Short Answer Section

NOTE:

Be sure to address what the questions are asking! Responses to questions 6-8 should be about one paragraph and 9-10 should be one to two paragraphs. Please double-spaced your responses. [Note that a “paragraph” need not be a full page in length—3 to 4 good sentences will work. If you want to write more you can, although full credit can be earned with the suggested number of 3-4 sentence paragraphs.]

Note: Question no.11 require more depth than the previous written section (responses should be about three 3-4 sentence paragraphs in length).

6. (3 points) Describe how improving process quality (in other words, improving the reliability of processes and reducing variability) supports each of the following competitive priorities: a) low unit costs, b) delivery speed, and c) product flexibility.

10. (4 points) Now in its 28th year,

Industry Week

determines the best-run manufacturing plants in North America and notes that, “operational excellence is the cornerstone of a winning manufacturing strategy.” From its 2018 Best Plants competition (published in March 2019): identify six techniques winning companies use to improve their operations and company.
For each technique, A) identify which company is using the technique, B) briefly (in one or two sentences) describe the technique or tactic and C) mention (1-sentence) how it contributes to improved operations and competitiveness (or a particular competitive priority). Please reference at least three Best Plants winning companies/factories in your answer (you can refer to more than three if you want).
Please format your response so that each of the six techniques is easy to locate and identify. Full credit cannot be earned if the response is not formatted for ease of reading.

11. (5 points) Using the

Running Inventory Like A Deere

and

How Johnson & Johnson overhauled its baby care supply chain

articles:
A) Identify and briefly describe three (3) similarities in the way they reduced inventory and costs in their supply chain (note: that they both reduced inventory and costs is NOT one of the similarities you should mention)

NOTE:

· Please answer them all logically and in-depth.

· Please read the question carefully.

· Explain more of your answer for question 11.

·

Please read the articles and only then you answer the questions.