CPIM Execution and Control of Operations 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which lean tool maps the flow of materials and information from supplier to customer to identify waste?
- Fishbone diagram
- Value stream mapping (Correct answer)
- Pareto chart
- Control chart
Correct answer: Value stream mapping
Value stream mapping (VSM) visually documents current-state material and information flows to identify non-value-adding activities and design a leaner future state.
Question 2: In Theory of Constraints (TOC), the 'constraint' or bottleneck is defined as:
- Any work center with high setup times
- The resource that limits the system's throughput (Correct answer)
- A supplier with long lead times
- A process step with high defect rates
Correct answer: The resource that limits the system's throughput
In TOC, the constraint is the weakest link — the resource whose capacity determines the maximum output of the entire system.
Question 3: What is the primary goal of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)?
- Reducing the cost of spare parts inventory
- Maximizing equipment effectiveness through proactive, operator-led maintenance (Correct answer)
- Outsourcing maintenance to reduce fixed costs
- Scheduling all maintenance during planned shutdowns
Correct answer: Maximizing equipment effectiveness through proactive, operator-led maintenance
TPM aims to eliminate equipment losses by involving operators in maintenance, preventing breakdowns, and continuously improving Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE).
Question 4: Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is calculated as the product of:
- Utilization, throughput rate, and defect rate
- Availability, performance, and quality rates (Correct answer)
- Uptime, cycle time, and yield
- Planned hours, actual hours, and rework rate
Correct answer: Availability, performance, and quality rates
OEE = Availability × Performance × Quality, capturing losses from downtime, speed reduction, and defects in a single metric.
Question 5: In quality management, 'statistical process control' (SPC) uses control charts to:
- Set customer specifications for finished products
- Distinguish between common-cause and special-cause variation in a process (Correct answer)
- Calculate the defects per million opportunities (DPMO)
- Determine the inspection sample size
Correct answer: Distinguish between common-cause and special-cause variation in a process
SPC control charts plot process data over time with control limits to detect when a process shifts from normal (common-cause) variation to abnormal (special-cause) variation.
Question 6: What is the purpose of a 'poka-yoke' device in manufacturing?
- To accelerate equipment changeovers
- To prevent errors or make defects immediately obvious so they cannot pass undetected (Correct answer)
- To track production output in real time
- To calculate the economic order quantity
Correct answer: To prevent errors or make defects immediately obvious so they cannot pass undetected
A poka-yoke (mistake-proofing) device is a mechanism that either prevents an error from occurring or immediately detects and signals it so defects are caught before moving downstream.
CPIM Execution and Control of Operations 2
Which lean tool maps the flow of materials and information from supplier to customer to identify waste?