Question

1. During a problem-solving session, participants make a number of statements during the “identify the problem” phase of the process. Some of the statements reflect the actual problem. Others are merely symptoms of the problem. Select the statement(s) that represent the actual problem. Select all that apply.

a. “Three customers complained this week that the packages they received from our new carrier were damaged in transit. This is the highest number of complaints we have ever had in a week.”

b. “We are understaffed right now because three of our most senior employees quit in the past week. Three more are threatening to quit this week.”

c. “We got behind on deliveries this week. Our vehicles sometimes won’t start.”

d. “We had our first injury of the year. There was an accident on our shop floor because a leak from a truck’s oil pan left an oil slick on the floor.”

2. You are a management consultant with McKenzie and Company. You specialize in helping companies accurately identify and acquire the appropriate production inputs for their operations. Based on your extensive experience, you know that most production inputs fall into one or more of the following categories: materials and labor resources or information resources.

However, the degree to which of these resources will be the dominant input depends on the type of business. In order to streamline your future projects, you have decided to put together a list of business types and their dominant category of production inputs. For each of the business types listed below, indicate which of the two production input categories in the drop-down menu would be most dominant for that business type.

a. Gold mining company - SelectMaterials and labor resourcesInformation resourcesItem 1
b. An online news publisher - SelectMaterials and labor resourcesInformation resourcesItem 2
c. Commercial bank - SelectMaterials and labor resourcesInformation resourcesItem 3
d. Automobile manufacturer - SelectMaterials and labor resourcesInformation resourcesItem 4
e. Accounting and bookkeeping firm - SelectMaterials and labor resourcesInformation resourcesItem 5
f. Food processing company - SelectMaterials and labor resourcesInformation resources

2. You are preparing to interview candidates for the company’s HR manager position. These are the primary job responsibilities of the new HR manager:

• Draft policies and procedures for managing employees
• Create a long-term staffing strategy to ensure that trained individuals will be available should the business choose to expand
• Meet with union officials to promote joint union/management activities
• Ensure that current HR policies and procedures are in compliance with state, federal, and local laws
• Meet with local community groups to ensure that the business is seen as a good neighbor

You are aware that some of these responsibilities require conceptual skills, some require technical skills, and some require interpersonal skills. Choose the skill from the drop-down menu that each job description most requires.

a. Draft policies and procedures for managing employees.SelectConceptualTechnicalInterpersonalItem 1
b. Create a long-term staffing strategy to ensure that trained individuals will be available should the business choose to expand. SelectConceptualTechnicalInterpersonalItem 2
c. Meet with union officials to promote joint union/management activities.SelectConceptualTechnicalInterpersonalItem 3
d. Ensure that current HR policies and procedures are in compliance with state, federal, and local laws. SelectConceptualTechnicalInterpersonalItem 4
e. Meet with local community groups to ensure that the business is seen as a good neighbor.

3. You are head of Quality Control at a major pharmaceutical company. You are on a mission to quantify the financial impact of defective products produced by the company. You believe that if executive management understood the financial cost of defective products, they would be more receptive to implementing some of the quality improvement measures you have advocated for years.

You compiled the following statistics related to defective products across the pharmaceutical industry:

1. The average defective rate for the industry is 5% of total product units shipped.
2. For every percentage of defective products, a company will incur $10,000,000 of legal-related costs per year.
3. For every percentage of defective products, a company can expect to lose about $5,000,000 of sales in a given year.

Additional Information:

• Your company has annual sales of $50 billion.
• Your company’s defective product percentage is 6%.

Based on the information presented above, indicate whether each of the following statements is true or false.

a. Your company’s defective product performance is better than the average performance for the pharmaceutical industry. SelectTrueFalseItem 1
b. Your company’s defective product performance is resulting in less than $30,000,000 per year in legal costs. SelectTrueFalseItem 2
c. If your company is able to reduce its defective product percentage rate to less than 5%, it will likely see an increase in sales. SelectTrueFalseItem 3
d. If your company’s defective product percentage rate increases to more than 7.50%, the company will see its legal costs increase and its sales decrease. SelectTrueFalseItem 4

4. You are a senior analyst supporting the Vice President of Manufacturing at United Global Technologies Corporation. You have been asked to determine which of the company’s manufacturing plants around the world can handle the production volume for the company’s new elevator frames. For cost reasons, it’s important to produce all frames at one factory.

The table below lists the company’s manufacturing plants around the world, and their respective annual production capacity statistics:

Manufacturing Plant Location	Current Production Quota in Units	Total Production Capacity	Current Excess Capacity
Tampa, Florida	1,500,000	1,500,000	0
Shanghai, China	1,700,000	1,600,000	(100,000)
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	2,500,000	3,000,000	500,000
Berlin, Germany	1,650,000	1,975,000	325,000
Tacoma, Washington	1,800,000	2,200,000	400,000

Additional information:

• The sales department expects the company to sell approximately 450,000 units of the new elevator frames in the upcoming fiscal year.
• The majority of sales are expected to be in the company’s East Asia territory.

Based on your production capacity analysis, answer the following questions with the choices from the drop-down menus to decide where the new elevator frame component should be produced.

a. Which of the plants has the largest excess production capacity?SelectTampa, FloridaShanghai, ChinaKuala Lumpur, MalaysiaBerlin, GermanyTacoma, WashingtonItem 1
b. Which of the plants has the largest production capacity deficit?SelectTampa, FloridaShanghai, ChinaKuala Lumpur, MalaysiaBerlin, GermanyTacoma, WashingtonItem 2
c. Which of the plants should produce the new elevator frame component? SelectTampa, FloridaShanghai, ChinaKuala Lumpur, MalaysiaBerlin, GermanyTacoma, WashingtonItem 3

Answer 1

1)The correct answer is option b which only describes the problems.Rest of all describe the problem and their root causes.

2) A- Technical since drafting policies and procedures require technical skills.

B- Conceptual since long term staffing is a conceptual issue.

C-Interpersonal since meeting and negotiations require interpersonal skills.

D-Techincal since aligning HR policies and procedures require technical knowledge of state laws and compliance requirements

3) A)False since industry defective rate is 5% vs 6% for the firm

B)False since 1% defective rate leads to $10000000, therefore it is $60000000

C)The correct answer is true as every percentage increase in defective products leads to sales loss. Therefore if defective rates is reduced, sales is increased.

D)the correct answer is true since the increase in percentage leads to sales loss and an increase in legal costs.

4) A)The correct answer is Kuala Lumpur Malaysia which has excess capacity of 500000.

B)the correct answer is shanghai, china which has deficit of 100000.

C)The correct answer is Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia since it has a free capacity of 450000.