Core Concepts
This term refers to producing output or achieving a goal at the lowest cost
Efficiency
This facility layout is used when firms produce standardized goods in large volumes, such as on an assembly line.
Product layout
Reprogrammable machines capable of performing tedious, dirty, or dangerous tasks for long hours without tiring.
Robots
According to Total Quality Management (TQM), this should be the primary goal of any company.
Customer satisfaction
A production system that emphasizes producing goods only to meet actual current demand, thereby minimizing inventory.
Just-in-time (JIT) production
This involves using resources to create value by providing customers with goods and services that offer a better relationship between price and perceived benefits.
Effectiveness
This facility layout is most appropriate when a firm produces small batches of highly customized goods, like an artisanal bakery.
Process Layout
Software that enables engineers to test, analyze, and optimize their electronic designs before they are ever built.
Computer-aided engineering
This quality pioneer is recognized as the "father of the modern quality movement" and focused on a continuous 14-point approach.
W. Edwards Deming
An approach to production that emphasizes the elimination of waste in all aspects of the production process.
Lean Production
These are intangible products that must often be consumed when and where they are produced.
Services
In project scheduling, this is the sequence of activities expected to take the longest to complete.
Critical path
A software-based approach used to integrate an organization's information flows across the entire value chain
Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
An approach to quality characterized by very ambitious gaosl, extensive employee training, and a long-term commitment to improvement.
DAILY DOUBLE
Six Sigma
The environment in which a customer and service provider interact, which can influence customer perceptions of quality.
Servicescape
Creating value by managing the activities that produce goods and services and then distributing them to customers.
DAILY DOUBLE
Operations Management
To determine the optimal amount of this, managers must weigh the benefits of preventing stockouts against the costs of tied-up funds and holding expenses.
Inventory
This system combines CAD/CAM software with flexible manufacturing systems to automate nearly all steps of production.
Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM)
A family of generic standards for quality management systems established by the International Organization for Standardization.
ISO 9000
This family of standards requires a firm to demonstrate its ability to identify and control its impact on the environment.
ISO 14000
The goal of operations management has shifted over five decades from mass production to this, which uses technology to produce small quantiles of customized goods-effectively.
Mass Customization
When a company arranges for another organization to perform supply chain functions it previously handled internally.
Outsourcing
Simple methods incorporated into a production process specifically designed to eliminate or greatly reduce errors.
Poka-yokes
This quality expert famously insisted that the performance standard must be "zero defects" rather than "close enough".
Phillip Crosby
The network of relationships that channels the flow of inputs, information, and resources through all processes involved in producing and distributing goods
Value Chain