Question: How does Lean Six Sigma in 3M

> In a control chart application, we have found that the grand average over all past samples of 6 units is x = 30 and R = 5. a. Set up x and R control charts. b. The following measurements are taken from a new sample: 38, 35, 27, 30, 33, and 32. Is the pro

> Define the purpose of continuous improvement of quality.

> Can you name products and services that, in your opinion, have relatively poor quality? Relatively high quality? Are companies that provide better quality more successful? How can you tell?

> A company is in the business of machining parts that go through various work centers. Suppose work center A feeds work center B with parts. The following times (in minutes) are given for each work center. A standard kanban container holds 50 parts that

> How can lot sizes and inventories be reduced in a lean production system? Discuss specific approaches.

> A furniture factory makes two types of wooden tables, large and small. See the flowchart below. Small tables are made in batches of 100, and large tables are made in batches of 50. A batch includes a fixed setup time for the entire batch at each proces

> Design an inventory control system for this business. Provide the formulas that you would use for a P System, Q system or other system you design. Compare these to the formulas currently used. Examine the data from the Appendix to note any peculiarities

> What kinds of problems are presented by the redesign of existing processes that are not encountered in the design of a new process?

> Identify the front office and back office services for the following organizations. Could these services be improved by increasing or decreasing the degree of customer contact? By separating low- and high-contact services? a. Hospital b. Trucking firm c.

> A company is in the business of making souvenir spoons to customer order. The customers select the size of the spoons and may specify the design to be embossed on them. One or more spoons may be ordered. The company is considering going into the make-to-

> What is the proper role of the operations function in product design?

> Evaluate a couple of local hospitals in terms of its emphasis on the four operations objectives: cost, quality, delivery, and flexibility. Are all departments focused on the same objectives? What are the order winners and the order qualifiers?

> How is the operations management function related to activities in human resources, information systems, and accounting?

> Can you be sure that all the parts produced by in-control processes will meet the specification?

> How should Andrea deal with the organization issues presented in this case?

> The ABC Company plans to locate a warehouse using the center-of-gravity model to serve four different customers. Find the coordinates for the warehouse given the following information: Y Demand Customer coordinate coordinate (Ibs.) 20 80 9000 50 05

> From the Internet find examples of distribution centers or warehouses and list the functions that they serve.

> Do you think electric cars may become a viable alternative to gasoline-powered vehicles? What is the future of the electric car? Explain your answers.

> A line of furniture is made by the Drazal Company in South Carolina and is being considered for outsourcing to China. The unit manufacturing costs in the U.S. are: Unit Cost of Goods Sold Direct labor……………………………… 53 Materials……………………………….. 122 Over

> Look up advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing on the Internet.

> A supply chain has the following information: a. Compute the total supply chain throughput time for all the entities from beginning to end. b. Compute the cash-to-cash cycle time for each of the four entities separately. Based on this calculation, who

> The master scheduler in the ABC Widget Company is in the process of revising the master schedule. At the present time, he has scheduled 400 widgets for week 5 and is considering changing this to 500 widgets. a. What information would you need to decide w

> How much safety stock should be carried in an MRP system? What is the role of safety stock in MRP systems? Where should safety stock be carried?

> The famous Widget Company sells widgets at the rate of 80,000 units per year. Each widget sells for $100, and it costs 30 percent to carry widgets in inventory for a year. The process of widget production has been automated over the years, and it now cos

> For a given service level, why does a P system require a larger inventory investment than a Q system? What factors affect the magnitude of the difference?

> An entrepreneur is starting a new business. The activities and times required are given below: a. Find the critical path and the project completion time. b. What are the ES, LS, EF, and LF for each activity? c. How much slack is there in activity D?

> Define the terms critical path, ES, and LF.

> In problem 2, assume there are two machines of type A and two of type B. a. Prepare a finite capacity schedule. b. How does your FCS compare to the performance of the Gantt chart in problem 2?

> What criteria—limit to four—should Scott Nolan use to screen suppliers to be integrated into the early phases of the Deere skid-steer loader development process? Why?

> Describe the differences between Gantt charting, FCS, and the theory of constraints

> An urgent care clinic is staffed by two physicians who can each see four patients per hour. The clinic is open 6 p.m. until midnight, seven days per week. The clinic tracked the average number of patients arriving by hour for a month and observed the fol

> In what ways does corporate strategy affect capacity decisions?

