Graded Homework

1.

Question :

(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.

Question 2.

Question :

(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?

Question 3.

Question :

(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?

Question 4.

Question :

(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.