SECTION A

Answer ALL questions.

Question 1

(a) Explain, with the help of an organisation chart, how the operations function of a typical manufacturing firm is organised.

(8 marks)

(b) Retailer XYZ recorded the following sales over 7 periods for one of its products.

By keeping the following answers to ONE (1) decimal place:

(i) Use the exponential smoothing method to predict the sales for the 2nd to 7th periods. Assume the initial forecast is 100 units and the smoothing constant is 0.4.

(3 marks)

(ii) Compute the Mean Squared Error (MSE) from the 2nd to 7th periods.

(4 marks)

(iii) If another forecasting method B has a MSE of 100, would you suggest using this method B? Provide your reason.

(2 marks)

(c) Discuss briefly the operational decisions made during the growth and maturity phases of the product life cycle.

(4 marks)

(d) Explain the concept of modular design with an example.

(4 marks)

Question 2

(a) Mr. David Ng, the quality manager of firm SMD says: “Statistical Process Control (SPC) chart is used to identify variations of a process.” Provide an explanation of his statement with the help of a SPC chart.

(8 marks)

(b) Discuss the characteristics of “repetitive focus” and “mass customisation” process strategies and give ONE (1) example each of product manufactured under such strategy.

(8 marks)

(c) A manufacturing firm is considering THREE (3) locations (A, B & C) to set up its production facility. The fixed costs and unit variable costs are given below:

(i) Plot the THREE (3) total-cost lines for these three locations on a graph paper.

(6 marks)

(ii) If the expected output is 6,000 units per year, deduce from the graph which location would achieve the lowest total cost? How much is the annual total cost?

(3 marks)

[Note: DO NOT write your Name and Student Identification Number on the graph paper.]

[Please attach the graph paper to the page of the answer booklet where this question is answered]

SECTION B

Answer ALL questions.

Question 3

(a) The following is the product structure tree for product X. Assume components A needs one (1) week of production lead time and B needs 2 weeks of purchasing lead time. Sub-components C & E need two (2) weeks of lead time, while sub- component D requires one (1) week of purchasing lead time. One (1) week is needed to assemble components A & B into the final product X.

(i) TWO HUNDRED (200) units of final product X are needed for delivery to customer on Week 6. Copy the following gross MRP processing table onto the answer booklet and fill in the necessary quantities.

(7 marks)

(ii) If 400 units of E is available at the warehouse, what is the net requirement of E to be ordered?

(2 marks)

(b) As a supply chain manager, what are the FOUR (4) major responsibilities of yours? Discuss.

(8 marks)

(c) Explain what the Pareto principle is and how it is applied in inventory management in the form of an ABC analysis. What type of inventory deserve the highest attention?

(8 marks)

Question 4

(a) Identify and elaborate on THREE (3) uses of the Critical Path Method (CPM) that are essential for a project manager.

(6 marks)

(b) Explain when and how to execute crashing in a project.

(4 marks)

(c) Discuss the THREE (3) key elements in the Toyota Production System (TPS) that make Toyota a well-known automobile manufacturer.

(6 marks)

(d) The diagram below shows a system with FOUR (4) components connected in series between points A & B. (Assume the reliabilities of R1 = 0.94, R2 = 0.97, R3 = 0.99 & R4 = 0.91)

(i) Compute the current system reliability.

(2 marks)

(ii) Do you agree to add a fifth component to improve the system reliability?

(1 mark)

(iii) If the redundancy concept is applied to the TWO (2) least reliable components, compute the new system reliability.

(4 marks)

(iv) Comment on the change of reliability.

(2 marks)