Page 607 - Introduction to Business

CHAPTER 16 Managing Business Operations 581

EXHIBIT 16.15
Example of a Scheduling Decision for a Job Process

ROUTE
Job Work center/Machine hours
A I/2 II/3 III/4
B III/2 II/2 I/2
C II/3 III/1 I/3
D I/3 III/2 II/1

A D B C
Work center I:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Time (hours)

A B C D
Work center II:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Time (hours)
B A C D
Work center III:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Time (hours)

D A C B
Work center I:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Time (hours)
C B D A
Work center II:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Time (hours)
B D C A
Work center III:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Time (hours)

Quality

Quality is the ability of a product to meet or exceed customers’ expectations. Qual- quality The ability of a product to meet
ity can be viewed on two additional dimensions: quality of design and quality of or exceed customers’ expectations
conformance. Quality of design refers to the excellence of the intention of design- quality of design The excellence of the
intention of designers to include or
ers to include or exclude features in a product. In terms of design, a Rolex watch
exclude features in a product
would have a higher quality of design than a Timex watch, and of course the prices
of these watches would reflect this difference. The quality of design is mostly asso-
ciated with the marketing function. Quality of conformance is the degree to which quality of conformance The degree to
the product conforms to the intent of the designers. In terms of conformance, we which the product conforms to the
intent of the designers
would say that a Rolex watch has a lower quality of conformance than a Timex
watch if the Rolex watch did not conform to the designer’s specifications and the
Timex watch did. The quality of conformance is mostly associated with the opera-
tions function.
The three dimensions of quality apply equally to goods and services. However,
the factors that customers use to judge quality in goods are different from those
they use for services. In the case of goods, customers look at the following three fac-
tors, which add a future time dimension:
• Reliability refers to length of time in between failures of the item. For exam- reliability (of an item) The length of time
ple, if under similar usage conditions copy machine A breaks down on average between failures of an item

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