Podcast
Questions and Answers
Which of the following factors is NOT considered when evaluating alternatives in a capacity strategy?
Which of the following factors is NOT considered when evaluating alternatives in a capacity strategy?
What is the primary focus of cost-volume analysis?
What is the primary focus of cost-volume analysis?
How does flexibility benefit an organization in terms of forecasting?
How does flexibility benefit an organization in terms of forecasting?
Which strategy involves implementing capacity expansion before demand rises?
Which strategy involves implementing capacity expansion before demand rises?
Signup and view all the answers
What is one method organizations use to enhance their effective capacities?
What is one method organizations use to enhance their effective capacities?
Signup and view all the answers
What is the primary goal of feasibility analysis in product design?
What is the primary goal of feasibility analysis in product design?
Signup and view all the answers
What is a critical aspect of process specifications in product design?
What is a critical aspect of process specifications in product design?
Signup and view all the answers
What does the term 'serviceability' refer to in the context of product design?
What does the term 'serviceability' refer to in the context of product design?
Signup and view all the answers
Which phase follows prototype development in the product design and development process?
Which phase follows prototype development in the product design and development process?
Signup and view all the answers
What key question is primarily concerned with an organization's ability to produce an item profitably?
What key question is primarily concerned with an organization's ability to produce an item profitably?
Signup and view all the answers
What should occur if a product fails the market test phase?
What should occur if a product fails the market test phase?
Signup and view all the answers
Which of the following is NOT a consideration in the product design and development process?
Which of the following is NOT a consideration in the product design and development process?
Signup and view all the answers
Which factor often pressures designers during the design process?
Which factor often pressures designers during the design process?
Signup and view all the answers
What is a key advantage of modular design?
What is a key advantage of modular design?
Signup and view all the answers
Which of the following describes robust design?
Which of the following describes robust design?
Signup and view all the answers
What does concurrent engineering primarily aim to achieve?
What does concurrent engineering primarily aim to achieve?
Signup and view all the answers
What type of product change involves cloning a competitor's product?
What type of product change involves cloning a competitor's product?
Signup and view all the answers
Which factor is NOT related to manufacture and assembly in the context of manufacturability?
Which factor is NOT related to manufacture and assembly in the context of manufacturability?
Signup and view all the answers
What is a significant disadvantage of modular design?
What is a significant disadvantage of modular design?
Signup and view all the answers
Design for Manufacturing (DFM) focuses on which aspect of product design?
Design for Manufacturing (DFM) focuses on which aspect of product design?
Signup and view all the answers
What does component commonality refer to in product design?
What does component commonality refer to in product design?
Signup and view all the answers
What is a key characteristic that differentiates services from products?
What is a key characteristic that differentiates services from products?
Signup and view all the answers
Which phase in the service design process involves idea generation and assessing customer needs?
Which phase in the service design process involves idea generation and assessing customer needs?
Signup and view all the answers
In service design, what does a service blueprint primarily describe?
In service design, what does a service blueprint primarily describe?
Signup and view all the answers
What is a significant impact of capacity decisions on an organization?
What is a significant impact of capacity decisions on an organization?
Signup and view all the answers
Which one of the following options is a reason why service design systems can vary in customer contact?
Which one of the following options is a reason why service design systems can vary in customer contact?
Signup and view all the answers
Which of these factors is NOT a determinant of effective capacity?
Which of these factors is NOT a determinant of effective capacity?
Signup and view all the answers
What role does demand variability play in service delivery?
What role does demand variability play in service delivery?
Signup and view all the answers
Why is convenience important in service design?
Why is convenience important in service design?
Signup and view all the answers
What is a key long-term consideration in forecasting capacity requirements?
What is a key long-term consideration in forecasting capacity requirements?
Signup and view all the answers
Which of the following factors should NOT be considered when deciding between in-house production and outsourcing?
Which of the following factors should NOT be considered when deciding between in-house production and outsourcing?
Signup and view all the answers
What is the main purpose of demand management strategies?
