The very first lecture
What do we call a series of structured actions or steps that transform inputs into outputs?
A) A project
B) A process
C) A supply chain
D) A competitive priority
B) A process
Which movie production did we use as the running example in class?
A) The Odyssey
B) Oppenheimer
C) Avatar
D) Dune
A) The Odyssey
An oil refinery runs 24/7, making a very high volume of a standardised product in an uninterrupted flow. Which manufacturing process is this?
A) Project
B) Work center (job shop)
C) Assembly line
D) Continuous process
D) Continuous process
A company decides to build a new factory. Which capacity planning time range is this decision?
A) Short range (less than a month)
B) Intermediate range (6 to 18 months)
C) Long range (more than a year)
D) Day-to-day scheduling
C) Long range (more than a year)
On 19 July, the first 48-team FIFA World Cup ended in New Jersey. Who lifted the trophy after a 1–0 win in extra time?
A) Argentina
B) The USA, mainly because they built the stadiums
C) Spain
D) The All Whites (a lecturer can dream)
C) Spain
$200: Efficiency vs. effectiveness
According to Jacobs & Chase, “doing the right things to create the most value for the company” is the definition of…
A) Efficiency
B) Productivity
C) Operations management
D) Effectiveness
D) Effectiveness
What is the main thing a Gantt chart does NOT show?
A) The planned start of each activity
B) The duration of each activity
C) The dependencies between activities
D) How much of each activity is complete
C) The dependencies between activities
Which manufacturing process uses a fixed-position layout, where workers and materials move to the product’s location (e.g., shipbuilding or a custom home)?
A) Assembly line
B) Manufacturing cell
C) Project
D) Work center (job shop)
C) Project
A company expands capacity in large, infrequent steps, ahead of expected demand. Which capacity sizing strategy is this?
A) Expansionist
B) Wait-and-see
C) Follow the leader
D) Focused factory
A) Expansionist
The World Cup final on 19 July 2026 had the first-ever World Cup halftime show. Which of these stars was NOT on stage?
A) Madonna
B) Taylor Swift
C) BTS
D) Shakira
B) Taylor Swift
A criterion a product must meet just to be considered for purchase (the “ticket to play”) is called…
A) An order qualifier
B) An order winner
C) A core process
D) A competitive advantage
A) An order qualifier
The critical path is…
A) The path with the most activities
B) The longest path through the network, which sets the shortest possible project duration
C) The path with the most slack
D) The path with the most expensive activities
B) The longest path through the network, which sets the shortest possible project duration
Dell builds personalised computers for each customer from an inventory of sub-assemblies and components. Which production strategy is this?
A) Make-to-stock
B) Assemble-to-order
C) Make-to-order
D) Engineer-to-order
B) Assemble-to-order
At a hardware store, Dulux mixes the paint colour only when the customer orders it, starting from a generic base paint. Which type of postponement is this?
A) Time postponement
B) Logistics postponement
C) Form postponement
D) Economies of scale
C) Form postponement
New Zealand finished sixth on the medal table in Glasgow with 36 medals. In the netball final on 2 August, the Silver Ferns won gold, so they are now the Golden Ferns. Which team did they beat 56–48?
A) Australia
B) England
C) Scotland
D) Jamaica
D) Jamaica
A campus café has 4 baristas who each work a 6-hour shift. Together they make 480 coffees a day. What is the café’s labour productivity per hour of work?
A) 120 coffees per hour
B) 80 coffees per hour
C) 20 coffees per hour
D) 24 coffees per hour
C) 20 coffees per hour
Your project is running late and you want to shorten it by “crashing” (adding labour, overtime or expedited materials). Which activity should you crash first?
A) The activity with the longest duration
B) The non-critical activity with the lowest crash cost per day
C) The critical-path activity with the highest crash cost per day
D) The critical-path activity with the lowest crash cost per day
D) The critical-path activity with the lowest crash cost per day
A company moves its customer order decoupling point further upstream, closer to the raw materials (for example, from make-to-stock towards make-to-order). What happens?
A) Delivery times get shorter, and the company holds more finished-goods inventory
B) Nothing changes, because the decoupling point only affects suppliers
C) Delivery times get longer, products can be more customised, and the company holds less finished-goods inventory
D) The company switches to make-to-stock
C) Delivery times get longer, products can be more customised, and the company holds less finished-goods inventory
Your factory is overloaded: capacity requirements are higher than the capacity available. Which of these is a supply-side measure to fix this?
A) Rejecting orders
B) Overtime
C) Shutting down machines
D) Taking on additional orders
B) Overtime
In July, which film topped the US box office for six weekends in a row and passed US$2.4 billion worldwide?
A) Toy Story 5
B) The Odyssey
C) Spider-Man: Brand New Day
D) Shrek 5
C) Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Over two years, a manufacturer’s output value rises by 40%, but its total input costs rise by 50%. By how much did its productivity increase/decrease?
It decreased by about 7%
At a project status review, the budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS) is $40,000, the budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP) is $30,000, and the actual cost (AC) is $25,000. What is the project status with regards to the schedule and budget?
Behind schedule and under budget.
A part can be bought from a supplier for $30 per unit, or made in-house for $10 per unit using a machine that costs $40,000. At what volume do the two options cost the same?
2,000 units
In a service business, what is the relationship between capacity utilisation and service quality?
The higher the capacity utilisation, the lower the service quality.
On 12 August, thousands of people rushed to northern Spain (and Iceland) for a rare event. What was the event?
A total solar eclipse.