Exam 18: Planning and Control Techniques

The first step in the project planning process is to __________.

If a retail sales manager wants to know how many denim jackets must be sold in order to achieve a specified profit objective, she should use which planning tool?

Engineers use a process called reverse engineering to study competitors' products to learn about technical innovations.

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Forecasting (Scenario) Imagine that you are a manager in the construction industry in Calgary, Alberta. Calgary has recently been experiencing rapid growth, bringing with it increased demand for construction services and more intense competition. The provincial government has been easing restrictions on public land use and has promoted a business-friendly environment to attract more corporations to the area. Furthermore, the oil business is booming, and there is a severe shortage of housing and worker accommodations in the oil-producing regions. However, you are also aware of how quickly these factors can change and the impact that a change in government or a decline in the price of oil can have on the construction industry. Given these considerations, you try to develop a forecast to help plan your company's future. -You form a consistent view that oil prices will inevitably rise, and based on this information, you develop several plans to capitalize on the housing demand in the oil industry. You have developed a __________.

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Dave's Doughnuts (Scenario) Dave Glazer is the owner of Dave's Doughnuts, a five-store chain of doughnut shops located in the Okanagan region of British Columbia. At weekly management meetings, Dave asks each of the five store managers to report on local trends and new customer requests. -Dave likes to keep informed about business trends and reads the industry magazine Doughnut Digest every month. Each year he attends the National Conference of Doughnut Makers and updates his managers upon his return. These activities are examples of __________.

The value of global scanning is largely dependent on the __________.

Sean is the marketing manager for Mega Computers. He is trying to predict how many more units they can sell in Western Canada next quarter by increasing advertising expenditures by 20 percent. Which specific forecasting technique should Sean use?

Events, activities, and load factors are all parts of PERT network analysis.

Krazy Key Chains sell for $1.00 each. If variable costs are $0.50 each and total fixed costs are $2,500, how many key chains must be sold to break even?

Forecasting techniques fall into what two categories?

define the practice of project management and explain why many organizations are turning to this approach. Identify three characteristics of organizational projects that would make them good candidates for the project management approach.

To compute a breakeven point, a manager needs to know the unit price of the product being sold, the fixed cost per unit, and the total variable cost.

A __________ schedules resource capacity by work area.

Qualitative forecasting uses the judgment and opinions of knowledgeable individuals to predict outcomes.

Which of the following is an example of a fixed cost?

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Allocating Resources at Planning Plus Inc. (Scenario) Management from all levels of Planning Plus Inc. (PPI) has been making decisions about how to best accomplish next year's organizational goals. The production department has been making numerical plans to project such items as person-hours per machine, capacity usage, and production volume. Accounting has been trying to determine the production quantity at which total revenues will equal total costs. Purchasing has been establishing delivery dates for raw materials that meet the weekly inventory requirements of the production department. Finally, the marketing department has been planning the introduction of a new product. Marketing is essentially using a bar graph that displays time on the horizontal axis and activities to be completed on the vertical axis. -The accounting department is using which resource allocation technique?

When General Motors surveys its car dealers to determine which styles and quantities of cars are desired across Canada, they are using which specific forecasting technique?

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Budgeting Bonanza (Scenario) Chuck Cartwright owns Ponderosa Video, a small chain of video stores based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The stores have been earning a modest profit, but Chuck needs to improve his budgeting process if he wants to compete against the big national chains. His financial advisor, Helga Hensler, suggested he develop a series of budgets for analysis. -Helga asked Chuck to estimate the costs associated with his primary business activities, such as rent and video purchases, to develop a(n) __________ budget.

One of the fastest-growing areas of environmental scanning is __________.

Refer to the scenario below to answer the following questions. Dave's Doughnuts (Scenario) Dave Glazer is the owner of Dave's Doughnuts, a five-store chain of doughnut shops located in the Okanagan region of British Columbia. At weekly management meetings, Dave asks each of the five store managers to report on local trends and new customer requests. -Dave recently conducted an experiment with three new cooking oils in his stores. Customers were invited to participate in a taste-preference test of three sample doughnuts, one for each of the oils: N, O, and W. Based on the results of this test, Dave concluded that oil N was the favourite. Which planning technique was Dave using in this instance?