Process Management & Improvement Flashcards
7 cards from real COM practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Process Management & Improvement flashcards as text
A hospital applies the Theory of Constraints to its emergency department. The patient intake desk is identified as the bottleneck. According to TOC, what should be done first?
Answer: Exploit the bottleneck by maximizing its throughput
TOC's five focusing steps begin with identifying the constraint, then exploiting it — getting the maximum output from it before adding resources.
What is the primary purpose of a control chart's Upper Control Limit (UCL) and Lower Control Limit (LCL)?
Answer: Distinguish natural process variation from special-cause variation
Control limits are statistically derived from the process itself and separate common-cause variation (normal) from special-cause variation (requiring investigation).
An operations manager wants to reduce process variation using the PDCA cycle. After implementing a change in the 'Do' phase, what happens in the 'Check' phase?
Answer: Measure results and compare them to the expected outcomes
The Check phase analyzes the data collected during the Do phase to determine whether the change achieved the desired improvement.
Which lean concept describes the ideal state where production is triggered only by actual customer demand?
Answer: Pull system
A pull system produces goods only in response to downstream demand signals, preventing overproduction and excess inventory.
A Kaizen event is best described as which of the following?
Answer: A focused, short-duration team-based improvement event
A Kaizen event (or blitz) is an intensive, time-boxed workshop (typically 3–5 days) where a cross-functional team tackles a specific process problem.
When mapping a process, a team discovers rework loops that add 30% to total processing time. In lean terms, this rework is classified as which type of waste?
Answer: Defects
Rework is a direct result of defects — one of the 8 lean wastes — requiring additional time, materials, and resources to correct non-conforming output.
A Certified Operations Manager uses error-proofing devices to prevent defects at the source. What is the Japanese term for this concept?
Answer: Poka-Yoke
Poka-Yoke refers to mistake-proofing mechanisms that make it impossible or immediately detectable when an error occurs.