Exam 17: International Operations Management

What are the essential location decisions faced by international operations managers? What country features and product-related characteristics influence the decision of where to locate an international facility?

When managers decide on modes of transportation and methods of inventory control, what area of international operations management is involved?

The management of the flow of finished products, services, and goods from the firm to customers is called materials management.

Increasing employee involvement and spending less on research and development are actions that tend to boost the productivity of international firms.

Executives at Elfman Computers have decided that the firm will make the memory chips, microprocessors, power supplies, and disc drives needed to manufacture the firm's computer systems. As a result, Elfman will most likely increase its control over ________.

Christopher Radko, a premium holiday ornament manufacturer, is considering locating manufacturing facilities in China in order to lower costs. However, the firm fears a backlash from ornament collectors who prefer ornaments made in Eastern Europe. What location issue is Christopher Radko dealing with?

A product's value-to-weight ratio affects the importance of transportation costs in the product's delivered price.

The transformation of inputs to final goods and services in an international firm is called international ________.

Buying an input is most sensible when there is a(n) ________ potential for competitive advantage and a(n) ________ degree of strategic vulnerability.

The set of processes and steps a firm uses to acquire the various resources it needs to create it products is called ________.

Heineken NV buys grains, labels, bottles, and cartons from other suppliers prior to brewing and bottling its beer. This suggests that Heineken has little ________.

What is an international service business?

What organization has developed and refined an international set of quality guidelines?

Hong Kong's Roly International Holdings locates its factories in China where it can produce inexpensive Christmas decorations due to low wage rates. These goods are then shipped via slow, inexpensive cargo ships to discounters like Wal-Mart. Roly International Holdings follows a ________ strategy in its operations management.

Executives at Moxley Manufacturing want to improve the firm's productivity. Which of the following would most likely help Moxley achieve this goal?

When Nissan chose to locate a new manufacturing facility in Jackson, Mississippi, it received $295 million in incentives. What factor was likely the most critical in the location decision?

Forest Foods is an MNE with operations in Asia, Europe, and North America. Forest Foods uses standardized production process and technologies in every market in which it conducts business. The operations systems at Forest Foods should most likely be ________.

The make-or-buy decision primarily relates to ________.

For firms following a cost leadership approach, the operations management function must be able to create goods or services that are clearly different from those of the company's competitors.

The Swedish appliance maker AB Electrolux manufactures vacuum cleaners and has service operations set up to repair those products for consumers who buy them. AB Electrolux is most likely attempting to ________.