What technique eliminates unnecessary tasks and improves the process for completing tasks?

Ch. 11 Operations Management - Designing a Work System

Part of the operations strategy is designing a work system that:

provides the structure for the productivity of the company.

What technique eliminates unnecessary tasks and improves the process for completing tasks?

Job design ensures that each employee's _________ and ________ are geared towards achieving the company's mission.

Technical Feasibility of a job is the degree to which an individual or group of individuals is:

physically and mentally able to do the job.

Determining if the best financial opportunity is to have an individual perform the task or automate the task is which of the following?

The challenge with behavioral feasibility is to design a job ____________ and that adds value.

that the worker feels good about doing

Which of the following is an advantage of specialization in job design?

From the employee's perspective, which of the following is not an advantage of job specialization?

What is the approach to job design which involves an increase in responsibility for work planning and/or inspection?

Which of the following most closely describes job enrichment?

Having waiters cook and having the cooks wait on tables is an example of ______________.

What are small groups of employees who meet to identify, analyze, and solve operational problems called?

Which of the following is typically not associated with problem solving teams?

employees contribute on a short term basis

Which of the following issues would best be handled by a special-purpose team?

A proposal has been made to switch from rail to truck for both transporting incoming parts and product distribution.

A difference between self-directed and self-managed teams is:

who defines the team's working goal

What is the approach that moves the work to the worker rather than the worker to the workplace?

Which of the following is not a form of alternative workplace arrangements?

working from the hotel room on an occasional business trip

Advantages of the alternative workplace include all except which of the following?

increased cohesiveness among employees

To determine whether the alternative workplace is right for your organization, which of the following questions should be positively answered?

does your organization have an open culture?

Methods analysis can _________________.

The approach that details the tasks of a job and how to do them is ____________________.

What results from methods analysis?

a standard, detailed procedure for an operation

What is the methods analysis chart that describes the overall sequence of operation, movement, inspection, delay, and storage?

Which of the following is not taken into consideration when dealing with the effects of working conditions on worker productivity, quality and safety?

What is the governmental agency that has inspectors who check for safety conditions?

What does work measurement determine?

how long it should take to do a job

The ____________ time is the time it should take a qualified operator, working at a sustainable pace and using the appropriate tools and process, to do the job.

A company uses standard times for ______________________.

The use of standard times for costing allows the company to do all except which of the following?

evaluate quantitative methods

Standard times can be used to measure performance of individual workers. If a worker fails to match the standard time, the company should do what?

provide training to improve the worker's performance

Which of the following is not a commonly used process for setting standard times?

The steps involved in a time study include all except which of the following?

Determine the probability distribution that best fits the observed times.

Typically the job chosen for the time study will be ___________________.

routine job that is labor intensive

For the step in a time study that involves breaking the job down into easily recognizable elements, each of these elements should ________________.

have clear starting and ending points

The formula for determining the number of observations needed depends upon all except which of the following values?

the maximum observed value in the sample

How many standard deviations is required for a 98% confidence level?

What is the effect of an increase in the desired confidence level on the number of observations necessary in a time study?

When performing a time study, the analyst converts the observed time into the time an "average" worker would require working at an acceptable pace by using which of the following?

performance rating factor

Which of the following values for performance rating factor would be for an above-average work pace?

Establishing a performance factor is an attempt to:

ounterbalance any unusual patterns noted.

In calculating the time standard, the frequency of occurrence for a work element is _________________.

the fraction of the time the work element needs to be done when the job is done

For each work element in the time study, multiplying the mean observed time by the performance rating factor by the frequency of occurrence results in what?

normal time for the element

In a time study, personal time, fatigue, and unavoidable delays (PFD) during the typical work day are accounted for in what?

The allowance factor is computed by adding one to PFD (personal time, fatigue, and unavoidable delays) when the allowance is based on what?

A company's accepted time studies are stored in a(n) ____________ for possible future use.

Typical work elements that occur in many jobs include all except which of the following?

figure out the instructions

Which of the following steps is not included when a time study analyst uses standard elemental times?

Determine the performance rating factor.

