Principles of Operations Management: Sustainability and Supply Chain Management 10th Global Edition

Answer:  E
Diff: 3
Key Term:  Productivity
AACSB:  Analytical thinking
LO:  1.4 Compute single-factor productivity
 
95) A cleaning company uses 10 lbs each of chemicals A, B and C for each house it cleans. After some quality complaints, the company has decided to increase its use of chemical A by an additional 10 lbs for each house. By what % has productivity (houses per pound of chemical) fallen?
A) 0%
B) 10%
C) 15%
D) 25%
E) 33%
Answer:  D
Diff: 3
Key Term:  Productivity
AACSB:  Analytical thinking
LO:  1.4 Compute single-factor productivity
 
96) A cleaning company uses $10 of chemicals, $40 of labor, and $5 of misc. expenses for each house it cleans. After some quality complaints, the company has decided to increase its use of chemicals by 50%. By what percentage has multifactor productivity fallen?
A) 0%
B) 8.3%
C) 25%
D) 50%
E) 16.7%
Answer:  B
Diff: 3
Key Term:  Multifactor productivity
AACSB:  Analytical thinking
LO:  1.5 Compute multifactor productivity
 
97) Starbucks stopped requiring signatures on credit-card purchases under $25 in an attempt to reduce ________.
Answer:  transaction time (or service time)
Diff: 1
Key Term:  Productivity
Learning Outcome:  Discuss operations and operations management as a competitive advantage for the organization
98) ________ is the total of all outputs produced by the transformation process divided by the total of the inputs.
Answer:  Multifactor productivity
Diff: 1
Key Term:  Multifactor productivity
LO:  1.5 Compute multifactor productivity
 

99) Productivity is the ratio of ________ to ________. Using this relationship, productivity can be improved by ________ or ________.
Answer:  outputs; inputs; reducing inputs while holding outputs constant; increasing outputs while holding inputs constant.
Diff: 2
Key Term:  Productivity
LO:  1.4 Compute single-factor productivity
 
100) Identify the three productivity variables used in the text.
Answer:  The three common variables are labor, capital, and management.
Diff: 2
Key Term:  Productivity variables
LO:  1.6 Identify the critical variables in enhancing productivity
 
101) What is a knowledge society?
Answer:  A knowledge society is one in which much of the labor force has migrated from manual work to work based on knowledge.
Diff: 2
Key Term:  Knowledge society
LO:  1.6 Identify the critical variables in enhancing productivity
 
102) As the administrative manager in a law office, you have been asked to develop a system for evaluating the productivity of the 15 lawyers in the office. What difficulties are you going to have in doing this, and how are you going to overcome them? Think of the difficulty with the measurement of service productivity.
Answer:  Productivity measures for a law office are difficult. Simple criteria, like number of cases processed, fail to consider complexity of the case. Even counting wins is difficult, as many cases are settled with some sort of compromise. External elements such as the quality of the opposing counsel and the tenacity of the opposition also make counting look rather silly.
 
Categories of cases can help (i.e., uncontested divorce, no personal injury auto case, etc.). However, many firms end up counting hours billed. This in turn leads to other problems, as noted by the number of false billing cases.
Diff: 3
Key Term:  Productivity
AACSB:  Reflective thinking

103) Susan has a part-time business producing seasonal plywood yard ornaments for resale at local craft fairs and bazaars. She currently works 8 hours per day to produce 16 ornaments.
a. What is her productivity?
b. She thinks that by redesigning the ornaments and switching from use of a wood glue to a hot-glue gun she can increase her total production to 20 ornaments per day. What is her new productivity?
c. What is her percentage increase in productivity?
Answer: 
a. 16 ornaments/8 hours = 2 ornaments/hour
b. 20 ornaments/8 hours = 2.5 ornaments/hour
c. Change in productivity = 0.5 ornaments/hour; percent change = 0.5/2 = 25%
Diff: 2
Key Term:  Productivity
AACSB:  Analytical thinking
LO:  1.4 Compute single-factor productivity
 
104) A firm cleans chemical tank cars in the St. Louis bay area. With standard equipment, the firm typically cleaned 70 chemical tank cars per month. They utilized 10 gallons of solvent, and two employees worked 20 days per month, 8 hours a day. The company decided to switch to a larger cleaning machine. Last April, they cleaned 60 tank cars in only 15 days. They utilized 12 gallons of solvent, and the two employees worked 6 hours a day.