Figure 2. Major activities performed to manage production

Operations management activities

Periodic			Continual
Selecting	Designing	Updating	Operating – controlling
Involves the selection of products, processes, equipment, work force	Involves the design of products, processes, equipment, jobs, methods and wage payment, operating and control systems	Involves the revision of the productive system in light of new products and processes, technological breakthroughs, shifts in demand, new managerial techniques, research findings, failures in the existing products, processes, or operating and control systems	Concerned with setting production levels, scheduling production and work force, inventory management and quality assurance

1. Which of the following best summarises the opening paragraph?

A. To produce goods a manager only has to cope with issues of financing the process.

B. The term “product” implies physical consumer goods.

C. All managerial functions are subordinated to making a product.

D. Controlling is a primary condition of effective production.

2. According to the second paragraph and Figure 1,

A. people can’t be included in organisational assets available to generate products.

B. production is a process of transforming inputs into outputs.

C. production variables imply only financial resources.

D. transformation process only means assembling goods/services.

3. In the third paragraph, the writer explains that

A. the most valuable type of resources for managers is monetary.

B. obsolete capital resources may lead to a company’s failure to compete.

C. capital resources include machines, equipment, money and raw materials.

D. human resources are secondary as compared to non-human resources.

4. In the last paragraph and Figure 2, the writer makes it clear that

A. operations management includes selecting, designing and upgrading productive systems as well as their operating and controlling the output.

B. continual activities last usually for a one-year period.

С. selecting involves mainly finding qualified specialists for a production process.

D. it is not the task of production managers to monitor product quality.

5. According to the article,

A. the priority of production managers is to control the final results.

B. for a company to be ahead of competitors all types of resources are to be taken care of.

C.  inventory management is the duty of marketing managers.

D. the difference between periodic and continual operations management activities is vague.