Exam 5: Strategic Capacity Planning for Products and Services

The advertising manager for Roadside Restaurants, Inc., needs to decide whether to spend this month's budget for advertising on print media, television, or a mixture of the two. She estimates that the cost per thousand "hits" (readers or viewers)will vary depending upon the success of the new cable television network she plans to use, as follows: If she uses the Laplace criterion, which advertising strategy will she use?

Suppose a firm has decided to break its departments down into smaller units. While this likely will help with __________ issues, it raises the possibility that poor decisions will result due to __________.

The local operations manager for the Internal Revenue Service must decide whether to hire one, two, or three temporary tax examiners for the upcoming tax season. She estimates that net revenues (in thousands of dollars)will vary with how well taxpayers comply with the new tax code just passed by Congress, as follows: If she uses the maximin criterion, how many new examiners will she decide to hire?

A decision maker's worst option has an expected value of $1,000, and her best option has an expected value of $3,000. With perfect information, the expected value would be $5,000. What is the expected value of perfect information?

Consider the following decision scenario: *PV for profits ($000) The maximin strategy would be:

Production units have an optimal rate of output where:

Operation X feeds into operation Y. Operation X has an effective capacity of 55 units per hour. Operation Y has an effective capacity of 50 units per hour. Increasing X's effective capacity to ensure that Y's utilization is maximized would be an example of ________ a constraint.

Which of the following is not a determinant of effective capacity?

The head of operations for a movie studio wants to determine which of two new scripts they should select for their next major production. (Due to budgeting constraints, only one new picture can be undertaken at this time.)She feels that script 1 has a 70 percent chance of earning about $10,000,000 over the long run, but a 30 percent chance of losing $2,000,000. If this movie is successful, then a sequel could also be produced, with an 80 percent chance of earning $5,000,000, but a 20 percent chance of losing $1,000,000. On the other hand, she feels that script 2 has a 60 percent chance of earning $12,000,000, but a 40 percent chance of losing $3,000,000. If successful, its sequel would have a 50 percent chance of earning $8,000,000, but a 50 percent chance of losing $4,000,000. Of course, in either case, if the original movie were a flop, then no sequel would be produced. What is the expected value for the optimum decision alternative?

Which phrase best describes the term "bounded rationality"?

The owner of a greenhouse and nursery is considering whether to spend $6,000 to acquire the licensing rights to grow a new variety of rosebush, which she could then sell for $6 each. Per-unit variable cost would be $3. If her available land has design and effective capacities of 3,000 and 2,000 rosebushes per year, respectively, and she expects to be 80 percent efficient in her use of this land, how many rosebushes does Rose plan to grow each year on this land?

Capacity cushion can be determined by:

Improving cash flow would be a reasonable thing to focus on when trying to overcome a _________ constraint.

The local operations manager for the Internal Revenue Service must decide whether to hire one, two, or three temporary tax examiners for the upcoming tax season. She estimates that net revenues (in thousands of dollars)will vary with how well taxpayers comply with the new tax code just passed by Congress, as follows: If she feels the chances of low, medium, and high compliance are 20 percent, 30 percent, and 50 percent respectively, what are the expected net revenues for the number of assistants she will decide to hire?

Which of the following is not a reason why capacity decisions are so important?

If the output rate is increased but the average unit costs also increase, we are experiencing:

A weakness of the maximin approach is that it loses some information.

Increasing capacity just before a bottleneck operation will improve the output of the process.

Seasonal variations are often easier to deal with in capacity planning than random variations because seasonal variations tend to be:

The owner of Tastee Cookies needs to decide whether to lease a small, medium, or large new retail outlet. She estimates that monthly profits will vary with demand for her cookies as follows: If she feels there is a 30 percent chance that demand will be high, what are the expected monthly profits for the outlet she will decide to lease?