How can customer satisfaction measurement provide useful information for control in services?
> Choose one of the lean tools and approaches from Section 18-2 and research and write a short paper (two pages maximum) on how organizations use this tool, and provide specific examples.
> What types of “setups” do you perform in your work or school activities? How might you reduce the setup times?
> Search the Internet for images of visual controls. Select five of them and explain how they contribute to achieving one of the four principles of lean operating systems.
> Some companies use a technique called heijunka, which is a Japanese term that refers to production smoothing in which the total volume of parts and assemblies are kept as constant as possible. Research and write a short paper (two pages max) about this t
> Provide some examples of different types of waste in an organization with which you are familiar, such as an automobile repair shop or a fast-food restaurant.
> Suppose that you were monitoring the time it takes to complete order transactions at a call center. Discuss what might cause such out-of-control conditions as a trend, shift in the mean, or cycles in an –x-chart in this situation.
> Hospital administrators wanted to understand and better control the waiting time of patients in the emergency department (ED). To do this, they constructed –x-chart and R-charts by sampling the waiting times of the first five patients admitted to the ED
> Develop a “personal quality checklist” on which you tally nonconformances in your personal life (being late for work or school, not completing homework on time, not getting enough exercise, and so on). What type of chart would you use to monitor your per
> Find two examples of using RFID technology to monitor and control SKUs and explain the advantages and disadvantages of adopting such technology.
> Discuss some examples of common and special causes of variation in your daily life (for example, at school or at home).
> Provide some examples in business or daily life in which a controlled process is erroneously adjusted and an out-of-control process is ignored.
> The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) independently tests over 2,400 types of tires annually. In 2015, they issued over 900 recalls, affecting 51 million vehicles nationwide. Obviously, tire failure is a leading cause of acciden
> Find a customer satisfaction survey from a restaurant or a hotel. How do the questions relate to the five dimensions of service quality introduced in Chapter 2? Discuss how the survey results could be used to control quality. What types of quality contro
> Think about the net promoter score question, “What is the likelihood that you would recommend a company such as a restaurant, airline, or online service?” What factors would drive you to give a 9 or 10 to this question? Base your answer on a specific pro
> Refer to the automobile repair flowchart in Exhibit 7.5 in Chapter 7. Identify three activities where a potentially serious service quality error may occur, and discuss how such errors might be reduced.
> Which of the Seven QC Tools would be most useful in addressing each of the following situations? Explain your reasoning. (You may decide more than one tool is useful.) a. A copy machine suffers frequent paper jams, and users are often confused as to how
> Explain how each of the Seven QC Tools would be used in the five phases of the Six Sigma DMAIC problem-solving approach. For example, in which phase(s) (define, measure, analyze, improve, or control) would you expect to use flowcharts, check- sheets, and
> Provide some specific examples of quality costs in a fast-food operation or in the operation of your college or university. Classify the costs into the four major categories described in the chapter.
> Explain how to compute the crash cost per unit of time.
> Explain the concept of crashing in project management. What issues must a project manager wrestle with in making crashing decisions?
> How do you construct a left- or right-shifted Gantt chart?
> Explain the usefulness of Gantt charts to a manager.
> Discuss the importance of project control and monitoring.
> Define slack time and how is it computed. How is it used in project scheduling and why is it important?
> Define and explain the following terms: normal time, crash time, earliest start time, earliest finish time, latest start time, and latest finish time.
> Define a project and provide a non-manufacturing or non-construction example.
> Explain the role of total productive maintenance in lean operating systems.
> How does quality improvement support lean enterprise?
> What types of defects or errors might the following organizations measure and improve as part of a quality or Six Sigma initiative? a. A department store such as Walmart or Macy’s b. Walt Disney World or a regional amusement park such as Six Flags c. You
> Discuss some of the issues that a small pizza restaurant might face in inventory management. Would a pizza restaurant use a fixed-order quantity or period system for fresh dough (purchased from a bakery on contract)? What would be the advantages and disa
> Abbott Manufacturing produces plastic cases for solar photovoltaic panels and has decided to combine orders from customers to increase work order size, and thereby, make one large production run per model type. Plastic injection molding machines are us
> Define a transfer batch and single-piece flow. Why are they important?
> Explain the importance of short setup times in a lean environment. What approach is used to reduce setup times?
> What benefits do visual controls have for lean operating systems?
> What are the “5Ss”? Why are they important to becoming lean?
> What are the benefits of adopting lean operating systems?
> Explain the four fundamental objectives of lean operating systems.
> Define Takt time and explain why it is important?
> Does a high alpha value (say a 5 2 or 3) in Equation 18.12 negate the benefits of a Kanban/JIT operating system? Explain.
> What is the role of suppliers in JIT systems?
> Identify an organization that uses the Six Sigma DMAIC improvement approach. Describe in a short paper (maximum of two pages) some of the ways that this organization has applied DMAIC and the results it has achieved.
> Describe some of the key features of good JIT systems.
