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File: ch06, Chapter 6: Processes and Technology
True/False
Learning Objective: LO 1
2. Process design specifies what tasks need to be done and how they are to be
coordinated among functions, people, and organizations.
Ans: True
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: LO 1
Learning Objective: LO 1
4. The organization’s overall approach for producing goods and providing services
is its process strategy.
Ans: True
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: LO 1
Learning Objective: LO 1
Learning Objective: LO 1
Learning Objective: LO 1
Learning Objective: LO 1
9. Companies that control the production of virtually all of the parts that go into a
product are said to be horizontally integrated.
Ans: False
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 1
10. Outsourcing occurs when a company cannot or will not make all the parts that go
into a product.
Ans: True
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: LO 1
11. Supplier speed is rarely an important consideration in outsourcing decisions.
Ans: False
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: LO 1
Learning Objective: LO 1
Learning Objective: LO 1
14. Customers are rarely involved in a project that takes an extended period of time to
complete.
Ans: False
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: LO 1
15. Batch production is also known as a job shop because it creates more jobs than
any of the other process choices.
Ans: False
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: LO 1
Learning Objective: LO 1
17. Mass production is often associated with assembly lines.
Ans: True
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: LO 1
18. Mass production is characterized by the use of specialized equipment and workers
with limited skills.
Ans: True
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: LO 1
Learning Objective: LO 1
20. Breakeven analysis examines the cost tradeoffs associated with demand volume
when selecting a process.
Ans: True
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: LO 1
21. Vertical integration is the degree to which a firm produces the parts that go into
its products.
Ans: True
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: LO 1
22. The best process strategy is usually found on the diagonal of the product-process
matrix.
Ans. True
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 1
23. Process plans are a set of documents that detail the steps in process selection.
Ans. False
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 1
24. In general, processes should be analyzed for continuous improvement only after a
breakthrough improvement.
Ans. False
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 2
25. Process analysis yields a set of documents detailing manufacturing and service
delivery specifications.
Ans. False
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 2
26. The basic tools of process analysis include process flowcharts, diagrams and
maps.
Ans. True
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 2
27. A process flowchart is a useful tool for analyzing a process because it often
highlights nonproductive activities.
Ans: True
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: LO 2
28. Process innovation reflects the total redesign of a process for a breakthrough
improvement.
Ans: True
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: LO 3
Learning Objective: LO 3
30. Process innovation is most successful in organizations that view their systems as a
set of functional areas vying for limited resources.
Ans. False
Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: LO 3
31. A high-level process map is a useful tool in beginning the redesign of a process.
Ans. True
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 3
Learning Objective: LO 3
33. Capital budgeting techniques are often one of the inputs used for technology
decisions.
Ans. True
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 4
34. Technology decisions that involve the outlay of funds is considered a capital
investment.
Ans. True
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 4
Learning Objective: LO 4
Multiple Choice
36. A firm’s process strategy defines all of the following except its
a. capital intensity.
b. process flexibility.
c. vertical integration.
d. process selection.
Ans: D
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 1
37. The extent to which the firm will produce the inputs and control the outputs of each
stage of the production process is known as
a. vertical integration.
b. process flexibility.
c. process planning.
d. capital intensity.
Ans: A
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 1
38. The ease of adjusting resources in response to changes in demand defines a firm’s
a. vertical integration.
b. process flexibility.
c. customer involvement.
d. capital intensity.
Ans: B
Difficulty: Easy
Learning Objective: LO 1
39. Variable demand and small-to-moderate quantities produced to-order are
characteristics usually associated with
a. mass production.
b. continuous production.
c. projects.
d. batch production.
Ans: D
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 1
Learning Objective: LO 1
Learning Objective: LO 1
Learning Objective: LO 1
43. Disadvantages of batch production include all of the following except
a. high per-unit costs.
b. frequent changes in product mix.
c. flexibility.
d. scheduling problems.
Ans: C
Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: LO 1
44. Complex scheduling problems are most likely to occur with which process type?
a. mass production
b. batch production
c. continuous production
d. None of these answer choices is correct.
Ans: B
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 1
Learning Objective: LO 1
Learning Objective: LO 1
Learning Objective: LO 1
48. Steel, paper, paints, and chemicals are examples of products that use
a. batch production.
b. repetitive production.
c. continuous production.
d. mass production.