What is the main purpose of demand management strategies?
Signup and view all the answers
What characterizes a bottleneck operation?
What characterizes a bottleneck operation?
Signup and view all the answers
Which of the following is NOT a category of constraint in an operation?
Which of the following is NOT a category of constraint in an operation?
Signup and view all the answers
What is a fundamental factor to consider when developing capacity alternatives?
What is a fundamental factor to consider when developing capacity alternatives?
Signup and view all the answers
What does the degree of volatility of demand affect?
What does the degree of volatility of demand affect?
Signup and view all the answers
Which strategy is commonly used to shift demand from peak to off-peak periods?
Which strategy is commonly used to shift demand from peak to off-peak periods?
Signup and view all the answers
Study Notes
Policy
- Laws and regulations can impact the evaluation of alternatives.
- It's important to consider various perspectives when evaluating options.
Economic Factors
- Assess economic feasibility.
- Determine cost, delivery time, operating and maintenance costs, useful life, compatibility with existing personnel and operations.
Non-Economic Factors
- Consider public opinion.
Cost-Volume Analysis
- Focuses on the relationship between cost, revenue, and production volume.
- Used to estimate an organization's income under different operational conditions.
Capacity Strategy
- Influences all areas of the organization.
- Determines the operational conditions.
- Flexibility allows organizations to be agile and reduce reliance on forecast accuracy.
- Capacity cushions are used to achieve flexibility.
- Bottleneck management optimizes effective capacity.
- Capacity expansion strategies include expand-early and wait-and-see approaches.
- Capacity contraction may be necessary, leading to capacity disposal strategies.
Product and Service Design
- Translates customer needs into requirements.
- Refines existing products and services.
- Develops new products and services.
- Defines quality goals and cost targets.
- Constructs and tests prototypes.
- Documents specifications.
- Translates product and service specifications into process specifications.
Key Questions in Product & Service Design
- Is there a demand? Assess potential market size and expected demand profile.
- Can we do it? Evaluate manufacturability (profit-making production capabilities) and serviceability (cost-effective service provision).
- Reverse Engineering: Analyse competitor's products to identify improvement opportunities.
Phases in Product Design and Development
- Feasibility Analysis: Includes market analysis, economic and technical analysis, and evaluation of alternatives.
- Product Specifications: Detailed descriptions of product requirements.
- Process Specifications: Specifications for the manufacturing process.
- Prototype Development: Building one or a few prototype units to test designs.
- Design Review: Evaluating designs and making necessary changes.
- Market Test: Assessing consumer acceptance of the product.
- Product Introduction: Launching the product to the market.
- Follow-up Evaluation: Monitoring product performance after launch.
Legal Considerations
- Product Liability: Manufacturers' responsibility for injuries caused by faulty products.
- Costs Associated with Product Liability: Litigation, legal and insurance costs, settlement costs, product recalls, and reputation damage.
Ethical Considerations
- Designers face pressure to speed up design processes and cut costs, leading to trade-off decisions.
- Examples include releasing software with bugs to avoid revenue loss or delaying release to improve quality and protect reputation.
Other Considerations
- Human Factors: Consider safety and liability in design.
- Cultural Factors: Account for color preferences, food preferences, and product labels.
- Global Design: Utilize design teams from different countries.
Modular Design
- Components are grouped into easily replaceable modules.
- Advantages: Facilitates diagnosis, repair, replacement, manufacturing, assembly, and training.
- Disadvantages: Limits product configuration options and restricts repair capabilities.
Robust Design
- Creates products and services resilient to varying conditions.
- Minimizes failure risk due to environmental changes.
- Applicable to both product and process design.
Degree of Newness
- Product or service design changes can range from modifications to existing products, expansions of existing product lines, clones of competitor products, or entirely new offerings.
- The degree of change influences the product's or service's novelty to the market and the organization.
Concurrent Engineering
- Integrates engineering, manufacturing, marketing, and purchasing personnel early in the design phase to ensure alignment with customer needs and manufacturing capabilities.
