Eduqas A-Level Business operations management overview quiz quiz

Making a single, often custom, product at a time

Making large quantities of a standardised product continuously

Making groups of identical items in stages

Making products with no workers

20

200

1,250

125,000

Total costs always fall back to zero as output keeps rising

The selling price is forced upwards as the firm grows larger

Unit (average) cost falls as output rises

Average cost rises steadily as output rises

60%

75%

80%

133%

It always reduces profit because fixed costs are no longer spread out

Regulators ban any firm from running its plant at full capacity

It raises the unit cost as fixed costs are spread over fewer units

It leaves no slack for maintenance, breakdowns or extra orders

Any supply disruption halts production because there is no buffer stock

High storage and warehousing costs because so much stock is held on site

Too much working capital is tied up sitting in large amounts of stock

Heavy waste arises as large buffer stocks become obsolete before use

They are the same thing, since both simply rely on inspecting the finished output right at the very end

Quality assurance only applies to services, never to manufactured physical goods

Quality control detects defects at the end; quality assurance prevents them throughout the process

Quality control prevents defects throughout; quality assurance only detects them at the end

A single one-off major redesign of the entire production line by senior managers

Inspecting and rejecting defective products only at the very end of production

Holding large buffer stocks of finished goods to guard against any disruption

Continuous improvement through many small, ongoing changes by all staff

Dependability (reliable, on-time delivery)

Maximising the dividends paid out to the shareholders

Raising the firm's share price for the owners

Lobbying the government for favourable regulation

Whether to sell a finished product now or hold it in stock for later sale

Whether to produce work in-house or pay an outside specialist to do it

Whether to advertise a product or rely entirely on word of mouth instead

Whether to raise or lower the selling price charged to the customer

There is no difference; the two terms describe exactly the same business activity

Product innovation only ever cuts production costs, while process innovation only ever raises the firm's sales revenue

Product innovation is a new product for customers; process innovation is a new way of producing or delivering

Process innovation is a new product for customers; product innovation is a new production method

Because company law requires the two strategies to be written in the same document

Because operations strategy is meant to replace corporate strategy entirely over time

Because operations strategy and corporate strategy are always completely identical to each other in every single firm anyway

Because operations decisions on cost, quality and capacity must deliver what the corporate strategy promises