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Advanced Operations Management Question Paper
Advanced Operations Management
Course:Doctor Of Philosophy In Business Management
Institution: Kenyatta University question papers
Exam Year:2011
KENYATTA UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS 2010/2011
FIRST SEMESTER EXAMINATION FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
BMS 807: ADVANCED OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
DATE: MONDAY 22ND NOVEMBER 2010 TIME: 5.30 P.M – 8.30 P.M
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INSTRUCTIONS: Answer Question 1 and Three other Questions
QUESTION 1 (30 Marks)
(a) You have been appointed as an operations manager; explain what your activities will entail. (6 Marks)
(b) What are the performance objectives of operations and what are the internal and external benefits which derive from excelling in each of them? (6 Marks)
(c) It is generally accepted that “no matter how sophisticated the intellectual and analytical underpinnings of a strategy it remains only a document until it has been implemented”. Discuss. (6 Marks)
(d) Differentiate between market requirement and operations resource as used in operations strategy. (6 Marks)
(e) Using practical examples, discuss the configuration of supply network. (6 Marks)
(f) Job design is one of the important concepts of operation management. Discuss the concept of job design and organizing work, illustrating how this can be done.
QUESTION 2 (20 Marks)
(a) Discuss the scope of operations management. (6 Marks)
(b) The following information compares the approximate productivity in hours-per-vehicle (HPV) for some automobile manufacturers and their profit-per-vehicle (PPV). Mazda (HPV = 25, PPV = $300), Ford Motor Company (HPV = 24, PPV = $200), General Motors (HPV = 23, PPV = $200), Honda (HPV = 20, PPV = $1300), Toyota (HPV = 19.3, PPV = $1900), Nissan (HPV = 18.3, PPV = $2200).
(i) Is HPV a convincing measure of productivity in this industry?
(ii) Identify what you believe could be the reasons for the differences in productivity and categorize these reasons under the four headings of: strategy, design, planning and control and improvement.
(iii) In what main ways could a company plan to reduce HPV in the design of its future products and process? (9 Marks)
(c) Explain how you will go about designing a product or a service. (5 Marks)
QUESTION THREE (20 Marks)
(a) Discuss the performance objectives of operations management. (5 Marks)
(b) A laboratory process receives medical samples from hospitals in its area and then subjects them to a number of tests that take place in different parts of the laboratory. The average response time for the laboratory to complete all its tests and mail the results back to the hospital (measured from the time that the sample for analysis arrives) is three days. A recent process map has shown that of the 60 minutes needed to complete the whole test, the test itself took 30 minutes, moving the samples between each test area took 10 minutes, and double checking the results took a further 20 minutes. What is the throughput efficiency of this process? What is the value-added throughput efficiency of the process? (State any assumptions that you are making). If the process is rearranged so that all the tests are performed in the same area, thus eliminating the time to move test areas, and the tests themselves are improved to half the amount of time needed for double checking, what effect would this have on the value-added throughput efficiency?(10 Marks)
(c) Discuss process technology and how it can be done. (5 Marks)
QUESTION FOUR ( 20 Marks)
(a) Read the following case study and answer questions that follow:
Almost all companies will say that they listen to their customers and find out what they want before they design products and services. However, some experts think that most companies do not go anywhere near far enough in giving customers real influence over the final design. Rather than design for customers, increasingly design is being carried out with customers, or even by customers.
There are many opportunities for customers to contribute. For example, some of the 100,000 and more visitors at the Boeing Tour Centre in Everett, Washington contribute to the design of Boeing aircraft interiors. Boeing has teamed up with Teague, a Seattle firm that designs Boeing airplane interiors, to establish the Passenger Experience Research Centre adjacent to the normal tour centre. „The purpose of the research is twofold,? says the company. „To influence the design of airplane interiors with input from actual users and to provide our airline customers with valuable information that will help them select their interiors. We like to do this kind of research to find out what passengers prefer rather than designing interiors according to what we think passengers might want.? After being measured in an outer lobby, participants are given hand-held remote-control devices and shown to their assigned airplane seats. A survey is shown on the screen at the front of the cabin and participants answer a series of multiple-choice questions, submitting their answers using the remote control. „It?s not hard to get volunteers,? says the company. „People are happy to have a chance to make their preferences known.?
(i) What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages of involving customers this closely in the design process?
(ii) How could providers of education „products? adopt this idea? (10 Marks)
(b) Companies can improve the quality of their products, services, processes, or organization by adopting certain practices. Discuss the various quality practices adopted by companies. (5 Marks)
(c) In order for companies to start the process of developing new products, companies solicit opinions from various quarters. Identify and discuss how each quarter contributes towards development of new products. (5 Marks)
QUESTION FIVE (20 Marks)
(a) A specialist graphics company is investing in a new machine which enables it to make high-quality prints for its clients. Demand for these prints is forecast to be around 100,000 units in year 1 and 220,000 units in year 2. The maximum capacity of each machine the company will buy to process these prints are 100,000 units per year. They have a fixed cost of 200,000 per year and a variable cost of processing of $1 per unit. The company believes it will be able to charge £4 per unit for producing the prints. What is the company likely to make in the first and second years? Comment on the answers.(10 Marks)
(b) What type of layout should an operation choose? How should each basic layout type be designed in detail? (5 Marks)
(c) Discuss the objectives of process design. (5 Marks)
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