Ans: C
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 1
Learning Objective: LO 1
50. A company is considering producing a product for a new market. The fixed
cost required for manufacturing and delivering the product is $50,000. Labor and
material costs are estimated to be approximately $25 per product. If the product
is sold for $35.00 each, the firm’s breakeven volume would be
a. 50,000 units
b. 5,000 units
c. 2,500 units
d. 500 units
Ans: B
Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: LO 1
Solution: BE=50,000/(35-25)=5,000 units
51. If a firm can sell a product for $40each, then what is the volume needed to
breakeven if the fixed cost of production is $125,000 and labor and material costs
are $30. per item?
a. 125,000
b. 12,500
c. 4,167
d. 3,250
Ans: B
Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: LO 1
Process A Process B
Fixed Cost $500,000 $750,000
Variable Cost per Unit $25 $23
Learning Objective: LO 1
Solution: 500,000/(35-25)=50,000 units
Process A Process B
Fixed Cost $500,000 $750,000
Variable Cost per Unit $25 $23
Learning Objective: LO 1
Solution: 750000/(35-23)=62,500 units
Process A Process B
Fixed Cost $500,000 $750,000
Variable Cost per Unit $25 $23
Learning Objective: LO 1
Solution: Profit=120,000*($35-$25)-$500,000=$700,000
Process A Process B
Fixed Cost $500,000 $750,000
Variable Cost per Unit $25 $23
Learning Objective: LO 1
Solution: Profit=150,000*($35-$23)-$750,000=$1,050,000
Process A Process B
Fixed Cost $500,000 $750,000
Variable Cost per Unit $25 $23
For what level of volume (output) would the firm prefer Process A to Process B?
a. for all volume levels greater than 75,000
b. for all volume levels greater than 97,500
c. for all volume levels greater than 117,500
d. for all volume levels greater than 125,000
Ans: D
Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: LO 1
Solution: $500,000+$25v=$750,000+$23v; v=125,000
57. A company is considering producing an item that can be sold for $37.50 per
unit. If the fixed costs for setting up production are $225,000 and the variable
cost per unit for the item is $35 then the breakeven volume for this item is
a. 6,000 units.
b. 6,429 units.
c. 72,500 units.
d. 90,000 units.
Ans: D
Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: LO 1
Solution:$225,000/($37.50-$35.00)=90,000 units
58. All the following are factors influencing the outsourcing decision except
a. capacity.
b. expertise.
c. quality.
d. product variety.
Ans. D
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 1
59. The product-process matrix includes all the following process types except
a. mass production.
b. stable production.
c. continuous production.
d. batch production.
Ans. B
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 1
60. Which of the following is not associated with the sourcing continuum?
a. Joint venture
b. In-house production
c. Strategic alliance
d. Single contract
Ans. B
Difficulty: Hard
Learning Objective: LO 1
61. Technology decisions typical in operations management include all the following
areas except
a. information technology.
b. product technology.
c. process technology.
d. communication technology.
Ans. D
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 4
62. Processes are analyzed for all the following reasons except
a. speed-time-to-completion.
b. for environmental considerations.
c. to increase sustainability.
d. All these answer choices are correct.
Ans. D
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 2
63. All the following are basic tools of process analysis except
a. flowcharts.
b. diagrams.
c. maps.
d. spreadsheets.
Ans. D
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 2
64. The first step in building a flowchart is to
a. define process boundaries.
b. map out the process
c. determine objectives
d. None of these answer choices is correct.
Ans: C
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 2
65. Which of the following is not a standard label of the symbols used for
the construction of a process flowchart?
a. Improve
b. Transport
c. Operation
d. Delay
Ans. A
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 2
Learning Objective: LO 2
67. Existing processes should be analyzed for improvement on a
a. Continual basis.
b. Sporadic basis
c. As needed basis
d. None of these answer choices is correct.
Ans. A
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 3
Learning Objective: LO 3
Learning Objective: LO 3
Learning Objective: LO 3
Learning Objective: LO 3
Learning Objective: LO 4
Learning Objective: LO 4
Learning Objective: LO 4
Learning Objective: LO 4
Learning Objective: LO 4
Short Answer Questions
77. What is a process strategy and how does it affect the firm?
Learning Objective: LO 1
78.List some noneconomic factors that can influence a firm’s outsourcing decision.
Ans: There are several noneconomic factors that can influence or dominate the
economic considerations of an outsourcing decision. Among these are: (1) the level
of capacity at which the company is operating; (2) the capability to provide quality
parts consistently; (3) the speed with which goods can be provided by a supplier; (4)
the reliability of suppliers; and (5) the expertise of the firm and its willingness to
release valuable product information to a supplier.