____________ is a published database of elemental time data used for establishing standard times.

Which of the following would not be a basic element into which a job would be split when using predetermined time data?

Which of the following is an advantage of using predetermined time data?

You can calculate standard times before the job begins.

What is a technique for estimating the proportion of time an employee or machine spends on different work activities?

In work sampling, when should observations be taken?

Which of the following is a basic difference of work sampling compared to a time study?

It does not provide standard times.

Which of the following is not a step in work sampling?

divide the job into basic elements

Companies need to design compensation systems that _________________.

reinforce the behaviors needed to meet the company's objectives

Which of the following is not characteristic of time based compensation systems?

lower cost per unit than output based systems

Output-based incentive systems are based on the assumption that some workers _____________.

are motivated by money and produce more when pay is linked to performance

Which of the following is not characteristic of output based compensation systems?

often include an upper limit on how much an individual can be compensated each day

Profit sharing and gain sharing are two methods of _______________.

Disadvantages of individual incentive systems include all except which of the following?

They avoid the "free-rider" problem.

The fact that human activities typically improve when they are done on a repetitive basis is described by a(an) _________________ curve.

Which one of the following would learning curves affect the most?

planning labor requirements

_____________ is the world's largest privately held software manufacturer.

At SAS, employees are not allowed to work later than ____________________.

Which two are sustainability practices in work system design?

Job design ensures that each employee's activities are closely timed.

When deciding if the firm should participate in alternative workplace arrangements you must ensure that the same level of direct report control is maintained.

Methods analysis eliminates unnecessary tasks and improves the process for completing tasks.

The degree to which an individual or group of individuals can physically and mentally handle the job is its technical feasibility.

Problem-solving teams are small groups of employees who meet to identify, analyze, and solve operational problems.

The process flowchart describes the overall sequence of operation, movement, inspection, delay, and storage.

FCC is the governmental agency that has inspectors who check for safety conditions.

Work measurement determines how long it should take to do a job.

The standard time is the time it should take a qualified operator, working at a sustainable pace and using the appropriate tools and process, to do the job.

Typically the job chosen for the time study will be a routine job that is labor intensive.

An increase in the desired confidence level will decrease the number of observations necessary in a time study.

In calculating the time standard, the frequency of occurrence for a work element is how many times the work element is repeated in doing the job once.

In a time study, personal time, fatigue, and unavoidable delays (PFD) during the typical work day are accounted for in the allowance factor.

If OT = the mean observed time, PRF = the performance rating factor, F = the frequency of occurrence, and PFD = the percentage allowance adjustment based on job time, the formula to compute the standard time is (OT)(PRF)(F)(1 + PFD).

If OT = the mean observed time, PRF = the performance rating factor, F = the frequency of occurrence, and PFD = the percentage allowance based on time worked, the formula to compute the normal time is (OT)(PRF)(F).

If OT = the mean observed time, PRF = the performance rating factor, F = the frequency of occurrence, and PFD = the percentage allowance based on time worked, the formula to compute the standard time is (OT)(PRF)(F).

Predetermined time data is a published database of elemental time data used for establishing standard times.

An advantage of using predetermined time data is that you can calculate standard times before the job begins.

In work sampling, observations should be taken at random times.

Output-based incentive systems are based on the assumption that some workers are motivated by money and produce more when pay is linked to performance.

Gain Sharing emphasized profit levels so employees can share the benefits of increased profits.

The fact that human activities typically improve when they are done on a repetitive basis is described by a learning curve.

The table containing the Learning Curve Coefficients allows one to calculate both the time it should take to build the nth unit as well as the total production time required to build the entire production run when the nth unit is the last one completed.

Human resources is not really involved in work sampling as this is a production facility process.

Economic feasibility is the degree to which the job adds value and the cost of performing the job done are profitable for the company.

What is a technique for estimating the proportion of time an employee or machine spends on different work activities?

What does work measurement determine?

What is the term used for an individual who specializes in improving workplace efficiency productivity and safety as it relates to our job related movements?

What do we call small groups of employees who meet to identify analyze and solve operational problems?