Product Management Production Management Knowledge 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is 'aggregate planning' in production management?
- Detailed scheduling of individual machine operations
- Medium-term planning to match production capacity with anticipated demand (Correct answer)
- Long-range strategic decisions about new facility locations
- Daily work assignment to individual operators
Correct answer: Medium-term planning to match production capacity with anticipated demand
Aggregate planning sets production, workforce, and inventory levels over a 3-18 month horizon to balance supply and demand.
Question 2: Which maintenance strategy replaces components at fixed time intervals regardless of their condition?
- Predictive Maintenance
- Corrective Maintenance
- Preventive Maintenance (Correct answer)
- Reliability-Centered Maintenance
Correct answer: Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance follows a scheduled calendar or usage-based plan to prevent failures before they occur.
Question 3: In MRP (Material Requirements Planning), what three inputs are required to generate the material plan?
- Sales forecast, budget, and labor schedule
- Master Production Schedule, Bill of Materials, and Inventory Records (Correct answer)
- Supplier quotes, lead times, and quality reports
- Customer orders, shipping routes, and warehouse capacity
Correct answer: Master Production Schedule, Bill of Materials, and Inventory Records
MRP explodes the MPS through the BOM and adjusts for current inventory records to calculate net material requirements.
Question 4: What is 'takt time' and how is it calculated?
- Total machine downtime divided by number of failures
- Available production time divided by customer demand rate (Correct answer)
- Labor hours per unit multiplied by wage rate
- Batch size divided by daily output capacity
Correct answer: Available production time divided by customer demand rate
Takt time sets the production rhythm needed to meet demand: available time ÷ required units = time per unit.
Question 5: A company produces 200 defective units out of 10,000 total. What is the defect rate in parts per million (PPM)?
- 2 PPM
- 200 PPM
- 2,000 PPM
- 20,000 PPM (Correct answer)
Correct answer: 20,000 PPM
PPM = (defects/total) × 1,000,000 = (200/10,000) × 1,000,000 = 20,000 PPM.
Question 6: Which capacity planning strategy adds capacity in anticipation of future demand growth?
- Lag Strategy
- Match Strategy
- Lead Strategy (Correct answer)
- Reactive Strategy
Correct answer: Lead Strategy
A lead strategy proactively builds excess capacity before demand materializes, accepting higher costs to avoid lost sales.
Question 7: What is the primary distinction between 'reliability' and 'maintainability' in production equipment?
- Reliability measures cost; maintainability measures speed
- Reliability is the probability of failure-free operation; maintainability is the ease and speed of restoring failed equipment (Correct answer)
- Reliability applies to electronics; maintainability applies to mechanical systems
- Reliability is operator-controlled; maintainability is engineer-controlled
Correct answer: Reliability is the probability of failure-free operation; maintainability is the ease and speed of restoring failed equipment
Reliability (MTBF) measures how long equipment runs without failing; maintainability (MTTR) measures how quickly it is restored after failure.
Product Management Production Management Knowledge 4
What is 'aggregate planning' in production management?