Difficulty: Moderate
Learning Objective: LO 1
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CHAPTER VII
IS THE UNIVERSE INFINITE?
Kant and the number of the stars—Extinct stars and dark
nebulæ—Extent and aspect of the astronomical universe
—Different kinds of universes—Poincaré’s calculation—
Physical definition of the infinite—The infinite and the
unlimited—Stability and curvature of cosmic space-time—
Real and virtual stars—Diameter of the Einsteinian
universe—The hypothesis of globes of ether.
We approach the end of our work. Has reality, seen through the
prism of science, changed its aspect with the new theories? Yes,
certainly. The Relativist theory claims to have improved the
achromatism of the prism and by this means improved the picture it
gives us of the world.
Time and space, the two poles upon which the sphere of
empirical data turned, which were believed to be unshakeable, have
been dislodged from their strong positions. Instead of them Einstein
offers us the continuum in which beings and phenomena float: four-
dimensional space-time, in which space and time are yoked
together.
But this continuum is itself only a flabby form. It has no rigidity. It
adapts itself docilely to everything. There is nothing fixed, because
there is no definite point of reference by means of which we could
distribute phenomena; because on the shores of this great ocean in
which things float there are none left of those solid rings to which
mariners once fastened their vessels.
Up to this point the theory of Relativity well deserves its name.
But now, in spite of it and its very name, there rises something which
seems to have an independent and determined existence in the
external world, an objectivity, an absolute reality. This is the “Interval”
of events, which remains constant and invariable through all the
fluctuations of things, however infinitely varied may be the points of
view and standards of reference.
From this datum, which, speaking philosophically, strangely
shares the intrinsic qualities with which the older absolute time and
absolute space were so much reproached, the whole constructive
part of Relativity, the part which leads to the splendid verifications we
described, is derived.
Thus the theory of Relativity seems to deny its origin, even its
very name, in all that makes it a useful monument of science, a
constructive tool, an instrument of discovery. It is a theory of a new
absolute: the Interval represented by the geodetics of the quadri-
dimensional universe. It is a new absolute theory. So true is it that
even in science you can build nothing on pure negation. For creation
you need affirmation.
The theory of Relativity has won brilliant victories, crowned by the
decisive sanction of facts. We have given some astonishing
instances of these in our earlier chapters. But to say that the theory
is true because it has predicted phenomena that were afterwards
verified would be to judge it from too narrowly Pragmatist a
standpoint. It would also—there is real danger in this—be to close
against the mind other paths where there are still flowers to cull. We
will not do that.
It is therefore important, in spite of its successes—nay, on
account of them—to turn the light of criticism upon the foundations of
the new doctrine. Even Cæsar, as he mounted the Capitol, had to
listen to the jokes of the soldiers round his chariot and lower his
pride. The theory of Relativity also, as it advances in all its
magnificence along the Triumphal Way, must learn that it has its
limits, perhaps its weaknesses.
But before we go further into it, before we turn the raw light upon
it, let us make one observation.
Whatever be the obscurities of physical theories, whatever be the
eternal and fated imperfection of science, one thing may be
positively laid down here: scientific truths are the best established,
the most certain, the least doubtful of all the truths we can know in
regard to the external world. If science cannot reveal to us the nature
of things in its entirety, there is nothing else that can do it as well.
The truths of sentiment, of faith, of intuition, have nothing to do with
those of science as long as they remain strictly truths of the interior
world. They are on another plane. But the moment they claim to be
measures of the external world—which would be their only cause of
weakness—they subject themselves to the material reality, to the
scientific investigation of the truth.
It is therefore nonsense to speak of a “bankruptcy of science” as
contrasted with the certainty which other disciplines may give us
respecting the external world. The bankruptcy of one would make all
the others bankrupt. When it is not a question of the intimate oasis in
which the serene realities of sentiment flourish, but of the arid and
imperfectly explored desert of the material world, the scientific facts
are the basis of all constructions. Destroy those and you destroy
everything. If you ram the ground floor of a house and bring it down,
you bring down also the upper stories.
To say the truth, it would seem that nothing here below so much
reveals the mystic presence of the divine as does the eternal and
inflexible harmony that unites phenomena, and that finds expression
in the laws of science.
Is not this science which shows us the vast universe well-
ordered, coherent, harmonious, mysteriously united, organised like a
great mute symphony, dominated by law instead of caprice, by
irrefragable rules instead of individual wills—is this not a revelation?
