12-1 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC. Solution Manual for Managing Operations Across the Supply Chain, 5th Edition Swink Chapter 1 -16 Chapter 1 Introduction to Managing Operations Across the Supply Chain Suggested Answers to Discussion Questions 1. Review Fortune magazine’s ―Most Admired‖ American companies for 1959, 1979, 1999, and the most current year. (The issue normally appears in August each year.) Which companies have remained on the top throughout this period? Which on es have disappeared? What do you think led to the survival or demise of these companies? The companies that have stayed on top throughout this period are Southwest, Berkshire Hathaway, and Proctor and Gamble. UPS, Coca Cola, and GE were some of the compani es that disappeared. The companies that were able to stay at the top of the list were the ones able to deal with major changes in the industry easily. In order to stay afloat in harder times, they were managed by people who understood operations management ; they had a winning value proposition that was continually revitalized by the introduction of new products and services. The companies that did not stay at the top unable to make the necessary changes so easily; perhaps their operations management was not at the caliber of the other companies able to stay at the top of the list. 2. Select two products that you have recently purchased; one should be a service and the other a manufactured good. Think about the process that you used to make the decision to purc hase each item. What product characteristics were most important to you? What operational activities determine these characteristics? NURSEDOCS 12-2 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC. Student answers to this question will vary. The following is an example from one student: ―Two products I have recently p urchased were a sweater and a haircut. The process I used to make the decision to purchase the sweater was trying on the sweater in different colors, contemplating the purchase at home, waiting for sweater to go on sale, and then purchasing it. The process I used to make the decision about where to get my haircut included researching pictures of how I wanted my hair to look, asking advice about where to go from friends, researching online for reviews about stylists, and getting my haircut by that stylist. I wanted to make sure both products were going to satisfy me enough so that I wouldn’t regret either purchase. I had to be comfortable with both my sweater and my new hair style, luckily I was! I also wanted both my sweater and my hair style to last for a w hile to make them worth the cost. The operational activities that determine these characteristics are the manufacturing, shipping and selling the sweater in stores. If the sweater was poorly made and didn’t fit correctly, I would not have purchased it. If it was not available (on the shelf) I could not have purchased it. The operational activities that determine the characteristics of my hairstyle are the stylist arriving to work on time for my appointment, washing, cutting and blow drying my hair in a way that I was expecting (having sufficient capacity so that I did not have to wait too long). Since my hair was cut and styled the way I requested, I will be returning to that hair stylist. 3. What are the primary operations management decisions in each of the following corporations? Again, student answers will vary but may include the following elements. a. Marriott Hotels and Resorts: How to greet and treat customers during their stay, what services to supply to customers, how to check customers in so that they are not waiting for NURSEDOCS 12-3 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC. long periods of time to get to their rooms, how to deal with unhappy customers in order to keep them comin g back, how to measure customer satisfaction. b. A private golf and tennis club: How to serve customers while playing tennis/golf so they continue to spend their money and play at this private course, what services to offer in order to keep customers happy. How to best manage the facilities and train employees. c. Ben & Jerry’s: What flavors to make, how much of each flavor to make, how to keep up with demand, what suppliers to use, how to measure customer satisfaction. d. ExxonMobil Corporation: How to manage expl oration, extraction and refinement operations effectively and efficiently. What services are to be delivered, how to keep retail customers happy, how to deliver goods. 4. Consider the following processes that you frequently encounter as a college student. Describe each process and its input, activities, and outputs. What is being converted or transformed in each process? Who are the customers, suppliers, and stakeholders for each process? a. Enrolling in classes: Classes must be scheduled so that students can enroll in them, students communicate with advisor about necessary classes, students sign onto website and find suitable classes that fit together into schedule for each semester. The inputs of this process are the student’s and administrators’ time and pro blem solving effort. The activities are decision making, communicating, and scheduling so that everyone has a chance to take the classes they want each semester. The output is the student’s schedule and enrollment into classes. The student’s schedule is be ing transformed. The customer is the student, the stakeholders are the professors who get paid to teach the courses and the businesses that would like to hire students once they complete their courses. The supplier is the university. NURSEDOCS 12-4 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC. b. Taking a class: The pr ocess and activities of taking a class entail making it to class on time every session, studying before class to be able to follow along and participate, arriving with the correct materials in order to take notes and complete activities in class, and compl eting homework before it is due. The inputs are the knowledge of the professor and information contained in course materials, along with the student’s hard work, studying, participating, and physically going to class. The outputs are friends and education. The student is being transformed. The customer is the student. Or one might consider the business who would like to hire the student to be the customer. The supplier is the university. c. Buying a ticket for a play, concert, or basketball game: The process a nd activities of buying a ticket entail making a decision to buy the ticket, saving up the money, either ordering the ticket online or physically going to a ticket booth and purchasing the ticket. The inputs are time and money. The outputs are the experien ce of seeing a great play, concert, or basketball game and memories. The ownership of the ticket is being converted. The customer is the ticket purchaser; the stakeholder is the owner of the basketball team, or the director of the play, or the manager of t he band. If no one purchases tickets, those stakeholders may no longer have jobs. The supplier is the team, the actors, or the band. 5. Recall the last time you went to a fast -food restaurant such as McDonald’s. Describe all of the goods and services that ma ke up your total product experience. The goods that made up my experience were the actual food and drink that I purchased. The services were being greeted when I walked up to the counter, ordering my food, receiving my food in a timely manner along with my order being correct. The service of a clean restaurant also added to my total product experience. 6. The following firms have long been seen as having strong competitive advantages. NURSEDOCS