> Management of the ABC Floral Shop believes that its sales are seasonal in nature with a monthly seasonal pattern and no trend. The demand data and seasonal ratios for the past three years are given as follows. a. Calculate a forecast for Year 3 using A0

> The Yummy Ice Cream Company uses the exponential smoothing method. Last week the forecast was 100,000 gallons of ice cream, and 90,000 gallons was actually sold. a. Using α = .1, prepare a forecast for next week. b. Calculate the forecast using α = .2 an

> Qualitative forecasts and causal forecasts are not particularly useful as inputs to inventory and scheduling decisions. Why is this statement true?

> Widgets are made in a two-shift operation. Management is wondering if there is any difference in the proportion of defectives produced by these two shifts. a. How would you use the p control chart to determine if there is a difference between the two sh

> Why are most processes not in statistical control when they are first sampled for control chart purposes?

> Suppose you manufacture 10,000 wooden pencils per day. What would be an appropriate quality planning and control system for this product? Consider such factors as product attributes, measures of quality, tests, and so forth.

> Suppose a work center has a setup plus run time of 30 minutes to make 50 parts. Also assume it takes 10 minutes to move a standard container of 50 parts to the next work center and the demand rate is one part per minute throughout the day. a. Schedule th

> Which location provides Polaris the greatest cost advantage? Calculate the NPV of the three locations using a 10% discount rate.

> Consider the following financial data from the past year for Midwest Outdoor Equipment Corporation. a. Compute the receivable turnover ratio. b. Compute the inventory turnover ratio. c. Compute the asset turnover ratio. Gross Income $25,240,000 Total

> Why is a stable master schedule desirable for a lean production system? What is the effect if it is not stable?

> The Swanky Hotel provides room service for its guests. The process for room service begins with a room service manager who takes orders by phone at an average of 2 minutes per order. The manager then sends the order to the kitchen, where it takes a cook

> Explain the differences between capacity, flow rate, and demand.

> Critique the customer contact model. What are its strengths and weaknesses?

> Compare the expensive restaurant, fast-food restaurant, and cafeteria in terms of process characteristics, such as capital, product type, labor, planning, and control systems.

> How can the modular design concept control production variety and at the same time allow product variety?

> How would you determine whether a company has an operations and supply chain strategy? What specific questions would you ask, and what information would you gather?

> How does the work of an operations manager differ from the work of a marketing manager or a finance manager? How are these functions similar?

> What purpose does the Quality Academy serve and how should it operate?

> Develop a forecast to use as a basis for Sales and Operations Planning.

> How should the hotel handle service recovery and service guarantees? Suggest some options they could implement.

> What recommendations would you make for the business as a whole to overcome its weaknesses and threats and then capitalize on its strengths and opportunities?

> Why are facilities decisions often made by top management? What is the role in these decisions of operations, marketing, finance, accounting, engineering, and human resources?

> A company has a shipment to make from Dallas, Texas to Phoenix Arizona, a distance of 1065 miles. It plans to ship 8 pallets weighing 650 pounds each. Which is the best mode of transportation considering the following information?

> Compare the environmental impact of the five different modes of transportation.

> The Doright Door Company is considering outsourcing production of its door to Mexico. Use the weighted scoring method to evaluate the costs and risks of the offshore supplier, Perfect Door Company (Puertas Perfectos). The Mexican company has quoted a pri

> How is offshoring of services different from products?

> How can coordination be increased both internally within the firm and externally with customers and suppliers?

> Can the ABC principle be applied to manufacturing component inventories? Discuss.

> A producer of electronic parts wants to take account of both production rate and demand rate in deciding on its lot sizes. A particular $50 part can be produced at a rate of 1000 units per month, and the demand rate is 200 units per month. The firm uses

> The SureGrip Tire Company produces tires of various sizes and shapes. The demand for tires tends to follow a quarterly seasonal pattern with a trend. For a particular type of tire the company’s current estimates are as follows: A0 = 10,000, T0 = 1,000, R

> Compare and contrast the management of finished goods inventory in a manufacturing firm with that in a retail or wholesale firm.

> A plant start-up is based on the following network: a. Draw a network for this project. b. What is the project completion time? c. Identify the critical path. Immediate Activity Activity Predecessor Time A B 3 D A 3 E A 6 5 B, D 6

> Contrast and compare CPM and PERT as project scheduling techniques.

