chapter 2 competitiveness, strategic planning and productivity

Question 1

what does competitiveness mean

Answer 1

how does an organization meets the needs and wants of a consumer compared to other companys

Question 2

what does competitiveness depend on

Answer 2

capabilities and performance

Question 3

what is apart of the key purchasing criteria

Answer 3

price
quality
variety
timeliness

Question 4

what is price in key purchasing criteria

Answer 4

amount consumer pays for a good or serice if all other factors are equal customers will choose good or service with lowest price

Question 5

what is quality in key purchasing criteria

Answer 5

material, design, customer service and innovation of the good or service

Question 6

what is variety in key purchasing criteria

Answer 6

choice of options to customers, the more variety the more range of customers well have

Question 7

what is timeliness apart of key purchasing criteria

Answer 7

availibility of goods and services to customer when needed
ex an order being delivered on time

Question 8

what are the 2 categories of purchasing criteria for customers

Answer 8

order qualifiers
order winniers

Question 9

what are order qualifiers

Answer 9

minimum standards of acceptibility for purchase, consider purchasing it

Question 10

what are order winners

Answer 10

create perception of being better then competition
allow product to be purchased

Question 11

what are competitive priorities

Answer 11

when an organizations emphasizes on of the key purchasing criterias in their operations

Question 12

what is strategic planning

Answer 12

looks at how organizations comepete and their stengths and weaknesses to take advanatge of their core competencies

Question 13

what are core comeptencies in strategic planning

Answer 13

special aspects to an organization that gives them a competitive edge over other companies

Question 14

how can using the SWOT analysis in scanning the environment

Answer 14

helps us link organizational and operational strategy

Question 15

how do we formulate a strategic plan

Answer 15

senior managers will have to do a environmental scan of the environmnet using a SWOT analysis

Question 16

are strengths and weaknesses internally or externally operated and who evalutes them

Answer 16

they have an internal focus and are evaluted by operations people

Question 17

are threats and oppurtunities externally or internally focused who evaluates them

Answer 17

externally focused and are evaluted by marketing people

Question 18

what is a supply chain strategy

Answer 18

strategy so company can achieve supply chain goals and be competitive

Question 19

who is apart of supply chain

Answer 19

suppliers, distributors and customers

Question 20

what typs of supply chain strategies are there

Answer 20

responsive/ agile
lean supply chain
near sourcing

Question 21

what is a responsive/ agile supply chain

Answer 21

flexible supply chain that can respond to changes quickly in volume or demand

Question 22

what is lean supply chain

Answer 22

focused on eliminating any steps that arent required to improve efficicency

Question 22

what is near sourcing

Answer 22

using nearby suppliers shortens supply chain reducing trasnportation time and costs, reducing supply chain inventory and reduce disruptions

Question 23

what are the 2 parts to global strategy

Answer 23

where parts and products are made or where services such as customer support is done and where products or services are sold

Question 24

when contemplating a global strategy what do they look at

Answer 24

1. what works in one country will not necessarily work in another 2. threat of political or social upheaval 3. cordinating and managing global operations is difficult

Question 26

what is a sustainability strategy

Answer 26

making a company more ecofrinedly, involves setting goals for products services and supply chains tracking progress and continuously improving to reduce environmental impact

Question 27

what is an operations strategy

Answer 27

policies, objectives and actions plans that want to achieve long term sustainable advanatges

Question 28

what are types of generic operations strategies

Answer 28

low labour cost strategy - focuses on reducing labour and wages exspenses scale based strategy - producing large quantities to reuduce cost per unit

Question 29

what are quality based strategies

Answer 29

maintain or improve quality can use intiiatives such as 6 sigma (reduces errors)

Question 30

what are time based stategies

Answer 30

focuses on reducing time to complete tasks

Question 31

for time based straegies focus is on reducing time it takes to do task, what are ways we can do that

Answer 31

planning deisgn processing delivery

Question 32

what is productivity

Answer 32

meausures the ouput (goods and services) per unit( inputs) used to produce it

Question 33

why is measuring productivity in services not efficient

Answer 33

their intangible involve intellectual activities have output with higher degree of variability

Question 34

what are things that affect productivity

Answer 34

methods capital quality technology

Question 35

what is a misleading thing of producivity and people

Answer 35

that they are the main part of productivity but its actually technology

Question 36

what are main aspects of competitve priorities

Answer 36

cost quality flexibility delivery

Question 37

how do we develop an effective strategy for an organization

Answer 37

determine key purchasing criteria for customers and identify which are order qualifiers and order winners

Question 38

organizations usually have overall strategies for the ____________ and ____________ strategies for each functional area

Answer 38

organization functional

Question 39

what does the balance scorescard do

Answer 39

transforms strategies into actions and undertsanding implications of organization strategy for operations management

Question 40

whats the most common producvity measure

Answer 40

labour productivity number of units produced per hour by a worker

Question 41

why do organizations want a higher productivity

Answer 41

creates higher profits and they can be more competitive