Management set 4-15 solution

Which of the following factors increases an organization’s ability to innovate?
Question 8 options:
A. employees with a strong desire to acquire personal wealth
B. employees who build relationships with their peers
C. employees with a high tolerance for ambiguity
D. employees who blame others for failure
E. employees who possess intrinsic motivation
Answer

• E. employees who possess intrinsic motivation
  Explanation:
  The four sources of intrinsic motivation are progress, competence, choice and meaningfulness. With intrinsic motivation, the employees are not doing things for any personal gain or fear of being punished, rather, they do things because it comes from within. Intrinsic motivation makes employees to complete tasks in a creative way, increase overall quality of their performance and that of organization. Intrinsic motivation creates desire to learn, improve the world and create a better products.

Your team just completed a major milestone in the project
Answer

• B. You use some of your recognition budget to organize a team outing that will celebrate the achievement of the key milestone and help to build team cohesion.
  Explanation:
  Such a team requires cohesion for easier working and to for the team to disseminate its duties in togetherness. Organisations usually have employee recognition budget that is used to support programs like team building especially when a major milestone has been achieved. To reduce conflict, the manager can plan for an outing and appreciate the employee’s work while creating an opportunity for employees to bond better.

Which statement is not associated with the basic steps in the location decision process?
a. Eliminate some sites to develop a short list of three or four sites.
b. Maximize the number of sites considered.
c. Visit short-listed sites.
d. Gather information on appropriate sites.
e. Identify important search parameters and factors.
Answer

• b. Maximize the number of sites considered.
  Explanation:
  Location decisions are crucial for new and existing organizations, some companies especially those shifting their market and when cost in other location is more attractive. The steps include identification of important search parameters and factors, secondly, gather information on appropriate sites. Third step is obtaining a short list of three to four sites and lastly visiting the short listed sites and evaluating possible alternatives.

Which statement is not associated with the basic steps in the location decision process?
a. Eliminate some sites to develop a short list of three or four sites.
b. Maximize the number of sites considered.
c. Visit short-listed sites.
d. Gather information on appropriate sites.
e. Identify important search parameters and factors.
Answer

• b. Maximize the number of sites considered.
  Explanation:
  Location decisions are crucial for new and existing organizations, some companies especially those shifting their market and when cost in other location is more attractive. The steps include identification of important search parameters and factors, secondly, gather information on appropriate sites. Third step is obtaining a short list of three to four sites and lastly visiting the short listed sites and evaluating possible alternatives.

Dr. Ricci owns a hotel with 200 guestrooms. On Monday evening, Dr. Ricci’s property had 150 out of its 200 rooms occupied. The General Manager (GM) calls Dr. Ricci on Tuesday morning and reports to him that the hotel’s occupancy for Monday night was?
25%
50%
75%
It is not possible to calculate this result from the data provided
Answer

• 75%
  The correct answer is 75%
  Explanation:
  Occupancy rate is simply calculated by dividing the number of rooms that are booked at a specific time, by the total number of rooms available converted to percentage.
  Reference: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/occupancy-rate.asp
  Guestrooms are booked for lodging the guests at night, so the number of occupied rooms at night will be equal to number of booked rooms at that evening.
  On Monday evening, number of occupied rooms were 150
  The total number of rooms available for occupancy were 200
  Occupancy rate = 150 / 200 * 100%
  = 0.75 * 100% = 75%
  Occupancy rate = 75%

Which of the following are true statements about poor coordination in the supply chain?
Select all correct answers
Poor coordination lowers transportation costs.
Poor coordination increases manufacturing costs.
Poor coordination improves trading partner relationships.
Poor coordination increases replenishment lead times.
Poor coordination lowers inventory levels and costs.
None of the above
Answer

• Poor coordination increases manufacturing costs.
  Poor coordination increases replenishment lead times.
  Explanation:
  All stages of the supply chain take actions together and hence each stage must take into account the effects of its actions. Poor coordination may result from distorted movement of information between stages, or conflict between stages’ objectives. Poor coordination may result to increased manufacturing cost, increased inventory cost, increased transportation cost, increased lead time replenishment, increased labor cost, low levels of product availability and profitability, and lastly, poor relationships.

Which of the statements below is true?
Question options:
Transit time to customer is typically estimated on the basis of highway route miles when performing a static warehouse analysis.
Service sensitivity analysis is a form of cost-revenue analysis.
Mathematical modeling supported by computer analysis has rendered the optimization of warehouse networks a relatively easy analysis.
In a typical static location analysis, customer service fill-rate and delivery time is calculated based on distance.
In system design the lowest total cost configuration is typically not the lowest cost of either transportation or inventory.
Answer

• Service sensitivity analysis is a form of cost-revenue analysis.
  Explanation:
  Cost-revenue analysis is a general term that describes analysis that is carried out on inputs and factors, which have an effect on the product and service mix as provided by the company. It helps define how well resources are being utilized and various actions that the management can do to cut costs and drive additional revenue. Service sensitivity analysis seeks to identify how much change in the optimal result, is a result of a minor change in various model parameters like costs.

