Operations Management – Assignment

Q.1. What is the importance of Operations Management in any business organization?

Ans. The main work of the operations manager is to ensure the timely delivery of the goods and
to turn the raw materials into successful finished goods. It helps us to start a project and run it
successfully. It helps in planning and controlling of processes.

Q.2. What major functions of any organizations are directly involved under Operations
Management?

Ans. The functions like planning, organizing, managing, controlling and supervising the
production and manufacturing processes are involved under operations management. This also
applicable to the service industries as well.

Q.3. What do you understand by Strategy?

Ans. Strategy is the creation of unique and valuable position, involving a different set of
activities. Strategy is the plan of action designed to achieve our desired output within our
stipulated time limit.

Q.4.What are major sources of Competitive Advantage, an organisation may look at?
Ans. There are three sources of competitive advantage- 1.Core Competencies 2.Critical
Resources 3.Key Success factors

Q.5.List any three models of potential Competitive Advantages?

Ans. 1.Change Faster 2.Quality is free 3.Winner takes all 4.Collaborate to compete

Q.6.Define Product.
Ans. The product is defined as the end result of manufacturing process to be offered to the
market place to satisfy a need or a want.

Q.7.Suggest two Critical Contributing Organisation Functions responsible for the Success of a
New Product
Ans. 1.Marketing 2.Product Design and Development are the two functions responsible for the
success of a new product.

Q.8.List three critical factors for success of New Product in the Market.
Ans. Cost, Quality and Innovation are the three factors critical for success of new product.

Q.9.List two items of importance for Product Design.

Ans. 1. It is Basis for investments and long-term commitments 2.It is helpful in deciding the
Product or Service cost.
Q.11.List major stages in Product Design process
Ans. 1.Idea development 2.Product screening 3.Priliminary design and testing 4.Final design

Q.12.What do you understand as Breakeven Volume for any product/service

Ans. Breakeven volume is the amount of products that we will need to produce and sell in to
the market so as to recover total costs of production. 

Q.13.Illustrate common trends in Product Life Cycle.

Ans. There are mainly four trends of product life cycle- 1.Introduction 2.Growth 3.Maturity
4.Decline

Q.20.What are the Goals we focus while undertaking facility planning?

Ans. The first one is to maximize operations flexibility, efficiency and quality. And the second
one is to minimize operating costs, work in progress and project cost.

Q.21.List down steps in the process of selection of site/facility using Factor Rating Method
Ans. Steps involved in the process of selection- 1. We need to identify the most important
factors in evaluating alternative sites for the new facility. 2. Assign a weight between 0 and 100
to each of these factors. 3. Each alternative location then will be rated based on these factor
weights 4. Most weighted alternative is selected as the best alternative

Q.23.Define Plant Layout

Ans. It is an arrangement of facilities and services in the plant that outlines relationship
between production centers and departments.

Q.24.Objective of Plant layout

Ans. 1. Better working conditions for worker
2. Minimisation in damage and spoilage
3. Minimisation in material handling
4. Flexibility to adapt to changing production conditions
5. Minimisation of congestion of material, machinery and workers.

Q.25.List types of Plant Layouts, with one example for each

Ans. 1.Product Layout or Line Production (eg. Cars manufacturing industries)
2.Process Layout (eg.Hospitals)
3.Layout by fixed position (eg.Ship or Aircraft manufacturing industries)

Q.26.List prerequisites for considering automation of plant processes.

Ans. 1.Cost of automation 2.Adequate supply of raw material 3.Life cycle period of product

Q.27. List 4 symptoms of Bad Layout

Ans. 1.Material congestion 2.Poor space utilization 3.Excessive work in progress 4.Higher
rejections or damage 5.Accidents
Q.28.Define role of Production Planning and Control in a manufacturing set up
Ans. The role of production planning and control in the manufacturing industry is to ensure that
materials and equipment are available when needed and that everything runs smoothly.

Q.30.What are three Horizons of Planning?

Ans. 1.Be consistent with the organization policy 2.Meet demands requirement 3.Be within
capacity constraints 4.Minimizes costs

Q.31.What are major inputs for Long Range Planning?

Ans. Product, processes, plant layout and plant location are the major inputs for long range
planning.

Q.32.In a systematic Aggregate planning process, what are 4 possible potential responses to
catering to fluctuating demand?
Ans. 1.Vary workforce size 2.Carry product inventory 3.Vary load via product mix 4.Vary
customer service 5.Vary marketing

Q.33.List major functions of Production planning and control

Ans. Materials, Methods, Routing, Estimating, Machine and Equipment, Inspection, Evaluating

Q.34.What is the role of Evaluating Function in Production Planning and Control?

Ans. It is essential function as it is a link between control and future planning. Also evaluation
helps for improvement in utilization of methods and facilities.

Q.35.What areas get covered under preplanning?

Ans. Preplanning covers an analysis of data and outline of basic sales reports, market research,
product development and design. It also covers problems of equipment policy and
replacement.

Q.37.Prerequisites for success of JIT

Ans. Prerequisites for success of JIT are – 1.High quality and strong vendor relationship
2.Vendor reliability 3.Plant reliability 4.Adequate vendor and captive plant capacities 5.Strong
backups 6.Fairly steady demand

Q.38.Define Scheduling
Ans. Scheduling is the final stage of production, planning and controlling, where all the
production activities are coordinated and projected on a time scale. It also tells us what
resource should be doing what and when.

Q.39.List 4 objectives of Scheduling

Ans. The objectives of scheduling are meet due dates, minimize completion time, minimize idle
time, minimize work in progress and other inventories and minimize resource utilization.
Q.40.List 2 possible forms of Scheduling in a Manufacturing plant with brief description of one
of these.
Ans. 1.A production flow diagram
2.A production master diagram for large projects: It is useful for static layouts in which the
tools, materials, machines flow from one place to other place and requires high level of
scheduling skills so as to coordinate the activities of all the facilities by appropriate phasing to
achieve the desired level of utilization and effectiveness of resources.

Q.41.List two major and common problems in Scheduling

Ans. 1.Flow production scheduling (for fluctuating demands).
2.Batch production scheduling (when products are manufactured consecutively)

Q.42.List two applications of PERT/CPM as Scheduling Techniques

Ans. The applications are design & manufacture of special purpose machine, construction of
building, development of a new product.

Q.43.Define Critical path in PERT/CPM

Ans. It is define as the sequence of project network activities which determines shortest time
possible to complete the project.

Q.44.Explain basic difference between ISO 9000 and ISO 14000

Ans.The ISO 9000 family of standards represents an international consensus on good quality
management practices. It consists of standards and guidelines relating to quality management
systems and related supporting standards.
The ISO 14000 family addresses various aspects of environmental management.

Q.47.Define Environment Management System -EMS

Ans. An EMS is a set of management processes and a procedure that allows an organization to
evaluate, control, and reduce the environmental impacts of its activities, products, and services
and operate with greater efficiency and control.

Q.49.How ERP is different compared to MRP?

Ans. MRP is focused specifically on manufacturing processes, while ERPs provide a broader
range of solutions including accounting, project management, business intelligence, sales, and
customer relationship management.

Q.50.List 3 significant benefits for organisation implementing ERP

Ans. Better customer service, Operational Efficiency and Lower IT costs.

Q.51.What major 3 issues are generally faced by organisations implementing ERP

Ans. Complexity, Inflexibility, Dependence and Upgrades, these are the issues generally faced.
Q.52.List major functions of Works Study
Ans. Functions of work study are Process improvements, Productivity improvement and value
engineering or cost reduction.

Q.53.Why do we need to undertake Method Study?

Ans. To improve methods of performing work and improve efficiency and economy. Also to
make improvement in plant & equipment as well as in safety standards.

Q.55.List the Steps followed for conducting Time and Motion Study
Ans. Steps for Motion study: 1)Record 2)Examine 3)Develop 4)Implement 5)Maintain here the
last 3 steps are followed only when the first 2 steps are complete and results are satisfying.

Q.56.Need to compute Standard Time for activities/Tasks?

Ans. Standard time is computed in order to evaluate whether the individual worker is
performing well or not. Also the need of standard time is that it forms the basis for incentives
and planning of program.

Q.58.List 3 factors outside Operator’s control for achieving efficiency in Operations.

Ans. The three factors are-
1) Change in climatic and surrounding conditions like light and temperature
2) Changes in operating efficiency of tools and equipments
3) Difference in mental attention generally required for performing the particular operation

Q.59.Why we need to provide for allowances in Standard Time computation.

Ans. Allowances must be made for recovery from fatigue for relaxation. And also to allow
workers to attend to personal needs.

Q.60.List 3 type of common allowances generally provided in Standard Time.

Ans. Relaxation allowance, Fixed allowance and variable allowance are the three type of
allowances provided in standard time.

Q.62.Objectives of Value Analysis

Ans. 1) To provide better value of product 2) To ensure each element of cost contribute to
function of product 3) To eliminate unnecessary cost

Q.64.Define Total Quality Management

Ans. To excel on all dimensions of product and services that are important to customer by
ensuring quality in design, production, marketing, purchase & distribution.

Q.67.List 3 major cost elements experienced due to Quality failures

Ans. Scrapping and reworking, defective items and wastage costs.
Q.68.List 3 major Cost elements experienced under Prevention of Quality Failure
Ans. Costs associated with design, implementation and maintenance of quality system are the
three cost elements experienced under prevention of quality failure.
Q.69.Why do we choose Acceptance Sampling basis for Quality Control Process?
Ans. As it gives us advantage of less number of inspections required, reduces cost, time and
labour for inspection, less damage to lot during inspections.

Q.70.Suggest the difference between p-Chart and c-Chart for SQC process.
Ans. In P chart overall fraction defectives of a process is controlled and in C -chart overall
number of defects per unit is controlled.