- Promotes cross-functional team collaboration and seeks input from suppliers and customers.
Manufacturability
- The ease of fabrication and assembly.
- Influences cost, productivity, and quality.
- Design for Manufacturing (DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA) are applied to optimize production processes.
Component Commonality
- Using similar components across multiple products.
- Benefits: Reduces design time, standardizes training, enables bulk purchasing, and optimizes repair and inventory management.
Service Design
- Starts with defining the service strategy, determining the service focus and target market.
- Key Issues: Customer contact and involvement, variability in service requirements.
Differences between Service and Product Design
- Products are tangible; services are intangible.
- Services are created and delivered simultaneously.
- Services cannot be inventoried.
- Services are highly visible to consumers.
- Services have low barriers to entry and exit.
- Location is crucial for service design, with convenience as a major factor.
- Service systems range from no customer contact to high customer contact.
- Demand variability creates waiting lines or idle service resources.
Phases in Service Design Process
- Conceptualization: Generates ideas, assesses customer needs and demand potential.
- Identify Service Package Components: Determines necessary service elements.
- Determine Performance Specifications: Defines service performance standards.
- Translate Performance Specifications into Design Specifications: Converts performance standards into concrete design specifications.
- Translate Design Specifications into Delivery Specifications: Specifies how the service will be delivered.
Service Blueprint
- A visual tool for analyzing service processes.
- Depicts customer and service actions and interactions.
- Identifies potential failure points.
- Steps include: establishing boundaries, defining customer and service actions, developing time estimates, and identifying failure points.
Design Strategy
- Effective product and service design can achieve competitive advantage.
- Strategies include: packaging products and ancillary services, using multiple-use platforms, balancing high volume and product variety, implementing continuous improvement, and accelerating time-to-market.
Capacity Decisions
- Have a significant impact on an organization's ability to meet future demand.
- Influence operating costs, initial investment, long-term resource commitment, competitiveness, management ease, and global operations.
- Need to be planned in advance due to resource consumption.
Determinants of Effective Capacity
- Factors influencing effective capacity include: facilities, process factors, policy factors, supply chain factors, product and service factors, human factors, operational factors, and external factors.
Strategy Formulation
- Strategies typically rely on assumptions about: long-term demand patterns, technological changes, and competitor behavior.
- These assumptions address: demand growth rate and variability, building and operating costs, technological innovation, competitor behavior, and resource availability.
Forecasting Capacity Requirements
- Long-term considerations focus on overall capacity level, forecasting demand over a broad time horizon and converting it into capacity requirements.
- Short-term considerations address fluctuations in capacity requirements, emphasizing seasonal variations and other deviations from average demand.
Demand Management Strategies
- Minimize capacity limitations and align supply and demand.
- Strategies include: pricing, promotions, discounts, and demand shifting tactics to move demand from peak periods to slow periods.
In-House or Outsource?
- Organizations decide whether to produce goods or services internally or outsource.
- Factors influencing this decision include: available capacity, quality considerations, cost, expertise, demand characteristics, and risks.
Developing Capacity Alternatives
- Enhance capacity management by: designing flexibility into systems, considering the product lifecycle stage, adopting a holistic approach to capacity changes, managing capacity in manageable chunks, smoothing capacity requirements, identifying optimal operating levels, and choosing appropriate expansion strategies.
Bottleneck Operation
- An operation with lower capacity than others within a sequence, hindering overall production.
Constraint
- Anything limiting a process or system's performance in achieving goals.
- Categories: market (insufficient demand), resource (shortage of resources), material (material shortage), financial (insufficient funds), knowledge or competency (lack of required knowledge or skills).
Studying That Suits You
Use AI to generate personalized quizzes and flashcards to suit your learning preferences.
Related Documents
Description
Test your knowledge on capacity strategy principles, including evaluating alternatives, cost-volume analysis, and the impacts of flexibility on organizational forecasting. This quiz covers essential strategies such as proactive capacity expansion and methods for enhancing effective capacities.
