Ch.6 Manufacturing Processes Test Questions & Answers

Operations and Supply Chain Management: The Core, 5e (Jacobs)

Chapter 6 Manufacturing Processes

1) Process selection refers to the strategic decision of choosing the volume of output to produce in a manufacturing facility depending upon the way that facility produces.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: How Production Processes Are Organized

Learning Objective: 06-03 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

2) Process selection refers to the strategic decision of selecting which kind of production processes to use to produce a product or provide a service.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: How Production Processes Are Organized

Learning Objective: 06-03 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

3) A continuous process indicates production of discrete parts moving from workstation to workstation at a controlled rate.

Difficulty: 2 Medium

Topic: How Production Processes Are Organized

Learning Objective: 06-03 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

4) One difference between an assembly line process flow and a continuous process flow is that on the assembly line the flow is discrete rather than continuous.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: How Production Processes Are Organized

Learning Objective: 06-03 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

5) One trade-off illustrated by the product-process matrix is between flexibility and cost.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: How Production Processes Are Organized

Learning Objective: 06-03 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

6) The volume requirements for the product are one determinant of the choice of which process structure to select.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: How Production Processes Are Organized

Learning Objective: 06-03 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

7) The product-process matrix shows the relationship between process structures and product volume and variety characteristics.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: How Production Processes Are Organized

Learning Objective: 06-03 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

8) The term "assembly line" refers to progressive assembly linked by some material handling device.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Designing a Production System

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

9) Work center layouts allocate dissimilar machines into cells to work on products that have dissimilar processing requirements.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: How Production Processes Are Organized

Learning Objective: 06-03 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

10) A project layout is characterized by a relatively low number of units produced in comparison with process and product layout formats.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: How Production Processes Are Organized

Learning Objective: 06-03 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

11) A project layout is characterized by a high degree of task ordering.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Designing a Production System

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

12) The closer the customer is to the customer order decoupling point the longer it takes the customer to receive the product.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-01 Understand what a manufacturing process is.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

13) The closer the customer is to the customer order decoupling point the more quickly the customer receives the product.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-01 Understand what a manufacturing process is.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

14) Engineer-to-order firms will work with the customer to design the product, and then make it from purchased materials, parts, and components.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-01 Understand what a manufacturing process is.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

15) A make-to-order firm will work with the customer to design the product, and then make it from purchased materials, parts, and components.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-01 Understand what a manufacturing process is.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

16) The time needed to respond to a customer's order is called the customer response time.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-01 Understand what a manufacturing process is.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

17) The focus in the make-to-stock environment is on providing finished goods where and when the customers want them.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-01 Understand what a manufacturing process is.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

18) An example of an assemble-to-order firm is Dell Computer.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-01 Understand what a manufacturing process is.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

19) The essential issue in satisfying customers in the make-to-stock environment is to balance the level of finished inventory against the level of service to the customer.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-01 Understand what a manufacturing process is.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

20) The essential issue in satisfying customers in the make-to-stock environment is to balance the cost of the finished item against the willingness of the consumer to pay for it.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-01 Understand what a manufacturing process is.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

21) Assembling-to-order means moving the customer order decoupling point from finished goods to components.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-01 Understand what a manufacturing process is.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

22) A high-level map or diagram of a supply chain process can be useful to understand how material flows and where inventory is held.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-02 Understand production process mapping and Littles law.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

23) Little's law can be thought of as a relationship between units and time.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-02 Understand production process mapping and Littles law.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

24) Little's law states that supply chain processes can be regarded as unrelated and thus treated and analyzed separately.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-02 Understand production process mapping and Littles law.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

25) A process map shows the physical location of the various processes within a supply chain.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-02 Understand production process mapping and Littles law.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

26) Workstation cycle time is the time between successive units coming off the end of the assembly line.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Assembly Line Design

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

27) The assembly-line balancing procedure determines the precedence relationships of manufacturing tasks.

Difficulty: 2 Medium

Topic: Assembly Line Design

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

28) In assembly-line balancing the theoretical minimum number of workstations is found by a ratio of the sum of all task times divided by the cycle time.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Assembly Line Design

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

29) The efficiency of an assembly-line is found by a ratio of the sum of all task times divided by the cycle time.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Assembly Line Design

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

30) For the purposes of assembly-line balancing, the required workstation cycle time is found by dividing production time per day by the required units of output per day.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Assembly Line Design

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

31) In balancing an assembly line, workstation cycle time has to be less than the time between successive units coming off the end of the line.