> Medical Solutions, Inc. has the following claims it must complete in the next week (40 hours). The jobs are as follows: All claims of the same type are processed together. Is 40 hours enough capacity? (Hint: use Equation 10.3.)
> What is a Kanban? Explain how a Kanban system operates.
> Explain the difference between push and pull systems. What advantages do pull systems have over push systems?
> What is Lean Six Sigma? Why are lean and Six Sigma concepts highly complementary?
> What is lean enterprise?
> What do we mean when we say that a process is “in control” or “out of control”?
> What is the difference between common and special causes of variation?
> How does quality control in services involving customer contact differ from typical manufacturing practices?
> Identify an organization that has achieved ISO 9000 certification, and write a short paper (one page maximum) that summarizes the benefits and results that the organization has achieved using ISO 9000. See if you can find a service organization rather th
> Describe the basic quality control practices used in manufacturing. In what service contexts can they be applied?
> What is “quality at the source”?
> A lab performs two types of blood tests, A and B. The time per setup (in minutes), processing time (in seconds), and order size (number of tests) is given below. Each test requires a new setup. Determine the total capacity required for this lab in minut
> What is the 1:10:100 Rule? Why is it important for managers to understand?
> Explain the three components of any control system and provide an example different from the text.
> What is a process capability index? Explain how process capability indexes are computed and how to interpret the results.
> What is the purpose of a process capability study?
> What is process capability and why is it important to understand?
> Explain how to determine the appropriate sample size and sampling frequency for SPC.
> Discuss how to interpret control charts. What types of patterns indicate a lack of control?
> Two of Deming’s 14 Points are Point 8: Drive Out Fear (in the workplace) and Point 4: Stop Making Decisions Purely on the Basis of Cost. Discuss the importance of them to operations managers (as well as all managers) in today’s business environment.
> Describe the various types of control charts and their applications.
> Summarize the process used to apply SPC.
> Explain the difference between a discrete and a continuous metric. Provide some examples different from those in the text.
> The basic pizza-making process consists of (1) preparing the pizza, (2) baking it, and (2) cutting and boxing (or transferring to a platter for dine-in service). It takes five minutes to prepare a pizza, eight minutes to bake it, and one minute to cut
> What is a control chart and what benefits can control charts provide?
> What is statistical process control?
> What is quality control? Why is it necessary in any organization?
> Explain the purpose and structure of ISO 9000. What are the seven underlying principles?
> Explain the five gaps in the GAP model. What can managers do to reduce these gaps?
> Describe the quality philosophies and principles of Deming, Juran, and Crosby.
> The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) monitors and evaluates health care providers according to strict standards and guidelines. Improvement in the quality of care is a principal concern. Hospitals are required to iden
> List and explain the three principles of total quality.
> How do you define service quality? Explain the five dimensions of service quality.
> What is the most useful definition of quality from an operations perspective? How might an operations manager use this definition in making daily decisions?
> How is quality defined from a customer perspective?
> The quad chair lift at Whiteface Mountain Ski Resort carries four skiers in each chair to the top of the intermediate slope in four minutes based on timing a large sample of skiers. The time between loading skiers on successive chairs is 15 seconds. a.
> How do benchmarking and best practices support breakthrough improvement?
> What is breakthrough improvement?
> What is a kaizen event? How does it differ from the original notion of kaizen?
> What does the history of quality management suggest to today’s managers?
> Explain the concept of kaizen. What must an organization do to successfully operate a kaizen initiative?
> Greyhound Bank operates in the United States and pro- vides a full range of financial services for individuals and business. The credit card division is a profit center that has experienced a 10 percent annual growth rate over the last five years. These
> What is a root cause? How can root causes be identified?
> Summarize the Seven QC Tools used for quality improvement, and provide an example of each.
> Explain the classification of quality costs. Provide some specific examples in a fast-food operation and in the operation of your college or university.
> What does “cost of quality” mean? Why is it important?
> How can Six Sigma be applied in services?
> The roller coaster at Treasure Island Amusement Park consists of 16 cars, each of which can carry up to three passengers. According to a time study each run takes 2.5 minutes and the time to unload and load riders is 3.5 minutes. What is the theoretical
> What tools and methods are used in Six Sigma projects?
> Summarize the DMAIC process for problem solving.
> Explain the key concepts used in implementing a Six Sigma quality initiative.
> What is Six Sigma? How is it measured?
> Find the websites for the W. Edwards Deming Institute, the Juran Institute, and Philip Crosby Associates. What services do they offer? How do these organizations maintain the philosophies and legacies of these quality leaders?
> Define quality management. Why is it important for every manager to understand?
> Summarize the procedure (steps) used for the two-resource sequencing problem (Johnson’s Sequencing Rule).
> What is dispatching? Explain how priority dispatching rules are used.
> What are the advantages and disadvantages of the SPT and EDD sequencing rules?
> Define flow time, makespan, tardiness, and lateness, and explain how they are computed.