There you have the only means of reconciling the minds which
are devoted to external realities and those which bow to
metaphysical mystery. To talk of bankruptcy of science—if it means
anything more than to point out human weakness, which is, alas!
obvious enough—is really to calumniate that part of the divine which
is accessible to our senses, the part which science reveals.
In sum, the whole Einsteinian synthesis flows from the issue of
the Michelson experiment, or at least from a particular interpretation
of that issue.
The phenomenon of stellar aberration proves that the medium
which transmits the light of the stars to our eyes does not share the
motion of the earth as it revolves round the sun. This medium is
known to physicists as ether. Lord Kelvin, who was honoured by
being buried in Westminster Abbey not far from the tomb of Newton,
rightly regarded the existence of interstellar ether as proved as fully
as the existence of the air we breathe; for without this medium the
heat of the sun, mother and nurse of all terrestrial life, would never
reach us.
In his theory of Special Relativity, Einstein, as we saw, interprets
phenomena without introducing the ether, or at least without
introducing the kinematic properties which are usually attributed to it.
In other words, Special Relativity neither affirms nor denies the
existence of the classic ether. It ignores it.
But this indifference to or disdain of the ether disappears in the
theory of General Relativity. We saw in a previous chapter that the
trajectories of gravitating bodies and of light are directly due, on this
theory, to a special curvature and the non-Euclidean character of the
medium which lies close to massive bodies in the void—that is to
say, ether. This, therefore, though Einstein does not give it the same
kinematic properties as classic science did, becomes the substratum
of all the events in the universe. It resumes its importance, its
objective reality. It is the continuous medium in which spatio-
temporal facts evolve.
Hence in its general form, and in spite of the new kinematic
attitude which is ascribed to it, Einstein’s general theory admits the
objective existence of ether.
Stellar aberration shows that this medium is stationary relatively
to the orbital motion of the earth. The negative result of Michelson’s
experiment tends, on the contrary, to prove that it shares the earth’s
motion. The Fitzgerald-Lorentz hypothesis solves this antinomy by
admitting that the ether does not really share the earth’s motion, but
saying that all bodies suddenly displaced in it are contracted in the
direction of the movement. This contraction increases with their
velocity in the ether, which explains the negative result of the
Michelson experiment.
Lorentz’s explanation seemed to Einstein inadmissible on
account of certain improbabilities which we pointed out, and
especially because it assumes that there is in the universe a system
of privileged references which recalls Newton’s “absolute space.”
Einstein, taking his stand on the principle that all points of view are
equally relative, does not admit that there are in the universe
privileged spectators—spectators who are stationary in the ether—
who could see things as they are, whereas these things would be
deformed for every other observer.
Then, while preserving the Lorentz contraction and the formulæ
in which it is expressed, Einstein says that this contraction, while it
really exists, is only an appearance, a sort of optical illusion, due to
the fact that the light which shows us objects does not travel
instantaneously, but with a finite velocity. This spread of light follows
laws of such a nature that apparent space and time are changed in
precise accordance with the formulæ of Lorentz. That is the
foundation of Einstein’s Special Relativity.
Hence the two immediate possible explanations of the negative
result of the Michelson experiment are:
1. Moving objects are contracted in the stationary
ether, the fixed substratum of all phenomena. This
contraction is real, and it increases with the velocity of
the body relatively to the ether. That is Lorentz’s
explanation.
2. Moving objects are contracted relatively to any
observer whatsoever. This contraction is only
apparent, and is due to the laws of the propagation of
light. It increases with the velocity of the moving body
relatively to the observer. That is Einstein’s
explanation.
But there is at least one other possible explanation. It introduces
new and strange hypotheses, but they are by no means absurd.
Indeed, it is especially in physics that truth may at times seem
improbable. This explanation will show how we may account for the
result of the Michelson experiment apart from either Lorentz or
Einstein.
This third explanatory hypothesis is as follows. Every material
body bears along with it, as a sort of atmosphere, the ether that is
bound up with it. There is, in addition, a stationary ether in the
interstellar spaces; an ether insensible to the motion of the material
bodies that move in it, and which we may, to distinguish it from the
ether bound up with bodies, call the “super-ether.” This super-ether
occupies the whole of interstellar space, and near the heavenly
bodies it is superimposed upon the ether which they bear along. The
ether and the super-ether interpenetrate each other just as they
penetrate matter, and the vibrations they transmit spread
independently. When a material body sends out series of waves in
the ether which surrounds it, these move relatively to it with the
constant velocity of light. But when they have traversed the relatively
thin stratum of ether bound up with the material body, which merges
gradually in the super-ether, they spread in the latter, and it is
relatively to this that they progressively take their velocity.
