1. What are the major differences between aggregate planning in manufacturing and aggregate planning in services?
2. How do facility location decisions differ for service facilities and manufacturing plants?
3. Distinguish between pure and mixed strategies in production planning.
4. What recent changes have caused supply chain management to gain importance?
5. Financial applications are divided into three areas. Describe each of these areas.
6. How would the needs of stakeholder groups be reflected in a performance measurement system?
7. In discussing characteristics of efficient plants, Goodson, developer of rapid plant assessments, suggests that numerous forklifts are a sign of poor space utilization. What do you think is behind this observation?
8. Which of the rules of re-engineering do you feel would be the most difficult to satisfy? Why?
9. Describe the differences between functional and innovative products.
10. What are the pros and cons of relocating a small or mid-sized manufacturing firm (that makes mature products) from the United States to Mexico in the post-NAFTA environment?
11. How is the seasonal index computed from a regression line analysis?
12. What is the logic in the least squares method of linear regression analysis?
13. What key technological features of SAP set it apart from conventional business accounting/planning/control software?
14. What are the main reasons why a large percentage of executives have negative feelings toward ERP software?
15. What strategies are used by supermarkets, airlines, hospitals, banks, and cereal manufacturers to influence demand?
16. Identify and discuss the most significant operations and supply management approach since 1960.
17. Discuss the basic differences between the mean absolute deviation and the standard deviation.
18. What motivations typically cause firms to initiate a facilities location or relation project?
19. Identify the typical processes in manufacturing firms. Discuss how the new product development process interacts with the traditional function in the firm.
20. Where do opportunities reside in improving supply chain operations and how has VSM helped to reveal these?