Operations 101
This is the creation of finished goods and services using land, labor, capital, entrepreneurship, and knowledge.
What is production?
This type of manufacturing physically or chemically changes materials.
What is process manufacturing?
Using computers to design products is known by these three letters.
What is CAD?
Choosing the geographic place where a company will conduct its operations is called this.
What is facility location?
This computer-based system uses sales forecasts to make sure needed materials are available at the right time and place.
What is MRP, or Materials Requirement Planning?
This management area transforms resources into goods and services.
What is operations management?
This production process puts components together to create a finished product.
What is an assembly process?
Using computers directly in the manufacturing process is known by these three letters.
What is CAM?
The physical arrangement of people and resources within an operation is called this.
What is facility layout?
This system integrates functions such as finance, human resources, and order fulfillment using a shared database.
What is ERP, or Enterprise Resource Planning?
The value producers add to materials when creating finished goods and services is called this.
What is form utility?
This process uses long production runs that continue over time.
What is a continuous process?
Integrating computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing produces this system.
What is CIM?
Cars moving sequentially from station to station are usually produced using this type of layout.
What is a product or assembly-line layout?
This inventory system keeps a minimum amount of inventory on hand and has materials arrive when they are needed.
What is Just-in-Time inventory control?
Land, labor, capital, entrepreneurship, and knowledge are collectively known as these in the production process.
What are inputs or factors of production?
A custom furniture company changes equipment and production frequently to make different customer orders.
What is an intermittent process?
This manufacturing approach uses machines capable of performing multiple tasks so a company can produce different products without lengthy equipment changes.
What is flexible manufacturing?
A hospital groups radiology, laboratory services, surgery, and other similar functions into separate areas. This most closely resembles this layout.
What is a process layout?
This quality approach continuously monitors the production process instead of waiting until the finished product is completed to look for defects.
What is Statistical Quality Control, or SQC?
A university uses professors, classrooms, computers, and information to transform students’ learning experiences. This illustrates why this concept applies to services as well as factories.
What is operations management?
An oil refinery runs continuously, while a custom wedding-cake bakery frequently changes what it produces. These businesses illustrate this important operations decision.
What is continuous versus intermittent production?
A manufacturer wants to give thousands of customers individualized products while still gaining many of the efficiencies of mass production. This technique makes that possible.
What is mass customization?
A house remains in one place while architects, electricians, plumbers, roofers, and other resources come to it.
What is a fixed-position layout?
A company discovers that inspecting products only after production is expensive because defective units must be repaired or scrapped. The better operations philosophy is to do this.
What is build quality into the process from the beginning?