Questions from General Operations Management


Q: A German car manufacturer defines ‘utilization’ as the ratio of actual

A German car manufacturer defines ‘utilization’ as the ratio of actual output for a process to its design capacity, where design capacity is the capacity of a proce...

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Q: In a typical 7-day period, the planning department of

In a typical 7-day period, the planning department of the pizza company programs its ‘Pizzamatic’ machine for 148 hours. It knows that changeovers and set-ups take 8 hours and breakdowns average 4 hou...

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Q: Revisit the example, ‘United breaks passengers’ operations. (

Revisit the example, ‘United breaks passengers’ operations. (a) How should the airline have handled the situation? (b) After the incident attracted so much negative publicity, United announced a new u...

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Q: Seasonal demand is particularly important to the greetings card industry. Mother’s

Seasonal demand is particularly important to the greetings card industry. Mother’s Day, Father’s Day Halloween, Valentine’s Day and other occasions have all been promoted as times to send (and buy) ap...

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Q: A Pizza Company has a demand forecast for the next 12 months

A Pizza Company has a demand forecast for the next 12 months that is shown in the table below. The current workforce of 100 staff can produce 1,500 cases of pizzas per month. (a) Prepare a production...

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Q: Re-read the ‘Operations in practice’ example, ‘Extracts

Re-read the ‘Operations in practice’ example, ‘Extracts from Levi Strauss’ global sourcing policy’. (a) What do you think motivates a company like Levi Strauss to draw up a policy of this type? (b) Wh...

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Q: The environmental services department of a city has two recycling services –

The environmental services department of a city has two recycling services – newspaper collection (NC) and general recycling (GR). The NC service is a door-to-door collection service that, at a fixed...

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Q: A chain of women’s apparel retailers had all their products made by

A chain of women’s apparel retailers had all their products made by Lopez Industries, a small but high-quality garment manufacturer. They worked on the basis of two seasons; Spring/Summer season and A...

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Q: The example of the bull-whip effect shown in Table 12

The example of the bull-whip effect shown in Table 12.2 shows how a simple 5 per cent reduction in demand at the end of supply chain causes fluctuations that increase in severity the further back an o...

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Q: If you were the owner of a small local retail shop,

If you were the owner of a small local retail shop, what criteria would you use to select suppliers for the goods that you wish to stock in your shop? Visit two or three shops that are local to you an...

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