Which of the statements below is true?
Question options:
It has been clearly demonstrated that quantitative techniques of forecasting always result in less forecast error than qualitative techniques.
To effectively implement Sales and Operations Planning, sales and marketing people should develop marketing plans based on their forecast of demand while operations should develop the production plan based on their own forecast of demand.
Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) is a process that applies only to manufacturing organizations.
Good supply chain visibility is achieved when a firm is able to identify its shipments and its inventory.
A company that has a responsive supply chain capability is less reliant on forecasting than a company that has an anticipatory supply chain.
Answer

• A company that has a responsive supply chain capability is less reliant on forecasting than a company that has an anticipatory supply chain.
  Explanation:
  A responsive supply chain is more sensitive to meeting customer needs and has its inputs set in place to ensure customer requirements are taken care of irrespective of when they come. On the other hand, anticipatory supply chain is one that has its whole system based on future trends including changes in customer requirements, hence its operations are solely based on what the management expects to happen, hence will highly rely on forecasting. Forecasting is used to estimate future growth or changes.

Which of the following is not a benefit of integrated supply chain planning?
Question options:
Ability to plan with shorter lead times.
Data integrity.
Integrated cross-functional planning.
Improved asset utilization.
Selections 1 and 4 are correct
Answer

• Data integrity.
  Explanation:
  Data integrity is not a benefit in integrated supply chain planning.
  Among the benefits include: Ability to plan using heuristic algorithm, which helps in solving problems faster and more efficient than the traditional methods. Integrated supply chain planning reduces the time it takes from the moment a customer makes an order to the point when the product is delivered to the customer and ready for use which implies a decreased lead time. It also helps in bringing together activities of various functional groups towards the same single project for faster delivery and efficiency.

Which of the following statements best characterizes the role of people analytics in developing employees
Answer

• Even in industries where selection is critical, many firms invest heavily in development.
  Explanation:
  People analytics is an approach of managing people at work, and revolves around analyzing people problems to answer critical questions regarding the organization for better decision-making. There are predictive analytics that shows which employee will likely do well and prescriptive analytics helps in retaining essential employees and developing them. Employee development in an organization helps save a lot especially by decreasing cost of turnover.

To explain how transportation adds value to the supply chain
Answer

• Transportation adds value to the supply chain by providing flexibility, and enabling organizations to change the sources of supply quickly. Products are rarely produced and consumed at the same location, and a product produced at one location adds very little value to the prospective customer unless the product is moved to the consumption point.
  Explanation:
  Supply chain has three stages which are purchasing, manufacturing, and transportation. With a responsive and economical transportation network, an organization can effectively reduce costs and increase customer service levels. Without transportation, the products have less value to customer especially if located far away from the production point. An effective transportation strategy is one which responds to the dynamics of the business, its customers, suppliers’ and operation. Segment.

which agency is responsible for enforcing nondiscrimination in government contracts
Answer

• The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
  Explanation:
  EEOC was created by Title VII of the civil rights Act of 1964. It is responsible in investigating employment discrimination in government contracts based on color, race or national origin. EEOC responsibilities include
  • Hearing complaints in mediation.
  • Enforcing federal laws regarding non-discrimination in the workplace.
  • Cooperation with other agencies.

Explain what Resource levelling is – in Project Management.
Answer

• Resource leveling is a technique that is used to increase project efficiency by smoothening resource usage and avoid resource over-allocation. Resource leveling involves answering the question, ‘With the resources available, when will the work be finished?’
  Explanation:
  When performing project planning activities, the manager will attempt to schedule certain tasks simultaneously. There are times when less resources are available than required, which requires the tasks to be performed at the same time by the same person or with the same input. Resource leveling helps plan such to balance the workload during the course of the project.

Which one of the following is not a good supply chain strategy?

1. vertical integration
2. negotiation with many suppliers
3. virtual companies
4. short term relationship with few suppliers.

Answer

• short term relationship with few suppliers.
  Explanation:
  Vertical integration is a strategy by which a company controls its suppliers and retail locations, allowing it to control processes, reduce costs, and improve efficiencies. Negotiation between the suppliers and organisation is important to the supply chain because it is based on fairness, in that the buyer gets and supplier provides the right quality. Virtual companies rely on variety of supplier relationships to provide services. With negotiations, virtual companies are more efficient. A short term relationship between buyers and supplier is not a good strategy in supply chain as this may impact negatively some stages of production process.