> In problem 3, assume there are two machines of type A, two of type B, and two of type C. a. Prepare a finite capacity schedule. b. Compare the FCS to the Gantt chart in problem 3.

> How is the scheduling of patients in a doctor’s clinic similar to and different from the scheduling of jobs in a factory?

> Assume a restaurant operates from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days per week. a. How much capacity does the restaurant have on a weekly basis and an annual basis in hours? b. If the restaurant can serve a maximum of 40 customers per hour, how much weekly cap

> The Handy-Dandy Department Store had forecast sales of $110,000 for the previous week. The actual sales were $130,000. a. What is the forecast for this week, using exponential smoothing and α = .1? 208 Part Four Capacity and Scheduling b. If sales this w

> Describe the uses of qualitative, time-series, and causal forecasts.

> A process for producing electronic circuits has achieved very high yield levels. An average of only 8 defective parts per million is currently produced. a. What are the upper and lower control limits for a sample size of 100? b. Re compute the upper and

> Workers should be given more control over the inspection of their own work. Discuss the pros and cons of this proposition

> Would you expect the exponential distribution to be a good approximation of service times for a. Buying an airline ticket at the airport? b. Riding a merry-go-round at a carnival? c. Checking out of a hotel? d. Completing a midterm exam in your OM class?

> Recall a bad service experience that you recently had. What led to the service failure? Consider such dimensions as tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, or empathy.

> Assume that a plant operates 2,000 hours per year and the demand rate for parts is 100,000 units per year. The circulation time for each kanban container is 24 hours. a. How many kanban containers are needed for a container size of 100 parts? b. What wou

> State the lean tenets in your own words.

> Judy’s Cake Shop makes fresh cakes to customer orders. After receiving the order by Judy’s assistant, which takes 2 minutes, Judy then takes 8 minutes to mix the ingredients for the cake and loads a cake pan for baking. Then the cake is put into the oven

> Provide a definition of a bottleneck. Why is it important to find the bottleneck?

> Describe the service-product bundle for each of the following services: a. Hospital b. Lawyer c. Trucking firm

> Several industries—including those that produce furniture, houses, sailboats, and fashion clothing—have never progressed down the diagonal of the product process matrix to become highly standardized and efficient. Why do you think this is so?

> Why has there been an increase in product variety in our economy?

> Define the following terms in your own words: operations mission, order winner, order qualifier, and distinctive competence.

> What are the key decisions made by sourcing and logistics managers?

> Why should a manager of a bank home office be evaluated differently than a manager of a bank branch?

> What are the advantages of pursuing LEED, Energy Star, and ISO 14000 certifications?

> Can you be sure that all the parts produced by in-control processes will meet the specification?

> How will Lean Six Sigma affect the innovative culture at 3M and is Lean Six Sigma enough?”

> What was the role of standardization in improving Quality?

> What option do you recommend and why?

> There are five dimensions to SERVQUAL: responsiveness, assurance, tangibles, empathy, and reliability. What dimensions of service quality do you think are important for the hotel? Feel free to define your own dimensions or use SERVQUAL. Then for each of

> What should Andrea Meline do to meet the inventory and service goals stated by management? Hint: If the turnover is too low from your first analysis and is not feasible using available parts, try another master schedule that is feasible with reduced prod

> Best Homes is also collecting sales projections from each of its regions for 2016? What role should these additional sales projections play, along with the forecast from question 2 in determining the final national forecast?

> A company is considering four modes of transportation for its shipments. It plans to ship 32 pallets weighing 500 pounds each from Salt Lake City, Utah to Reno, Nevada at a distance of 518 miles. What is the best way to make these shipments given the fol

> What has been the effect of deregulation of transportation prices in the United States?

> The manager of a small post office is concerned that the growing township is overloading the one-window service being offered. Sample data are collected on 100 individuals who arrive for service. Using the following random number sequence, simulate six

> The Jolly Company sells candy and issued an RFQ to purchase a line of chocolates that are made to their specifications. After inspecting the samples for quality, the following results were determined for the three suppliers. Quality ratings were determin

> Give some examples of core competencies that would not be outsourced.

> How do lead times and forecast errors affect supply chain performance?

> Product A consists of subassemblies B and C. Subassembly B requires two parts of D and one part of E. Subassembly C requires one part of D and one part of F. a. Draw a product structure tree (BOM) for this product. b. How many parts are needed to make 30

> With regard to inventory management, discuss the difference between a replenishment philosophy and a requirements philosophy.