keller MGMT530 midterm exam May 2016

Question 1. 1. (TCO A) Your small services company has failed to meet current production standards in the current facility after the first two years of a three-year lease. As the operations manager, you are being held accountable for not controlling costs and failing to meet desired efficiency and productivity goals. The goal is to determine what action to take in the future to improve the situation and to improve output or consider outsourcing the operation overseas.

i. What criteria should have been used in the decision-making process that could have avoided the current situation?

ii. Describe the eight elements for effective decision making used in a rational decision-making approach, and describe how it could have been applied foreseeing this potential crisis. (Points : 20)

Question 2. 2. (TCO A) Understanding fundamental and means objectives are important to decision analysis and decision making. You are working at a major metropolitan hospital and you've been asked to evaluate the selection of a new uniform vendor and are looking at several different alternatives.

i. Identify your fundamental objectives.

ii. How would those objectives be used in the decision-making process?

iii. Identify your means objectives.

iv. How would the means objectives be used in the decision-making process? (Points : 20)

Question 3. 3. (TCO A) Robert Landau is considering three job offers. In trying to decide which to accept, Robert has concluded that three objectives are important in this decision. First, of course, is to maximize disposable income—the amount left after paying for housing, utilities, taxes, and other necessities. Second, Robert likes cold weather and enjoys winter sports. The third objective relates to the quality of the community. Being single, Robert would like to live in a city with a lot of activities and a large population of single professionals.

Robert has done his homework on the locations of the three job offers. He has determined the type of apartment he could get, determining disposable income. He has decided to use annual snowfall to determine the value of his second objective. For his third objective, Robert found a recent magazine survey of large cities that scores those cities as places for single professionals to live. Although the survey isn’t perfect from Robert’s point of view, all three of the cities where he has offers are included in the survey. The disposal income objective is most important, twice as important as each of the other two criteria. The second and third criteria are equally important.

Here is a summary of each of the locations:

1) ZDR Technology in Kingman, AZ: Disposable income estimate: $1,600/month; snowfall average: 320 cm; magazine score: 50.

2) Minne Digital in Minneapolis, MN: Disposable income estimate: $1,300 to 1500/month; snowfall average 400 cm; magazine score: 75.

3) Wharf Consulting in San Francisco, CA: Disposable income estimate: $1,200/month; snowfall average: negligible; magazine score: 95.

(a) What is Robert’s problem or opportunity in this situation?

(b) What is the overall objective for Robert's decision? What are the fundamental objectives that support the overall objective?

(c) What are Robert’s alternatives for this decision situation?

(d) Evaluate this decision situation using tradeoffs or a weighted scoring model. Based on that analysis, to which location should Robin select?

(Points : 50)

Question 4. 4. (TCO B) In today's business environment, managers are expected to utilize intuitive and critical thinking skills on a daily basis in decision making.

i. Why is past experience so important to managers today, and how applicable is it in decision making?

ii. Develop three approaches to eliminate bias and stick to supporting data to improve one's decision making abilities. (Points : 20)