Product Management Production Management 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In lean manufacturing, 'muda' refers to:
- A continuous improvement event
- Any activity that consumes resources without adding value (Correct answer)
- A standard work document
- A quality control checkpoint
Correct answer: Any activity that consumes resources without adding value
Muda is the Japanese term for waste — activities that use resources but create no value for the customer.
Question 2: A company uses a pull system where production is triggered only when downstream demand signals it. This is an example of:
- MRP push scheduling
- Just-In-Time (JIT) production (Correct answer)
- Batch-and-queue processing
- Theory of Constraints buffer management
Correct answer: Just-In-Time (JIT) production
JIT production pulls material through the system based on actual demand, reducing inventory and waste.
Question 3: Which quality tool displays the frequency of defect categories in descending order to identify the most significant issues?
- Fishbone diagram
- Control chart
- Pareto chart (Correct answer)
- Scatter diagram
Correct answer: Pareto chart
A Pareto chart ranks defect types by frequency, applying the 80/20 rule to prioritize improvement efforts.
Question 4: Capacity Requirement Planning (CRP) differs from Rough-Cut Capacity Planning (RCCP) because CRP:
- Uses only aggregate demand forecasts
- Analyzes capacity at a high level using key resources only
- Performs detailed analysis of all work centers against the MRP plan (Correct answer)
- Ignores open shop orders
Correct answer: Performs detailed analysis of all work centers against the MRP plan
CRP provides a detailed, work-center-level analysis of capacity needs derived from the full MRP plan.
Question 5: A manufacturer experiences frequent machine breakdowns causing unplanned downtime. Which maintenance strategy would most proactively prevent this?
- Reactive maintenance
- Preventive maintenance (Correct answer)
- Corrective maintenance
- Deferred maintenance
Correct answer: Preventive maintenance
Preventive maintenance schedules regular inspections and servicing to reduce the likelihood of unexpected failures.
Question 6: In production management, a 'bottleneck' is best defined as:
- A resource whose capacity equals or exceeds demand
- Any process step with more than two workers
- The resource that limits total system throughput (Correct answer)
- A step that requires specialized tooling
Correct answer: The resource that limits total system throughput
A bottleneck constrains the entire system's output because its capacity is less than demand placed on it.
Question 7: Which production strategy builds inventory to a forecast before demand arrives, accepting the risk of excess stock?
- Make-to-Order (MTO)
- Assemble-to-Order (ATO)
- Make-to-Stock (MTS) (Correct answer)
- Engineer-to-Order (ETO)
Correct answer: Make-to-Stock (MTS)
Make-to-Stock produces finished goods in advance based on demand forecasts, enabling fast delivery at the cost of inventory risk.
Product Management Production Management 3
In lean manufacturing, 'muda' refers to: