Exam 7: Manufacturing and Service Technologies

The general pattern in technology research is that when technologies are routine, analyzable, independent, and well defined, then:

Woodward's classification of technology (into three clusters of organizational technologies) was based on a scale that measured:

Describe an organization in which a mechanistic structure would be the most appropriate and explain why. Describe an organization in which an organic structure would be the most appropriate and explain why.

Contrast the axes on Perrow's framework for department technologies.

The impact of technology on job design includes:

Reference Case 7.0. Place Toyz' manufacturing, marketing, and design departments in Perrow's framework for departmental technology. Then, based on your analysis, make recommendations to management on any differences in how each of those departments should be managed.

Research suggests that FMS can become a competitive burden, rather than a competitive advantage, unless organizational structures and management processes are redesigned to take advantage of the new technology.

Using the sociotechnical systems model, explain the design for joint optimization both in terms of the model and in terms that describe the meaning.

Compare and contrast the configuration and structural characteristics of service organizations versus product organizations.

Compared with traditional mass production technologies, FMS has a narrow span of control, few hierarchical levels, adaptive tasks, low specialization, and decentralization, and the overall environment is characterized as organic and self-regulative.

The management systems in both unit-production and continuous-process technology are characterized as

Core-technology is a department work process that is important to the organization but is not directly related to its primary mission.

Explain the difference between core technology and non-core technology.

An organization's ____ is the work process that is directly related to the organization's mission.

An integrated information network refers to a computerized system with a common database linking all areas of the organization such as accounting, inventory control, design, marketing, production, etc.

Products of different sizes, types, and customer requirements freely intermingling on the assembly line is an advantage of lean manufacturing.

Extend the framework of Woodward's research findings to today, adding in whatever important technology did not exist at the time she did her research.

The impact of advanced technologies on job design has been:

Intensive technologies "refers to the combination in one organization of successive stages of production; each stage of production uses as its inputs the production of the preceding stage and produces inputs for the following stage."

Mass customization refers to the separation of one product from the mass production line so that it can be adapted to the needs of a particular market.