Online Objective Question Answers
For Operations Management
NOTE: The answers are boldly marked.
1. Planning tasks associated with job scheduling, machine loading, and dispatching typically falls under
a) long-range plans
b) intermediate-range plans
c) short-range plans
d) mission-related planning
e) strategic planning
2. Dependence on an external source of supply is found in which of the following aggregate planning strategies?
a. varying production rates through overtime or idle time
b. using part-time workers
c. back ordering during high demand periods
d. subcontracting
e. hiring and laying off
3. Which of the following aggregate planning strategies might direct your client to a competitor?
a. using part-time workers
b. subcontracting
c. changing inventory level
d. varying production rates through overtime or idle time
e. varying workforce size by hiring or layoffs
4. Which of the following statements about aggregate planning is true?
a. Advertising/promotion is a way of manipulating product or service supply.
b. Work station loading and job assignments are examples of aggregate production planning.
c. Overtime/idle time is a way of manipulating product or service demand.
d. Aggregate planning uses the adjustable part of capacity to meet production requirements.
e. All of the above are true.
5. Which of the following statements about aggregate planning is true?
a. In aggregate planning, backorders are a means of manipulating demand while part-time workers are a way of manipulating product or service supply.
b. A pure chase strategy allows lower inventories when compared to pure level and hybrid strategies.
c. In spite of the research into mathematical models, aggregate production planners continue to use trial and error methods when developing their plans.
d. All of the above are true.
e. None of the above are true.
6. Which of the following is not consistent with a pure level strategy?
a. variable work force levels
b. little or no use of inventory to meet demand requirements
c. varying production levels and/or work force to meet demand requirements
d. varying the use of subcontracting
e. all of the above are inconsistent with the pure level strategy
7. In level scheduling, what is kept uniform from month to month?
a. product mix
b. inventory levels
c. demand levels
d. production/workforce levels
e. sub-contracting levels
8. Which of the following is consistent with a pure chase strategy?
a. vary production levels to meet demand requirements
b. vary work force to meet demand requirements
c. vary production levels and work force to meet demand requirements
d. little or no use of inventory to meet demand requirements
e. all of the above.
9. Which of the following aggregate planning methods does not work if hiring and layoffs are possible?
a. linear decision rule
b. management coefficients model
c. transportation method
d. simulation
e. charting method
10. Aggregate planning for service firms with high-volume tangible output is directed toward
a. yield management
b. centralized purchasing
c. decreasing the demand rate during peak periods
d. planning for human resource requirements and managing demand
e. smoothing the production rate
11. "Yield management" is best described as
a. a situation where management yields to labor demands
b. capacity allocation to different classes of customers in order to maximize profits
c. a situation where the labor union yields to management demands
d. process designed to increase the rate of output
e. management's selection of a product mix yielding maximum profits
12. Which of the following is true regarding forward scheduling? Forward scheduling is the scheduling of
a. the end items or finished products
b. the start items or component parts
c. the final operation first beginning with the due date
d. jobs as soon as the requirements are known
e. jobs according to their profit contributions
13. The assignment method is
a. a computerized method of determining appropriate tasks for an operation
b. a form of linear programming for optimally assigning tasks or jobs to resources
c. the same thing as the Gantt schedule chart
d. a method for achieving a balance between forward and backward scheduling
e. a method to highlight overloads in a given work center
14. The most appropriate sequencing rule to use if the goal is to dynamically track the progress of jobs and establish relative priority on a common basis is
a. shortest processing time
b. earliest due date
c. longest processing time
d. critical ratio
e. Johnson's rule
15. A recent advance in short term scheduling that makes use of expert systems and simulation in solving dynamic scheduling problems is
a. forward scheduling
b. finite scheduling
c. backward scheduling
d. infinite scheduling
e. progressive scheduling
16. Which of the following techniques does not contribute to increasing throughput at a bottleneck?
a. increase capacity of constraint
b. have cross-trained employees available to operate the constraint
c. develop alternate routings
d. move inspections and tests to a position immediately after the bottleneck
e. schedule throughput to match capacity of the bottleneck
17. Factory X is trying to use level use scheduling. If their first target were to cut the current lot size in half, by what proportion must setup cost change?
a. setup cost must also be cut in half from its current value
b. setup cost must double from its current value
c. setup cost must be cut to one fourth its current value
d. cannot be determined
e. none of the above
18. Which of the following is true regarding services scheduling?
a. the emphasis is on staffing levels, not materials
b. reservation systems are often used a means of manipulating the supply of services
c. labor use can be intensive, and labor demand is usually stable
d. the Critical Ratio sequencing rule is widely used for fairness to customers
e. all of the above are true
19. Which of the following statements regarding project management is false?
a. Project organization works well when the work contains simple, independent tasks.
b. Gantt charts give a timeline for each of a project's activities, but do not adequately show the interrelationships of activities.
c. Project organization is most suitable for projects that are temporary but critical to the organization.
d. All of the above are true.
e. None of the above are true.
20. Which of the following statements regarding PERT times is true?
a. Optimistic time estimate is an estimate of the minimum time an activity will require.
b. Optimistic time estimate is an estimate of the maximum time an activity will require.
c. The probable time estimate is calculated as t = (a + 4m + b)/6.
d. Pessimistic time estimate is an estimate of the minimum time an activity will require.
e. Most likely time estimate is an estimate of the maximum time an activity will require.
21. Which of the following statements regarding critical paths is true?
a. The shortest of all paths through the network is the critical path.
b. Some activities on the critical path may have slack.
c. Every network has exactly one critical path.
d. On a specific project, there can be multiple critical paths, all with exactly the same duration.
e. The duration of the critical path is the average duration of all paths in the project network.
22. Which of the following statements concerning CPM activities is false?
a. The late finish of an activity is the earliest late start of all preceding activities.
b. The early finish of an activity is the early start of that activity plus its duration.
c. The late finish is the earliest of the late start times of all successor activities.
d. The late start of an activity is its late finish less its duration.
e. The early start of an activity is the latest early finish of all preceding activities.
23. Which of the following statements regarding CPM networks is true?
a. The early finish of an activity is the latest early start of all preceding activities.
b. The late finish of an activity is the earliest late start of all preceding activities.
c. On a specific project, there can be multiple critical paths, all of which will have exactly the same duration.
d. A project does not have to have a critical path.
e. All of the above are true.
24. Which of the following statements regarding project management is true?
a. Both PERT and CPM require that network tasks have unchanging durations.
b. Shortening the project by assigning more resources to one or more of the critical tasks is called "project crashing."
c. Crashing need not consider the impact of crashing an activity on other paths in the network.
d. Project crashing is an optimizing technique.
e. Crash cost depends upon the variance of the activity to be crashed.
25. Which of these statements regarding time-cost tradeoffs in CPM networks is true?
a. Crashing is not possible unless there are multiple critical paths.
b. Crashing a project often reduces the length of long-duration, but non-critical, activities.
c. Activities not on the critical path can never be on the critical path, even after crashing.
d. Crashing shortens the project duration by assigning more resources to one or more of the critical tasks.
e. None of the above.