It is like a boat crossing the Lake of Geneva at a certain speed.
About the middle of the lake it has this speed relatively to the narrow
current which the River Rhone makes there, and then it resumes it
relatively to the stationary lake.
In the same way the luminous rays of the stars, although they
come from bodies which are approaching or receding from us, have
the same velocity when they reach us, and this will be the common
velocity which the super-ether imposes upon them. Thus also, on the
other hand, the stellar rays that reach our telescopes will be
transmitted to us by the super-ether, without the very thin stratum of
mobile ether bound up with the earth being able to disturb their
propagation.
These hypotheses explain and reconcile all the facts: (1) the fact
of stellar aberration, because the rays which reach us from the stars
are transmitted to us unaltered by the super-ether; (2) the negative
result of the Michelson experiment, because the light which we
produce in the laboratory travels in the ether that is borne along by
the earth, where it originates; (3) the fact that, in spite of the
approach or recession of the stars, their light reaches us with the
common velocity which it had acquired in the super-ether, shortly
after it started.
However strange this explanation may seem, it is not absurd, and
it raises no insurmountable difficulty. It shows that, if the result of the
Michelson experiment is a sort of no-thoroughfare, there are other
ways out of it besides Einstein’s theory.
To resume the matter, we have offered to us three different ways
of escaping the difficulties, the apparent contradictions, involved in
our experience—the antinomy arising from aberration and the
Michelson result—and they are reduced to these alternatives:
1. The contraction of bodies by velocity is real
(Lorentz).
2. The contraction of bodies by velocity is only an
appearance due to the laws of the propagation of light
(Einstein).
3. The contraction of bodies by velocity is neither
real nor apparent: there is no such thing (hypothesis of
super-ether connected with ether).
This shows that the Einsteinian explanation of phenomena is by
no means imposed upon us by the facts, or is at least not absolutely
imposed by them to the exclusion of any other explanation.
From the agnostic, the sceptical, point of view this is a fine and
strong attitude. But in the course of this volume we have so much
admired Einstein’s powerful theoretical synthesis and the surprising
verifications to which it led that we are now entitled to make some
reserves. It is legitimate to call into question even the denials of
doubters, because, after all, they are really themselves affirmations.
We believe that in face of this philosophic attitude of the
Einsteinians—in face of what I should like to call their absolute
relativism—we are justified in rebelling a little and saying something
like this:
“Yes, everything is possible; or, rather, many things are possible,
but all things are not. Yes, if I go into a strange house, the drawing-
room clock may be round, square, or octagonal. But once I have
entered the house and seen that the clock is square, I have a right to
say: ‘The clock is square. It has the privilege of being square. It is a
fact that it is neither round nor octagonal.’
“It is the same in nature. The physical continuum which contains,
like a vase, all the phenomena of the universe, might have, relatively
to me—and as long as I have not observed it—any forms or
movements whatever. But as a matter of fact, it is what it is. It cannot
be different things at the same time. The drawing-room clock cannot
at one and the same time be composed entirely of gold and entirely
of silver.
“There is therefore one privileged possibility amongst the various
possibilities which we imagine in the external world. It is that which
has been effectively realised: that which exists.”
The complete relativism of the Einsteinians amounts to making
the universe external to us to such an extent that we have no means
of distinguishing between what is real and what is possible in it, as
far as space and time are concerned. The Newtonians, on the other
hand, say that we can recognise real space and real time by special
signs. We will analyse these signs later.
In a word, the pure Relativists have tried to escape the necessity
of supposing that reality is inaccessible. It is a point of view that is at
once more modest and much more presumptuous than that of the
Newtonians, the Absolutists.
It is more modest because according to the Einsteinian we
cannot know certain things which the Absolutist regards as
accessible: real time and space. It is more presumptuous because
the Relativist says that there is no reality except that which comes
under observation. For him the unknowable and non-existent are the
same thing. That is why Henri Poincaré, who was the most profound
of Relativists before the days of Einstein, used to repeat constantly
that questions about absolute space and time have “no meaning.”
One might sum it up by saying that the Einsteinians have taken
as their motto the words of Auguste Comte: “Everything is relative,