TRUE/FALSE
1. Operational capabilities must be built before a firm should identify competitive priorities.
2. The ability to achieve market and financial superiority over competitors is called strategic planning.
3. While it is generally difficult to change the structure of a value chain, operations managers can make strategic choices about technology and human resources.
4. The customer benefit package that a firm designs is meant to appeal to all customers.
5. Traditional market research may not always provide accurate information about customer needs.
6. Formal marketing research, such as surveys and focus groups, is the only useful approach to learn about customer needs and expectations.
7. Order satisfiers are new or innovative good or service features that customers do not expect.
8. Eventually, order qualifiers become order winners.
9. A clean bed in a hotel would be considered as an order satisfier.
10. Being able to access the Internet in an automobile at any speed and in any location would be considered an order satisfier.
11. Order qualifiers are goods and service features and performance characteristics that differentiate one customer benefit package from another and win a customer’s business.
12. Of the three types of attributes customers use to evaluate goods and services, goods are high in search attributes while services are high in experience and credence attributes.
13. The color and size of an iPod would be considered credence attributes.
14. The ease by which one can create original music compositions using a software package such as Band in a Box or Apples’ Garage Band would be an example of an experience attribute.
15. Customers generally perceive greater risk when buying goods than when buying services.
16. Employee training is an example of a key competitive priority.
17. Apple’s primary competitive priority would probably be innovation while Dell’s would be flexibility.
18. Southwest Airlines has gained competitive advantage by focusing on cost as a key competitive priority.
19. Quality improvement initiatives generally increase market share in the long term and also increase profitability in the short term.
20. Improving design quality usually allows a firm to charge higher prices and thus increase revenue and profit.
21. Reductions in flow time generally lead to a deterioration of quality.
22. In today’s global market, mass customization has become less important than it was in the past.
23. Core competencies are the strengths that are unique to an organization, such as a creative workforce or a strong supply chain.
24. An operations strategy provides the direction on which corporate strategy is based.
25. A flexibility strategy requires capacity for both design and demand flexibility.
26. Innovation does not necessarily involve practical application or commercialization.
27. Because of the importance of supplying goods or services, operations strategy has historically received significant high-level management attention.
28. The infrastructure of an organization must support process choices and provide managers with timely and accurate information to make good decisions.
29. Professor Terry Hill’s operations strategy framework provides a systems perspective of how operations is linked to corporate and marketing strategies.
30. Because McDonald’s and Pal’s Sudden Service are both in the quick service restaurant business, we would expect their operations strategies to be nearly identical.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Which of the following is not generally considered a competitive priority?
a.
time
b.
flexibility
c.
innovation
d.
infrastructure
2. Using the Four Key Decision Loops in Professor Terry Hill’s Generic Strategy Framework, which statement is true?
a.
The four loops are highly integrated and require improvement cycles.
b.
The first loop ties strategy to operations.
c.
Operations has no input loop into corporate strategy or marketing strategy.
d.
Infrastructure decisions must come before marketing strategy decisions.
3. Which one of the following statements in the Lawn Care Company (LCC) case study is true?
a.
The LCC already had experience and capabilities in the residential lawn application service and market segment, and was considering using this expertise to enter the golf and park market segment.
b.
The gross margin on grass seed and fertilizer were higher than on the lawn application service.
c.
Service management skills play a major role in the LCC current strategy and vision of the business.
d.
The order winner for the current strategy at LCC is high physical goods quality.
4. With regard to the three types of attributes customers use in evaluating the quality of goods and services, a vacation would best be classified as high in
a.
Search attributes
b.
Experience attributes
c.
Credence attributes
d.
Competitive advantage attributes
5. In time sequence, which of the following needs to be accomplished first?
a.
Understand customer wants and needs
b.
Design and deliver customer benefit package
c.
Build and leverage operational capabilities
d.
Hire creative engineers
6. A firm’s ability to achieve market and financial superiority over its competitors is called
a.
Operations strategy
b.
Strategic planning
c.
Competitive advantage
d.
Competitive priority
7. In an automobile, which of the following would not be considered an order winner?
a.
Self-parking capability
b.
Voice-activated music system
c.
Front-seat airbags
d.
Collision-avoidance system
8. Requirements that are expected in a good or service are called
a.
Order Qualifiers
b.
Order Satisfiers
c.
Order Exciters
d.
Order Winners
9. Goods and service features that differentiate one customer benefit package from another are called
a.
Order Qualifiers
b.
Order Satisfiers
c.
Order Exciters
d.
Order Winners
10. With regard to the three types of customer attributes in evaluating the quality of goods and services, those associated with buying furniture would best be classified as
a.
search attributes
b.
experience attributes
c.
credence attributes
d.
reflect attributes