Management MCQ: Management Chapter 5

The system should drive the transformation in a company when:

a) The firm has competitive advantage because of its processes
b) Advantageous processes exist in the organization
c) When a firm has been around for a long time
d) When the systems are in a crisis
e) When employees have quite a lot of knowledge about transformation in the firm.

Answer: When the systems are in a crisis

ERP has all the following advantages except:

a) Modules throughout a corporation can communicate with each other
b) While purchasing is difficult, the vendors such as SAP make it worthwhile due to easy implementation
c) Have predefined software that represents "pretty good practices" or even "best practices"
d) Enables standardized procedures in an organization
e) Reduces inconsistent data stored in various locations of the organization

Answer: While purchasing is difficult, the vendors such as SAP make it worthwhile due to easy implementation

Reengineering is all of the following except:

a) Gradual and systematic
b) Threatening to employees
c) Associated with very high reward if it succeeds
d) Associated with quick rewards if it succeeds
e) Sometimes suspected to be used to justify downsizing

Answer: Gradual and systematic

ERP systems have all of the following characteristics except:

a) They are expensive
b) They are implemented in all, or nearly all, large organizations
c) They are difficult to implement
d) Organizations use them to reduce redundancy and make better decisions
e) They are expensive but are easy to use.

Answer: They are expensive but are easy to use.

The major difference between an ERP and ERP II system is this feature.

a) Advances in software usability and flexibility
b) Information is made immediately available to external stakeholders using social and collaborative tools
c) Information is made available to all departments in the company
d) Advanced quering and reporting capabilities
e) Close integration with e-business technologies

Answer: Information is made immediately available to external stakeholders using social and collaborative tools

Sloan Valve Company redesigned their new product development process and as a result greatly reduced time-to-market as well as improved quality. Which one of the following enterprise systems supported Sloan's transformation?

a) ERP
b) SCM
c) PLM
d) TQM
e) NPD

Answer: PLM

An effective workflow diagram should do all of the following EXCEPT:

a) Map the sequence and details of a business process
b) Identify all persons/roles who play a part in the process
c) Use active verbs to describe activities
d) Identify inputs and outputs of a process
e) Try to mask the steps of a business process

Answer: Try to mask the steps of a business process

Apple Inc. has developed iTunes, a unique propriety software system that supports Apple's need to delivery digital content to its customers. Apple chooses to develop iTunes rather than use an existing enterprise system solution, most likely because:

a) The critical process of content delivery is Apple's strategic advantage.
b) The ability to integrate with existing enterprise systems does not exist.
c) It was too costly for Apple to purchase an enterprise system.
d) The existing solutions were developed by a fierce competitor
e) Apple was not satisfied with the look and feel of existing enterprise systems.

Answer: The critical process of content delivery is Apple's strategic advantage.

ERP systems are expensive for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:

a) The software is costly to purchase.
b) There is an enormous amount of work required to implement.
c) There are a number of hidden costs such as project management, training and support.
d) They require organizational changes and impact the way people work.
e) They do not require business process redesign.

Answer: They do not require business process redesign.

All of the following are good metrics a firm can use to measure the success of a business process EXCEPT for:

a) A customer's satisfaction with the quality of the product received
b) The time elapsed from when the customer placed an order to the time the product is received
c) The change in demographics of a region.
d) The number of orders the customer places in a given timeframe.
e) Revenue received from a service

Answer: The change in demographics of a region.

________is an all-encompassing tool used for modeling, building, executing and monitoring business processes that go across organizational boundaries (and often systems).

a) Enterprise system
b) Workflow diagrams
c) SharePoint
d) Business Process Management systems
e) Integrated information systems

Answer: Business Process Management systems

The Six Sigma process received its name from:

a) The intersection of six bell curves, where there are no errors
b) Six degrees of freedom in removing an error, called "sigma"
c) Six tries to change or give up
d) Six standard deviations, or less than 3.4 defects per million
e) Sigma, the computer company that invented it

Answer: Six standard deviations, or less than 3.4 defects per million

Computer systems in the 1960s and early 1970s were typically designed around a specific departmental need and did not interface very well. These systems were designed to support:

a) The functional perspective.
b) The entire enterprise.
c) The silo perspective.
d) Incremental change.
e) Social IT and mobile needs.

Answer: The silo perspective.

When would an organization elect to use BPR over TQM?

a) When they want to make small, incremental changes
b) When they need to attain aggressive improvement goals
c) When they have time to refine their improvement goals
d) When there is not a need to make significant immediate changes
e) When they want the employees to have control over the changes

Answer: When they need to attain aggressive improvement goals

Which one of the following is NOT a quality associated with agile and dynamic business processes?

a) Designed to support incremental improvement of processes
b) Relies on a high degree of IT
c) Allows for companies to take advantage of the latest innovations
d) Change requires significant redesign effort
e) Readily supports changing business requirements

Answer: Change requires significant redesign effort

A company that wants to make incremental improvements to existing business processes would utilize which of the following?

a) Total quality management
b) Workflow management
c) Business process management
d) Business process reengineering
e) Enterprise resource planning

Answer: Total quality management

All of the follow are negative outcomes found in a firm that is set up using a functional model, EXCEPT for:

a) suboptimization
b) communication gaps
c) lose site of the business goals
d) lost information
e) redundancy of expertise

Answer: redundancy of expertise

Enterprise Rent-A-Car was able to model and better understand how service requests were handled and then optimize the process, greatly benefiting the customer experience. Enterprise achieved this benefit using which tool?

a) Business Process Management (BPM)
b) Radical redesign
c) New Product Development (NPD)
d) Six sigma
e) Product life cycle management

Answer: Business Process Management (BPM)

Middleware is software used to:

a) connect processes running on different computer systems across a network.
b) integrate a computer's operating system and its applications.
c) connect a computer system to the network.
d) support agile process redesign.
e) provide best business practices to ERP systems.

Answer: connect processes running on different computer systems across a network.

All of the following are characteristics of an ERP system EXCEPT:

a) ERP systems provide seamless integration of information flow across the organization.
b) ERP systems provide best (or at least "very good") practices for generic business processes.
c) ERP systems have evolved to support newer IT architectures.
d) ERP systems work "out of the box" with little configuration requirements.
e) ERP systems are usually software packages obtained from a provider/vendor

Answer: ERP systems work "out of the box" with little configuration requirements.