planning, managing, and
controlling major programs that have a distinct beginning and end.
Utility - Ability or capacity of a good or service to be useful and give satisfaction to
someone.
Process - A set of activities that take a collection of inputs, perform some work or
activities with those inputs, and then yield a set of outputs
Process flow diagram - A graphical way to describe the process.
What is used to depict resources on a process flow diagram? - Boxes
What is used to depict flows on a process flow diagram? - arrows
What is used to depict inventory location on a flow diagram? - Triangles
Resources - group of people/equiprtment that transforms inputs into outputs
Process Scope - the set of activities and processes included in the process
Flow unit - the basic unit that moves through a process
Ex: a person, pints of AB blood
What are the rules to define a flow unit? - Choose flow unit that corresponds to what
you want to track and measure
Stick with the flow unit you define
Choose a flow unit that can be used to measure and scribe all of the activities within the
process
What is an appropriate flow unit for a roller coaster at an amusement park? - Riders
Inventory - Number of units within a process