Difficulty: 2 Medium

Topic: Assembly Line Design

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

32) If the sum of the task times required to produce a product is 45 minutes and the cycle time for the same product is 10 minutes. Thus, the theoretical minimum number of workstations is 5 using the assembly-line balancing procedure.

Difficulty: 2 Medium

Topic: Assembly Line Design

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Analyze

AACSB: Analytic

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

33) The first step in balancing an assembly line is to specify the precedence relationships among tasks to be performed on the line.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Assembly Line Design

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

34) The term "assembly line" refers to progressive assembly linked by some material handling device.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Designing a Production System

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

35) If the sum of the task times required to produce a product is 80 minutes and the cycle time for the same product is 15 minutes, the theoretical minimum number of workstations is 8 using the assembly-line balancing procedure.

Difficulty: 2 Medium

Topic: Assembly Line Design

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

36) In designing a production layout a flexible line layout might have the shape of a "U".

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Assembly Line Design

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

37) Using the assembly-line balancing procedure, which of the following is the required cycle time in minutes per unit if the daily production time is 480 minutes and the required daily output is 50 units?

A) 0.104

B) 50

C) 9.6

D) 480

E) Cannot be determined from the information above

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Assembly Line Design

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Analyze

AACSB: Analytic

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

38) Using the assembly-line balancing procedure, which of the following is the required cycle time if the production time in minutes per day is 1,440 and the required output per day in units is 2,000?

A) 0.72

B) 1.388

C) 250

D) 500

E) Cannot be determined from the information above

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Assembly Line Design

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Analyze

AACSB: Analytic

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

39) Using the assembly-line balancing procedure, which of the following is the theoretical minimum number of workstations if the task times for the six tasks that make up the job are 4, 6, 7, 2, 6, and 5 minutes, and the cycle time is 10 minutes?

A) 3

B) 5

C) 6

D) 8

E) None of these

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Assembly Line Design

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Analyze

AACSB: Analytic

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

40) Using the assembly-line balancing procedure, which of the following is the theoretical minimum number of workstations if the task times for the eight tasks that make up the job are 7, 4, 7, 8, 9, 4, 3, and 6 minutes, and the cycle time is 8 minutes?

A) 3

B) 5

C) 6

D) 8

E) None of these

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Assembly Line Design

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Analyze

AACSB: Analytic

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

41) You have just determined the actual number of workstations that will be used on an assembly line to be 6 using the assembly-line balancing procedure. The cycle time of the line is 5 minutes and the sum of all that tasks required on the line is 25 minutes. Which of the following is the correct value for the resulting line's efficiency?

A) 0.500

B) 0.833

C) 0.973

D) 0.990

E) None of these

Difficulty: 2 Medium

Topic: Assembly Line Design

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Analyze

AACSB: Analytic

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

42) You have just determined the actual number of workstations that will be used on an assembly line to be 8 using the assembly-line balancing procedure. The cycle time of the line is 10 minutes and the sum of all that tasks required on the line is 60 minutes. Which of the following is the correct value for the resulting line's efficiency?

A) 0.500

B) 0.650

C) 0.750

D) 0.850

E) None of these

Difficulty: 2 Medium

Topic: Assembly Line Design

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Analyze

AACSB: Analytic

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

43) When balancing an assembly line, which of the following is not a way to reduce the longest task time below the required workstation cycle time?

A) Upgrade the equipment

B) Assign a roaming helper to support the line

C) Split the task between two workstations

D) Speed up the assembly line transfer mechanism

E) Use a more skilled worker

Difficulty: 2 Medium

Topic: Assembly Line Design

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

44) Which of the following is not a step in developing a manufacturing cell layout?

A) Grouping parts into families that follow a common sequence of steps

B) Identifying dominant flow patterns of parts families as a basis for location of processes

C) Physically grouping machines and processes into cells

D) Disposing of left-over machinery and outsourcing ungrouped processes

E) None of the above

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Cells

Learning Objective: 06-04 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

45) Which of the following is not considered a major work flow structure?

A) Work Center

B) Project

C) Assembly line

D) Fabrication

E) Continuous Flow

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: How Production Processes Are Organized

Learning Objective: 06-03 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

46) A difference between project and continuous flow categories of process flow structures is which two of the following?

A) The size and bulk of the product

B) Discrete parts moving from workstation to workstation

C) Degree of equipment specialization

D) Being a "Virtual Factory"

E) Profit per unit

Difficulty: 2 Medium

Topic: How Production Processes Are Organized

Learning Objective: 06-03 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

47) Which of the following is a basic type of process structure?

