CIPS L5M9 : Operations Management

Doug's Doughnuts Ltd is a large manufacturer of doughnuts. They produce in excess of 100,000 doughnuts per day which are boxed and sent to supermarkets and other retail outlets for sale. Large pieces of machinery are used to make the doughnuts. Which form of maintenance would be the most appropriate to use at Doug's Doughnuts?

• A. reactive
• B. condition based
• C. run to breakdown
• D. preventative

Which of the following would you likely find on a Process Control Chart which is being used to monitor the quality of products manufactured in a factory?

• A. frequency of defects
• B. upper and lower control limits
• C. arrows showing the flow of goods
• D. different activities completed and the amount of slack available in each activity

Under what circumstances would an 'intermittent operations' process be the most suitable?

• A. an organisation with low numbers of manufacturing staff
• B. where quality assurance must be carried out regularly
• C. many different items are produced in low quantities
• D. in high value, high volume production

Little Joy Ltd is a large company with several functional departments. Below are details of four departments. For each, you must decide which functional area of the business the department is, as well as the SERVQUAL Gap that each Department Lead is concerned with.
Department 1: This department is concerned with the creation of products. The products are created in line with BS EN 716-1 and undergo vigorous tests before they leave the factory. Many customers are unaware of the additional costs of testing to BS EN 716-1 and complain about the price of this product line.
Department 2: Other departments of the business are internal customers of this functional area and approach the Department Lead when they require something to be bought. Often the internal customers have unrealistic expectations of the timescales involved in the process and the Department Lead spends a lot of time explaining lead times and logistics.
Department 3: This functional area creates the budgets for the company and emails these to the Department Leads at the beginning of every quarter. Due to the complexity of the documents, other functional areas of the business often don't understand the information provided.
Department 4: This area of the business is concerned with revenue, which has recently slumped. The Department Lead is conducting market surveys to find out the reason for this.
Complete the table below by listing the Functional Area of the business, and the corresponding SERVQUAL Gap.
Each response should only be used once: procurement, finance, sales, production, satisfaction gap, delivery gap, standards gap, communication gap.

Which of the following will you put into box 1?

• A. procurement
• B. production
• C. finance
• D. sales

There are four manufacturing companies located on Seashell Industrial Estate. Each company creates a different product and employs a different maintenance approach to its operations. For each company, select the corresponding maintenance approach and the key operating process characteristic.
Company 1: This company creates craft beer and offers customers a tour of the brewery for a small charge. The brewing equipment is serviced monthly and the brewery is kept extremely clean. All equipment is labelled with the last service date.
Company 2: This company produces seasonal items such as Easter Eggs and Christmas Cake. The equipment has a control panel where lights will flash red advising staff to check oil levels and components. Staff can then report issues to the maintenance team if remedial work is required. Product demand fluctuates throughout the year.
Company 3: This equipment does not often break down and is only fixed when it is reported by staff as no longer working. Company 3 creates toys, providing a large range of product sizes and colours based on different customer requirements.
Company 4: Parts of the machine are serviced quarterly but in general, the machine is left to run its course and is then replaced when it is no longer financially viable to fix. The company produces cereal and the operating process is focused on the quantity produced and therefore uses standardised processes.
Complete the table below by listing the maintenance approach and operating process characteristic for each company. Each response should only be used once: preventative maintenance, run to breakdown maintenance, condition-based maintenance, mixed maintenance, volume, visibility, variation, variety

Which of the following will you put into box 1?

• A. run-to-breakdown maintenance
• B. preventative maintenance
• C. mixed maintenance
• D. condition-based maintenance