A) Process flow diagram

B) Product matrix

C) Process matrix

D) Workcenter

E) Manual assembly

Difficulty: 2 Medium

Topic: How Production Processes Are Organized

Learning Objective: 06-03 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

48) Which of the following is not a basic type of process structure?

A) Product-process matrix

B) Workcenter

C) Manufacturing cell

D) Assembly line

E) Continuous process

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: How Production Processes Are Organized

Learning Objective: 06-03 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

49) Which of the following basic types of process structures is one which equipment or work processes are arranged according to the progressive steps by which the product is made?

A) Project

B) Workcenter

C) Manufacturing cell

D) Assembly line

E) Continuous process

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: How Production Processes Are Organized

Learning Objective: 06-03 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

50) Which of the following basic types of process structures is one which similar equipment or functions are grouped together?

A) Project

B) Workcenter

C) Manufacturing cell

D) Assembly line

E) Continuous process

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: How Production Processes Are Organized

Learning Objective: 06-03 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

51) The placement of which of the following is not determined by production process organization decisions?

A) Departments

B) Workgroups

C) Workstations

D) Machines

E) Emergency exits

Difficulty: 2 Medium

Topic: How Production Processes Are Organized

Learning Objective: 06-03 Explain how manufacturing processes are organized.

Bloom's: Create

AACSB: Analytic

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

52) According to Little's Law, which of the following ratios is used to find throughput rate?

A) Cycle time/Process time

B) Throughput time/Process velocity

C) Process velocity/Throughput time

D) Inventory /Flow time

E) Value added time/Process velocity

Difficulty: 3 Hard

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-02 Understand production process mapping and Littles law.

Bloom's: Analyze

AACSB: Analytic

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

53) According to Little's Law, which of the following can be used to estimate work-in-process inventory?

A) Process time/Cycle time

B) Throughput rate times Flow time

C) Process velocity/Flow time

D) Set up time/Throughput rate

E) Value added time/Process velocity

Difficulty: 3 Hard

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-02 Understand production process mapping and Littles law.

Bloom's: Analyze

AACSB: Analytic

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

54) A firm fills its customer's orders from finished goods inventory. It is a:

A) make to order firm.

B) engineer to order firm.

C) make to stock firm.

D) customer service firm.

E) assemble to order firm.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-02 Understand production process mapping and Littles law.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

55) A firm will work with a customer to design the product, and then make it from purchased materials, parts, and components. This firm is called:

A) a make to order firm.

B) an engineer to order firm.

C) a make to stock firm.

D) a customer service firm.

E) an assemble to order firm.

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-02 Understand production process mapping and Littles law.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

56) Which of these expressions is Little's Law?

A) Inventory/Flow time = Throughput rate:

B) Inventory/Throughput Rate = Flow time

C) Inventory = Throughput rate × Flow time

D) Throughput Rate/Inventory = 1/Flow Time

E) All of the above

Difficulty: 1 Easy

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-02 Understand production process mapping and Littles law.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

57) Regarding the measures of inventory managing efficiency, identify the most appropriate answer. (Select all that apply.)

A) Total average value of inventory is equal to the selling price multiplied by finished goods inventory.

B) Inventory turn is the annual cost of goods sold multiplied by average inventory.

C) Days of supply is the inverse of inventory turns × 365.

D) Inventory turn is the annual cost of goods sold divided by average inventory.

Difficulty: 2 Medium

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-01 Understand what a manufacturing process is.; 06-02 Understand production process mapping and Littles law.

Bloom's: Remember

AACSB: Reflexive Thinking

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

58) In studying positioning of inventory in supply chains, which, if any, of the following is most appropriate? (Select all that apply.)

A) As order decoupling point moves towards source, inventory investment goes down.

B) As order decoupling point moves towards the source, customer lead time gets longer.

C) As order decoupling point moves towards the source, inventory investment increases.

D) As order decoupling point moves towards the source, customer lead time is unchanged.

Difficulty: 2 Medium

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-01 Understand what a manufacturing process is.

Bloom's: Create

AACSB: Analytic

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

59) In studying product-process matrix describing layout strategies, which of the following is most appropriate? (Select all that apply.)

A) As you move from project to manufacturing cell to continuous process, product volume increases while standardization increases.

B) As you move from project to manufacturing cell to continuous process, product volume decreases while standardization decreases.

C) As you move from project to manufacturing cell to continuous process, product volume increases while standardization decreases.

D) As you move from project to manufacturing cell to continuous process, product volume decreases while standardization increases.

Difficulty: 2 Medium

Topic: Production Processes

Learning Objective: 06-01 Understand what a manufacturing process is.

Bloom's: Create

AACSB: Analytic

Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation