Operations Management 13th Edition

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 Preface
The material in this book is intended as an introduction to the
field of operations management. The topics covered include
both strategic issues and practical applications. Among the
topics are forecasting, product and service design, capacity
planning, management of quality and quality control, inven-
tory management, scheduling, supply chain management, and
project management.
My purpose in revising this book continues to be to provide
a clear presentation of the concepts, tools, and applications of
the field of operations management. Operations management is
evolving and growing, and I have found updating and integrat-
ing new material to be both rewarding and challenging, particu-
larly due to the plethora of new developments in the field, while
facing the practical limits on the length of the book.
This text offers a comprehensive and flexible amount
of content that can be selected as appropriate for different
courses and formats, including undergraduate, graduate, and
executive education.
This allows instructors to select the chapters, or portions of
chapters, that are most relevant for their purposes. That flex-
ibility also extends to the choice of relative weighting of the
qualitative or quantitative aspects of the material and the order
in which chapters are covered because chapters do not depend
on sequence. For example, some instructors cover project
management early, others cover quality or lean early, etc.
As in previous editions, there are major pedagogical fea-
tures designed to help students learn and understand the mate-
rial. This section describes the key features of the book, the
chapter elements, the supplements that are available for teach-
ing the course, highlights of the eleventh edition, and sug-
gested applications for classroom instruction. By providing
this support, it is our hope that instructors and students will
have the tools to make this learning experience a rewarding
one.
What’s New in This Edition
Class preparation exercises are now available for all chapters
and chapter supplements. The purpose of these exercises is to
introduce students to the subject matter before class in order
to enhance classroom learning. These exercises are available
in the Instructor’s Resource Manual. Special thanks to Linda
Brooks for her help in developing the exercises.
Some content has been rewritten or added to improve clar-
ity, shorten wording, or update information. New material
has been added on supply chains (including a different, more
realistic, way to conceptualize supply chains), as well as on
product life-cycle management, 3-D printing, drones, loca-
tions, and other topics. New critical thinking exercises have
been added. The explanation of learning curve time reduction
has been simplified with a new diagram. Some older readings
have been deleted, and new readings added on such topics as
fracking, mass customization of fast foods, and self-driving
vehicles.
Acknowledgments
I want to thank the many contributors to this edition. Review-
ers and adopters of the text have provided a “continuously
improving” wealth of ideas and suggestions. It is encourag-
ing to me as an author. I hope all reviewers and readers will
know their suggestions were valuable, were carefully consid-
ered, and are sincerely appreciated. The list includes post-
publication reviewers.
Robert Aboolian, California State University—San Marcos
Pamela Barnes, Kansas State University
Greg Bier, University of Missouri
Gary Black, University of Southern Indiana
Jeff Brand, Marquette University
Cenk Caliskan, Utah Valley University
Cem Canel, University of North Carolina—Wilmington
Jen-Yi Chen, Cleveland State University
Robert Clark, Stony Brook University
Dinesh Dave, Appalachian State University
Abdelghani Elimam, San Francisco State
Kurt Engemann, Iona College
Michael Fathi, Georgia Southwestern State
Warren Fisher, Stephen F. Austin State University
Gene Fliedner, Oakland University
Theodore Glickman, George Washington University
Haresh Gurnani, University of Miami
Johnny Ho, Columbus State University
Ron Hoffman, Greenville Technical College
Lisa Houts, California State University—Fresno
Stella Hua, Western Washington University
Neil Hunt, Suffolk University
Faizul Huq, Ohio University
Richard Jerz, St. Ambrose University
George Kenyon, Lamar University
Casey Kleindienst, California State University—Fullerton
John Kros, East Carolina University
vii
viii Preface
Anita Lee-Post, University of Kentucky
Nancy Levenburg, Grand Valley State University
F. Edward Ziegler, Kent State University
Other contributors include accuracy checkers: Gary Black,
University of Southern Indiana, Michael Godfrey, Univer-
sity of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, and Richard White, Univer-
sity of North Texas; Test Bank: Alan Cannon, University of
Texas at Arlington; PowerPoints: David Cook, Old Dominion
University; Data Sets: Mehdi Kaighobadi, Florida Atlantic
University; Excel Templates and ScreenCam tutorials: Lee
Tangedahl, University of Montana; Instructors Manual:
Michael Godfrey.
Special thanks goes out to Larry White, Eastern Illinois
University, who helped revise, design, and develop interactive
content in Connect ® Operations Management for this edition.
Finally I would like to thank all the people at McGraw-
Hill/Irwin for their efforts and support. It is always a pleasure
to work with such a professional and competent group of peo-
ple. Special thanks go to Dolly Womack, Senior Brand Man-
ager; Michele Janicek, Lead Product Developer; Christina
Holt and Ryan McAndrews, Product Developers; Harvey Yep
and Kristin Bradley, Content Project Managers; Sandy Ludo-
vissy, Buyer; Matt Diamond, Designer; Shawntel Schmitt and
Beth Thole, Content Licensing Specialists; and many others
who worked behind the scenes.
I would also like to thank the many reviewers of previous
editions for their contributions. Vikas Agrawal, Fayetteville
State University; Bahram Alidaee, University of Mississippi;
Ardavan Asef-Faziri, California State University at North-
ridge; Prabir Bagchi, George Washington State University;
Gordon F. Bagot, California State University at Los Angeles;
Ravi Behara, Florida Atlantic University; Michael Bendixen,
Nova Southeastern; Ednilson Bernardes, Georgia Southern
University; Prashanth N. Bharadwaj, Indiana University of
Pennsylvania; Greg Bier, University of Missouri at Columbia;
Joseph Biggs, Cal Poly State University; Kimball Bullington,
Middle Tennessee State University; Alan Cannon, University
of Texas at Arlington; Injazz Chen, Cleveland State Univer-
sity; Alan Chow, University of Southern Alabama at Mobile;
Chrwan-Jyh, Oklahoma State University; Chen Chung, Uni-
versity of Kentucky; Robert Clark, Stony Brook University;
Loretta Cochran, Arkansas Tech University; Lewis Cooper-
smith, Rider University; Richard Crandall, Appalachian State
University; Dinesh Dave, Appalachian State University; Scott
Dellana, East Carolina University; Kathy Dhanda, DePaul
University; Xin Ding, University of Utah; Ellen Dumond,
California State University at Fullerton; Richard Ehrhardt,
University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Kurt Engemann,
Iona College; Diane Ervin, DeVry University; Farzaneh
Fazel, Illinois State University; Wanda Fennell, University of
Mississippi at Hattiesburg; Joy Field, Boston College; ­Warren
Fisher, Stephen F. Austin State University; Lillian Fok, Uni-
versity of New Orleans; Charles Foley, Columbus State
Community College; Matthew W. Ford, Northern Kentucky
University; Phillip C. Fry, Boise State University; Charles
A. Gates Jr., Aurora University; Tom Gattiker, Boise State
University; Damodar Golhar, Western Michigan University;
Robert Graham, Jacksonville State University; Angappa
Gunasekaran, University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth;
Haresh Gurnani, University of Miami; Terry Harrison, Penn
State University; Vishwanath Hegde, California State Uni-
versity at East Bay; Craig Hill, Georgia State University;
Jim Ho, University of Illinois at Chicago; Seong Hyun Nam,
University of North Dakota; Jonatan Jelen, Mercy College;
Prafulla Joglekar, LaSalle University; Vijay Kannan, Utah
State University; Sunder Kekre, Carnegie-Mellon Univer-
sity; Jim Keyes, University of Wisconsin at Stout; Seung-Lae
Kim, Drexel University; Beate Klingenberg, Marist College;
John Kros, East Carolina University; Vinod Lall, ­Minnesota
State University at Moorhead; Kenneth Lawrence, New
­Jersey Institute of Technology; Jooh Lee, Rowan University;
Anita Lee-Post, University of Kentucky; Karen Lewis, Uni-
versity of Mississippi; Bingguang Li, Albany State Univer-
sity; Cheng Li, California State University at Los Angeles;
Maureen P. Lojo, California State University at Sacramento;
F. Victor Lu, St. John’s University; Janet Lyons, Utah State
University; James Maddox, Friends University; Gita Mathur,
San Jose State University; Mark McComb, Mississippi Col-
lege; George Mechling, Western Carolina University; Scott
Metlen, University of Idaho; Douglas Micklich, Illinois
State University; Ajay Mishra, SUNY at Binghamton; Scott
S. Morris, Southern Nazarene University; Philip F. Musa,
University of Alabama at Birmingham; Roy Nersesian,
Monmouth University; Jeffrey Ohlmann, University of Iowa
at Iowa City; John Olson, University of St. Thomas; Ozgur
Ozluk, San Francisco State University; Kenneth Paetsch,
Cleveland State University; Taeho Park, San Jose State Uni-
versity; Allison Pearson, Mississippi State University; Pat-
rick Penfield, Syracuse University; Steve Peng, California
State University at Hayward; Richard Peschke, Minnesota
State University at Moorhead; Andru Peters, San Jose State
University; Charles Phillips, Mississippi State University;
Frank Pianki, Anderson University; Sharma Pillutla, T ­ owson
University; Zinovy Radovilsky, California State Univer-
sity at Hayward; Stephen A. Raper, University of Missouri
at Rolla; Pedro Reyes, Baylor University; Buddhadev Roy-
choudhury, Minnesota State University at Mankato; ­Narendra
Rustagi, Howard University; Herb Schiller, Stony Brook
­University; Dean T. Scott, DeVry University; Scott J. Seipel,
Middle Tennessee State University; Raj Selladurai, Indiana
University; Kaushic Sengupta, Hofstra University; Kenneth
Shaw, Oregon State University; Dooyoung Shin, Minnesota
State University at Mankato; Michael Shurden, Lander Uni-
versity; Raymond E. Simko, Myers University; John Simon,
Governors State University; Jake Simons, Georgia Southern
University; Charles Smith, Virginia Commonwealth Uni-
versity; Kenneth Solheim, DeVry University; Young Son,

Bernard M. Baruch College; Victor Sower, Sam H ­ ouston
State University; Jeremy Stafford, University of North
­Alabama; Donna Stewart, University of Wisconsin at Stout;
Dothang Truong, Fayetteville State University; Mike Umble,
Baylor University; Javad Varzandeh, California State Uni-
versity at San Bernardino; Timothy Vaughan, University of
Wisconsin at Eau Claire; Emre Veral, Baruch College; Mark
Vroblefski, University of Arizona; Gustavo Vulcano, New
York University; Walter Wallace, Georgia State University;
Preface ix
James Walters, Ball State University; John Wang, Montclair
State University; Tekle Wanorie, Northwest Missouri State
University; Jerry Wei, University of Notre Dame; Michael
Whittenberg, University of Texas; Geoff Willis, University
of Central Oklahoma; Pamela Zelbst, Sam Houston State
University; Jiawei Zhang, NYU; Zhenying Zhao, University
of Maryland; Yong-Pin Zhou, University of Washington.
William J. Stevenson
 Walkthrough

MAJOR STUDY AND LEARNING FEATURES

A number of key features in this text have been specifically

designed to help introductory students learn, understand, and
apply Operations concepts and problem-solving techniques.

Examples with Solutions

Throughout the text, wherever a quantitative or Rev.Confirming Pages
analytic technique is introduced, an example is
included to illustrate the application of that tech-
nique. These are designed to be easy to follow.
Chapter Three Forecasting 105

Determining a Regression Equation EXAMPLE 10

Sales of new houses and three-month lagged unemployment are shown in the following
table. Determine if unemployment levels can be used to predict demand for new houses
and, if so, derive a predictive equation. mhhe.com/stevenson13e

Period . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Units sold . . . . . . . . 20 41 17 35 25 31 38 50 15 19 14
Unemployment %
(three-month lag) 7.2 4.0 7.3 5.5 6.8 6.0 5.4 3.6 8.4 7.0 9.0

1. Plot the data to see if a linear model seems reasonable. In this case, a linear model S O L U T I O N
seems appropriate for the range of the data.

50

40
Units sold, y

30

20

10

0
2 4 6 8 10
Level of unemployment (%), x
2. Check the correlation coefficient to confirm that it is not close to zero using the web-
site template, and then obtain the regression equation:
r = −.966
This is a fairly high negative correlation. The regression equation is
y = 71.85 − 6.91x
Note that the equation pertains only to unemployment levels in the range 3.6 to 9.0, because
sample observations covered only that range.

x
 1. Competitive pressure often means that business organizations must frequently assess their com-
petitors’ strengths and weaknesses, as well as their own, to remain competitive. KEY POINTS
2. Strategy formulation is critical because strategies provide direction for the organization, so they
can play a role in the success or failure of a business organization.
3. Functional strategies and supply chain strategies need to be aligned with the goals and strategies
of the overall organization.
4. The three primary business strategies are low cost, responsiveness, and differentiation.
5. Productivity is a key factor in the cost of goods and services. Increases in productivity can
become a competitive advantage.
6. High productivity is particularly important for organizations that have a strategy of low costs.

competitiveness, 42 mission statement, 44 quality-based strategies, 53

core competencies, 46 operations strategy, 51 strategies, 44 KEY TERMS
environmental scanning, 48 order qualifiers, 48 SWOT, 47
Solved Problems goals, 44 order winners, 48 tactics, 45
mission, 44 productivity, 56 time-based strategies, 53
At the end of chapters
and chapter supplements, SOLVED PROBLEMS
“Solved Problems” are pro- Computing Productivity Problem 1
vided to illustrate problem A company that processes fruits and vegetables is able to produce 400 cases of canned peaches in
one-half hour with four workers. What is labor productivity?
solving and the core con- mhhe.com/stevenson13e

Quantity produced 400 cases Solution

Labor productivity = ________________ = ________________________
cepts in the chapter. These Labor hours 4 workers × 1 / 2 hour / worker
= 200 cases per labor hour
have been carefully prepared
to help students understand Computing Multifactor Productivity Problem 2
A wrapping-paper company produced 2,000 rolls of paper one day. Labor cost was $160, material
the steps involved in solving cost was $50, and overhead was $320. Determine the multifactor productivity.
mhhe.com/stevenson13e
different types of problems. Quantity produced
Multifactor productivity = ______________________________ Solution
The Excel logo indicates that Labor cost + Material cost + Overhead
2,000 rolls
a spreadsheet is available = _______________ = 3.77 rolls per dollar input
$160 + $50 + $320
on the text’s website, to help A variation of the multifactor productivity calculation incorporates the standard price in the
numerator by multiplying the units by the standard price. First Pages
solve the problem.
Computing Multifactor Productivity Problem 3
Compute the multifactor productivity measure for an eight-hour day in which the usable output was
300 units, produced by three workers who used 600 pounds of materials. Workers have an hourly
mhhe.com/stevenson13e
wage of $20, and material cost is $1 per pound. Overhead is 1.5 times labor cost.
Chapter Sixteen Scheduling 705
Usable output Solution
Multifactor productivity = __________________________________
Labor cost + Material cost + Overhead cost
TABLE 16.5 Excel solution for Example 2a 300 units
= _____________________________________________________
Excel Spreadsheet
(3 workers × 8 hours × $20 / hour) + (600 pounds × $1 / pound) +
(3 workers × 8 hours × $20 / hour × 1.50)
300 units
= ________________
$480 + $600 + $720
Solutions
= .167units of output per dollar of input Where applicable, the exam-
ples and solved problems
include screen shots of a
spreadsheet solution. Many
of these were taken from
ste67472_ch02_040-073.indd 63 the Excel templates, which 01/06/17 09:11 PM

are on the text’s website.

Templates are programmed
to be fully functional in Excel
2013 and earlier.

c. Using earliest due date as the selection criterion, the job sequence is C-A-E-B-D-F.
The measures of effectiveness are as follows (see table):
(1) Average flow time: 110/6 = 18.33 days. xi
(2) Average tardiness: 38/6 = 6.33 days.
(3) Average number of jobs at the work center: 110/41 = 2.68.
(1) (2) (3) (2) – (3)
CHAPTER ELEMENTS

Within each chapter, you will find the following elements

that are designed to facilitate study and learning. All of
these have been carefully developed over many editions and
have proven to be successful.

Learning Objectives
Every chapter and supplement lists the learning
objectives to achieve when studying the chap-
ter material. The learning objectives are also Rev.Confirming Pages

included next to the specific material in the mar- Confirming Pages

gins of the text.

4 Product and Service

Design

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After completing this chapter, you should be able to:
LO4.1 Explain the strategic importance of product and service design.
LO4.2 Describe what product and service design does.
LO4.3 Name the key questions of product and service design. © Mark Lennihan/AP Images

LO4.4 Identify some reasons for design or redesign.

LO4.5 List some of the main sources of design ideas. 4.11 Service Design, 165 Service Blueprinting, 167 4.12 Operations Strategy, 169
LO4.6 Discuss the importance of legal, ethical, and sustainability considerations in product and service design. Overview of Service Design, 165 Characteristics of Well-Designed Operations Tour: High Acres
LO4.7 Explain the purpose and goal of life cycle assessment. Differences between Service Service Systems, 168 Landfill, 173
Design and Product Design, 165 Challenges of Service Design, 168
LO4.8 Explain the phrase “the 3 Rs.” Chapter Supplement: Reliability, 174
Phases in the Service Design Guidelines for Successful Service
LO4.9 Briefly describe the phases in product design and development. Process, 166 Design, 168
LO4.10 Discuss several key issues in product or service design.
LO4.11 Discuss the two key issues in service design. The essence of a business organization is the products and services it offers, and every LO4.1 Explain the strate-
LO4.12 List the characteristics of well-designed service systems. aspect of the organization and its supply chain are structured around those products and gic importance of product
LO4.13 List some guidelines for successful service design. services. Organizations that have well-designed products or services are more likely to and service design.
realize their goals than those with poorly designed products or services. Hence, orga-
nizations have a strategic interest in product and service design. Product or service design should be closely tied to an
C H A P T E R O U T L I N E organization’s strategy. It is a major factor in cost, quality, time-to-market, customer satisfaction, and competitive advan-
4.1 Introduction, 138 4.7 Environmental Factors: Designing for Mass
tage. Consequently, marketing, finance, operations, accounting, IT, and HR need to be involved. Demand forecasts and
What Does Product and Service Sustainability, 146 Customization, 154 projected costs are important, as is the expected impact on the supply chain. It is significant to note that an important
Design Do?, 138 Cradle-to-Grave Assessment, 146 Reliability, 155 cause of operations failures can be traced to faulty design. Designs that have not been well thought out, or incorrectly
Key Questions, 138 End-of-Life Programs, 146 Robust Design, 156 implemented, or instructions for assembly or usage that are wrong or unclear, can be the cause of product and service
Reasons for Product or The Three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Degree of Newness, 157 failures, leading to lawsuits, injuries and deaths, product recalls, and damaged reputations.
Service Design or and Recycle, 146 Quality Function Deployment, 157
Redesign, 139 Reduce: Value Analysis, 146
The introduction of new products or services, or changes to product or service designs, can have impacts throughout
The Kano Model, 160
4.2 Idea Generation, 140 Reuse: Remanufacturing, 148 the organization and the entire supply chain. Some processes may change very little, while others may have to change
4.9 Phases in Product Design and
4.3 Legal and Ethical Recycle, 149 Development, 161 considerably in terms of what they do or how and when they do it. New processes may have to be added, and some cur-
Considerations, 143 4.8 Other Design Considerations, 151 4.10 Designing for Production, 162 rent ones may be eliminated. New suppliers and distributors may need to be found and integrated into the system, and
4.4 Human Factors, 144 Strategies for Product or Service Concurrent Engineering, 162 some current suppliers and distributors may no longer be an appropriate fit. Moreover, it is necessary to take into account
4.5 Cultural Factors, 145 Life Stages, 151 Computer-Aided Design, 163 projected impact on demand as well as financial, marketing, and distribution implications. Because of the potential for
Product Life Cycle
4.6 Global Product and Management, 152
Production Requirements, 164 widespread effects, taking a “big picture” systems approach early and throughout the design or redesign process is
Service Design, 145 Component Commonality, 164 imperative to reduce the chance of missing some implications and costs, and to understand the time it will take. Likewise,
Degree of Standardization, 153
input from engineering, operations, marketing, finance, accounting, and supply chains is crucial.
In this chapter you will discover insights into the design process that apply to both product and service design.

137

ste67472_ch04_136-173.indd 136 01/06/17 08:07 PM

Chapter Outlines Opening Vignettes

ste67472_ch04_136-173.indd 137 01/16/17 04:35 PM

Every chapter and supplement includes an Each chapter opens with an introduction to the
outline of the topics covered. important operations topics covered in the chapter.
This enables students to see the relevance of opera-
xii
tions management in order to actively engage in
learning the material.
Figures and Photos
The text includes photographs and
Confirming Pages
graphic illustrations to support
­student learning and provide interest
and motivation. Approximately 100
­carefully selected photos highlight 244 Chapter Six Process Selection and Facility Layout
the 13th edition. The photos illustrate
applications of operations and supply FIGURE 6.1 Inputs Outputs
Process selection and
chain concepts in many successful capacity planning influence Forecasting
Facilities and
equipment
system design
companies. More than 400 graphic Capacity
illustrations, more than any other Planning

text in the field, are included and all Product and

service design
Layout

are color coded with ­pedagogical Confirming Pages

Process
­consistency to assist students in Selection

understanding concepts. Technological Work

change design
56 Chapter Two Competitiveness, Strategy, and Productivity

A major key to Apple’s continued

success is its ability to keep pushing
of where process selection and capacity planning fit into system design. Forecasts, product
the boundaries of innovation. Apple and service design, and technological considerations all influence capacity planning and pro-
has demonstrated how to create cess selection. Moreover, capacity and process selection are interrelated, and are often done in
growth by dreaming up products so concert. They, in turn, affect facility and equipment choices, layout, and work design.
new and ingenious that they have How an organization approaches process selection is determined by the organization’s pro-
upended one industry after another. cess strategy. Key aspects include:
• Capital intensity: The mix of equipment and labor that will be used by the organization.
• Process flexibility: The degree to which the system can be adjusted to changes in
processing requirements due to such factors as changes in product or service design,
changes in volume processed, and changes in technology.

6.2 PROCESS SELECTION

LO6.2 Name the two
main factors that influence Process choice is demand driven. The two key questions in process selection are:
process selection.
Pieter Beens/Shutterstock 1. How much variety will the process need to be able to handle?
2. How much volume will the process need to be able to handle?
and business organizations need to be aware of the impact they Answers
are havingtointhese
thesequestions
areas and will serve as a guide to selecting an appropriate process. Usu-
ally,tovolume
respond accordingly. Otherwise, organizations may be subject andpressure
attack by variety groups
are inversely related; a higher level of one means a lower level of the
and risk damage to their reputation. other. However, the need for flexibility of personnel and equipment is directly related to the
level of variety the process will need to handle: the lower the variety, the less the need for
flexibility, while the higher the variety, the greater the need for flexibility.
2.7 PRODUCTIVITY There is another aspect of variety that is important. Variety means either having separate
LO2.6 Define the term operations for each product or service, with a steady demand for each, or being willing to
productivity and explain
why it is important to com-
Icons
One of the primary responsibilities of a manager is to achieve productive
live with some
tion’s resources. The term productivity is used to describe this. Productivity
of an
useidle organiza-
time, or to get equipment ready every time there is the need to change the
is an index thatservice being provided.
product being produced or the
measures output (goods and services) relative to the input (labor, materials, energy, and other
panies and to countries.
Icons are included in the text, to point out relevant applications in a discussion or concept.
resources) used to produce it. It is usually expressed as the ratio of output to input:
Process Types
Productivity A measure of TheseOutput
include: Excel icons to point
Productivity = ______ Thereout Excel
are five basicapplications;
process types: job and
(2–1)
ScreenCam
shop, batch, Tutorial and
repetitive, continuous, icons to
project.
the effective use of resources,
usually expressed as the ratio link toInput
the tutorials on the text’s website.
of output to input.
Job Shop.
Although productivity is important for all business organizations, A job shopimpor-
it is particularly usually operates on a relatively small scale. It is used when a low
tant for organizations that use a strategy of low cost, becausevolume of high-variety
the higher goods
the productivity, the or services will be needed. Processing is intermittent; work
lower the cost of the output. includes small jobs, each with somewhat different processing requirements. High flexibility
A productivity ratio can be computed for a single operation,usinga general-purpose equipment and skilled workers are important characteristics of a job
department, an organiza-
tion, or an entire country. In business organizations, productivity
shop. Aratios are used forexample
manufacturing plan- of a job shop is a tool and die shop that is able to produce
ning workforce requirements, scheduling equipment, financial analysis, and other important
tasks.
Productivity has important implications for business organizations and for entire nations.
mhhe.com/stevenson13e screenCam tutorial
For nonprofit organizations, higher productivity means lower costs; for profit-based organiza-
tions, productivity is an important factor in determining how competitive a company is. For
a nation, the rate of productivity growth is of great importance. Productivity growth is the
increase in productivity from one period to the next relative to the productivity in the preced-
ing period. Thus,
ste67472_ch06_242-295.indd 244 01/06/17 07:38 PM
Current productivity − Previous productivity
Productivity growth = _____________________________________ × 100 (2–2)
Previous productivity
For example, if productivity increased from 80 to 84, the growth rate would be xiii
84 − 80
______ × 100 = 5%
80
 Confirming Pages

Chapter Five Strategic Capacity Planning for Products and Services 211

5.12 OPERATIONS STRATEGY Operations Strategies

The strategic implications of capacity decisions can be enormous, impacting all areas of the
An Operations Strategy section
organization. From an operations management standpoint, capacity decisions establish a set is included at the ends of most
of conditions within which operations will be required to function. Hence, it is extremely chapters. These sections discuss
important to include input from operations management people in making capacity decisions.
Flexibility can be a key issue in capacity decisions, although flexibility is not always an option, how the chapters’ concepts can
particularly in capital-intensive industries. However, where possible, flexibility allows an organi- be applied and how they impact
zation to be agile—that is, responsive to changes in the marketplace. Also, it reduces to a certain
extent the dependence on long-range forecasts to accurately predict demand. And flexibility makes the operations of a company.
it easier for organizations to take advantage of technological and other innovations. Maintaining
excess capacity (a capacity cushion) may provide a degree of flexibility, albeit at added cost.
Some organizations use a strategy of maintaining a capacity cushion for the purpose of
blocking entry into the market by new competitors. The excess capacity enables them to pro-
duce at costs lower than what new competitors can. However, such a strategy means higher-
than-necessary unit costs, and it makes it more difficult to cut back if demand slows, or to
shift to new product or service offerings.
Efficiency improvements and utilization improvements can provide capacity increases.
Such improvements can be achieved by streamlining operations and reducing waste. The
chapter on lean operations describes ways for achieving those improvements.
Bottleneck management can be a way to increase effective capacity, by scheduling non-
bottleneck operations to achieve maximum utilization of bottleneck operations.
In cases where capacity expansion will be undertaken, there are two strategies for determin-
ing the timing and degree of capacity expansion. One is the expand-early strategy (i.e., before
demand materializes). The intent might be to achieve economies of scale, to expand market share,
or to preempt competitors from expanding. The risks of this strategy include an oversupply that
would drive prices down, and underutilized equipment that would result in higher unit costs. Confirming Pages
The other approach is the wait-and-see strategy (i.e., to expand capacity only after demand
materializes, perhaps incrementally). Its advantages include a lower chance of oversupply due
to more accurate matching of supply and demand, and higher capacity utilization. The key risks
are loss of market share and the inability to meet demand if expansion requires a long lead time.
In cases where capacity contraction will READING be undertaken, capacity disposal strategies
DUTCH BOY BRUSHES
become important. This can be the result of the need to replace aging equipment with newer
UP ITS PAINTS
equipment. It can also be the result of outsourcing and downsizing operations. The cost or
Sherwin-Williams’ Dutch Boy Group put a revolutionary spin
benefit of asset disposal should be taken into account when
on paintcans contemplating
with these actions.
its innovative square-shaped Twist & Pour™
paint-delivery container for the Dirt Fighter interior latex paint line.
The four-piece square container could be the first major change in
how house paint is packaged in decades. Lightweight but sturdy,
the Twist & Pour “bucket” is packed with so many conveniences,
Readings it’s next to impossible to mess up a painting project.
Capacity refers to a system’s potential for producing goods Winningor Best
delivering
of Show services overpackaging
in an AmeriStar a specified time
competition
interval. Capacity decisions are important because capacity
sponsoredisbya theceiling onofoutput
Institute PackagingandProfessionals,
a major determi-
the exclu- SUMMARY
Readings highlight important
nant of operating costs. sive, all-plastic paint container stands almost 7½ in. tall and holds
Three key inputs to capacity planning are the kind126ofoz., a bit lessthat
capacity thanwill
1 gal.be
Rust-resistant
needed, how and moisture-resistant,
much will be
real-world applications, provide
needed, and when it will be needed. Accurate forecasts
the plastic bucket gives users a new way to mix, brush, and store
are critical to the planning process.
paint.
examples of production/opera-
The capacity planning decision is one of the mostAimportant
hollow handledecisions
on one sidethat
makesmanagers make.
it comfortable The
to pour and
capacity decision is strategic and long-term in nature, often
[carry]. involvingsnap-in
A convenient, a significant
pour spoutinitial investment
neatly pours paint into
tions issues, and offer further
of capital. Capacity planning is particularly difficultaintraycases where
with no returns
dripping but canwill
be accrue
removed over a lengthy
if desired, to allow
elaboration of the text material.
period and risk is a major consideration. a wide brush to be dipped into the 5¾-in.-dia. mouth. Capping
the container is a large, twist-off lid that requires no tools to open
A variety of factors can interfere with effective capacity, so effective capacity is usually somewhat
They also provide a basis for or close. Molded with two lugs for a snug-finger-tight closing,
less than design capacity. These factors include facilities design
the threaded cap and layout,
provides a tighthuman factors,
seal to extend theproduct/
shelf life of Courtesy of Dutch Boy
service design, equipment failures, scheduling problems,
classroom discussion and gener- unused and quality considerations.
paint.
Capacity planning involves long-term and short-termWhile considerations.
the lid requiresLong-term considerations
no tools to access, relate
the snap-off carry bail of a recess in the bottom that mates with the lid’s top ring. “The
ate interest in the subject mat- is assembled
to the overall level of capacity; short-term considerations relateontothe container in
variations inacapacity
“locked-down position” and
requirements new design allows for one additional shelf facing on an eight-foot
rack or shelf area.”
due to seasonal, random, and irregular fluctuations can in be pulled upIdeally,
demand. after purchase for toting
capacity willormatch
hangingdemand.
on a ladder.
ter. Many of the end-of-chapter Large, nearly 4½-inch-tall label panels allow glossy front and back
Thus, there is a close link between forecasting and capacity planning, particularly in the long term. In
The labels are applied automatically, quite a feat, considering
labels printed and UV-coated to wrap around the can’s rounded their complexity, size, and the hollow handle they likely encounter
readings include assignment
the short term, emphasis shifts to describing and coping with
corners, forvariations
an impressive indisplay.
demand. during application. MacDonald admits, “Label application was a
Jim MacDonald, co-designer of the Twist & Pour and a packag- challenge. We had to modify the bottle several times to accom-
questions. ing engineer at Cleveland-based Sherwin-Williams, tells Packag- modate the labeling machinery available.”
ing Digest that the space-efficient, square shape is easier to ship Source: “Dutch Boy Brushes Up Its Paints,” Packaging Digest, October 2002.
and for retailers to stack in stores. It can also be nested, courtesy Copyright © 2002 Reed Business Information. Used with permission.

smaller microprocessor that spawns a new generation of personal digital assistants or cell
ste67472_ch05_188-219.indd 211 phones). Technology also can indirectly affect product and service
01/06/17 07:26 PMdesign: Advances in pro-
cessing technology may require altering an existing design to make it compatible with the
new processing technology. Still another way that technology can impact product design is
illustrated by new digital recording technology that allows television viewers to skip com-
mercials when they view a recorded program. This means that advertisers (who support a
television program) can’t get their message to viewers. To overcome this, some advertisers
have adopted a strategy of making their products an integral part of a television program, say
xiv by having their products prominently displayed and/or mentioned by the actors as a way to
call viewers’ attention to their products without the need for commercials.
The following reading suggests another potential benefit of product redesign.
 Technique Formula Definitions
Exponential smoothing Ft = Ft – 1 + α(At – 1 − Ft – 1) α = Smoothing factor
forecast

Ft = a + bt
where
n∑ ty − ∑ t∑ y a = y intercept
Linear trend forecast b = ______________
n∑ t 2 − (∑ t 2) b = Slope
∑ y − b∑ t
a = ______ or ¯y − b¯t
n

Trend-adjusted TAF t+1 = S t + T t t = Current period

forecast where TAF t+1 = Trend-adjusted forecast for
S t = TAF t + α( A t − TAF t) next period

END-OF-CHAPTER RESOURCES
T t = T t−1 + β( TAF t − TAF t−1 − T t−1) S = Previous forecast plus
smoothed error
T = Trend component

Y c = a + bx y c = Computed value of dependent

where variable

For student study and review, the following items are

n(∑ xy) − (∑ x) (∑ y) x = Predictor (independent) variable
Linear regression b = ___________________
n(∑ x 2) − (∑ x 2) b = Slope of the line
forecast
a = Value of y c when x = 0
∑ y − b∑ x
a = ______ or ¯y − b¯x

provided at the end of each chapter or chapter supplement.

n

√
________
Standard error of ∑ (y − y c) 2
_______
S e = Standard error of estimate
estimate Se = y = y value of each data point
n−2
n = Number of data points

Tracking signal ∑e
n

TS t = _____
MAD
Summaries
_____
Control limits UCL = 0 + z √MSE
_____
_____
√MSE = standard deviation
z = Number of standard deviations;
Chapters contain summaries that provide an
LCL = 0 − z √MSE
2 and 3 are typical values
overview of the material covered.
Confirming Pages

1. Demand forecasts are essential inputs for many business decisions; they help managers decide
KEY POINTS how much supply or capacity will be needed to match expected demand, both within the organiza-
tion and in the supply chain.
Key Points
2. Because of random variations in demand, it is likely that the forecast will not be perfect, so man-
Chapter One Introduction to Operations Management
agers need to be prepared to deal with forecast errors.
37
The key points of the chapter are emphasized.
3. Other, nonrandom factors might also be present, so it is necessary to monitor forecast errors to
7. What are models and why are they check
important?
for nonrandom patterns in forecast errors.
8. Why is the degree of customization
4. Itanis important
important consideration in processtechnique
to choose a forecasting planning?that is cost-effective and one that minimizes fore-
castfor
9. List the trade-offs you would consider error.
each of these decisions:
a. Driving your own car versus public transportation.
Key Terms
b. Buying a computer now versus waiting for an improved model.
c. Buying a new car versus buying a used car. Key terms are highlighted in the text and then
d. Speaking up in class versus waiting to get called on by the instructor.
Taking Stock and Critical
e. A small business owner having a website versus newspaper advertising. repeated in the margin with brief definitions for
10. Describe each of these systems: craft production, mass production, and lean production.

Thinking Exercises
11. Why might some workers prefer not to work in a lean production environment?
emphasis. They are listed at the end of each
12. Discuss the importance of each of the following:
a. Matching supply and demand
chapter (along with page references) to aid in
Theseb. activities
Managing a supply encourage
chain analytical thinking reviewing.
and13.help
managers to be able to effectively deal with variation.understanding.
broaden conceptual
List and briefly explain the four basic sources of variation, and explain why it is important for

14. Why do people do things that are unethical?

A question related
value-added.to ethics is included in the
ste67472_ch03_074-135.indd 116
15. Explain the term
01/06/17 08:04 PM
Discussion and Review Questions
Critical Thinking Exercises.
16. Discuss the various impacts of outsourcing.
17. Discuss the term sustainability, and its relevance for business organizations.
Each chapter and each supplement have a
This item appears at the end of each chapter. It is intended to focus your attention on three key issues list of discussion and review questions. These
for business organizations in general, and operations management in particular. Those issues are TAKING STOCK
trade-off decisions, collaboration among various functional areas of the organization, and the impact
of technology. You will see three or more questions relating to these issues. Here is the first set of
precede the problem sets and are intended to
questions:
serve as a student self-review or as class dis-
1. What are trade-offs? Why is careful consideration of trade-offs important in decision making?
2. Why is it important for the various functional areas of a business organization to collaborate? cussion starters.
3. In what general ways does technology have an impact on operations management decision making?

This item also will appear in every chapter. It allows you to critically apply information you learned in
the chapter to a practical situation. Here is the first set of exercises: CRITICAL THINKING
1. Many organizations offer a combination of goods and services to their customers. As you learned in
EXERCISES
this chapter, there are some key differences between production of goods and delivery of services.
What are the implications of these differences relative to managing operations?
2. Why is it important to match supply and demand? If a manager believes that supply and demand
will not be equal, what actions could the manager take to increase the probability of achieving a
match?
Confirming Pages
3. One way that organizations compete is through technological innovation. However, there can be
downsides for both the organization and the consumer. Explain.
4. a. What would cause a business person to make an unethical decision?
b. What are the risks of doing so?

216 Chapter Five Strategic Capacity Planning for Products and Services

1. Determine the utilization and the efficiency for each of these situations:
PROBLEMS
Problem Sets a. A loan processing operation that processes an average of 7 loans per day. The operation has a
design capacity of 10 loans per day and an effective capacity of 8 loans per day.
b. A furnace repair team that services an average of four furnaces a day if the design capacity is

Each chapter includes a set of problems six furnaces a day and the effective capacity is five furnaces a day.
c. Would you say that systems that have higher efficiency ratios than other systems will always

for assignment. The problems have been 2.

have higher utilization ratios than those other systems? Explain.
In a job shop, effective capacity is only 50 percent of design capacity, and actual output is 80
percent of effective output. What design capacity would be needed to achieve an actual output of
refined over many editions and are intended eight jobs per week?
3. A producer of pottery is considering the addition of a new plant to absorb the backlog of demand that
to be challenging but doable for students. now exists. The primary location being considered will have fixed costs of $9,200 per month and vari-
able costs of 70 cents per unit produced. Each item is sold to retailers at a price that averages 90 cents.
Short answers to most of the problems are
ste67472_ch01_002-039.indd 37 01/06/17 09:09 PM
a. What volume per month is required in order to break even?
b. What profit would be realized on a monthly volume of 61,000 units? 87,000 units?
included in Appendix A so that students can c. What volume is needed to obtain a profit of $16,000 per month?
d. What volume is needed to provide a revenue of $23,000 per month?
check their understanding and see immedi- e. Plot the total cost and total revenue lines.
4. A small firm intends to increase the capacity of a bottleneck operation by adding a new machine.
ately how they are progressing. Two alternatives, A and B, have been identified, and the associated costs and revenues have been
estimated. Annual fixed costs would be $40,000 for A and $30,000 for B; variable costs per unit
would be $10 for A and $11 for B; and revenue per unit would be $15.
a. Determine each alternative’s break-even point in units. xv
b. At what volume of output would the two alternatives yield the same profit?
c. If expected annual demand is 12,000 units, which alternative would yield the higher profit?
5. A producer of felt-tip pens has received a forecast of demand of 30,000 pens for the coming
month from its marketing department. Fixed costs of $25,000 per month are allocated to the felt-
tip operation, and variable costs are 37 cents per pen.
Operations Tours
These provide a simple “walkthrough” of an opera-
tion for students, describing the company, its product
First Pages
or service, and its process of managing operations.
Companies featured include Wegmans Food Markets,
Morton Salt, Stickley Furniture, and Boeing.
OPERATIONS TOUR
BRUEGGER’S BAGEL BAKERY
Bruegger’s Bagel Bakery makes and sells a variety of bagels, output at each step in the process. At the stores, employees are
including plain, onion, poppyseed, and cinnamon raisin, as well as instructed to watch for deformed bagels and to remove them when
assorted flavors of cream cheese. Bagels are the major source of they find them. (Deformed bagels are returned to a processing plant
revenue for the company. where they are sliced into bagel chips, packaged, and then taken
The bagel business is a $3 billion industry. Bagels are very back First Pages
to the stores for sale, thereby reducing the scrap rate.) Employ-
popular with consumers. Not only are they relatively low in fat, ees who work in the stores are carefully chosen and then trained
they are filling, and they taste good! Investors like the bagel so that they are competent to operate the necessary equipment in
industry because it can be highly profitable: it only costs about the stores and to provide the desired level of service to customers.
$.10 to make a bagel, and they can be sold for $.50 each or more. The company operates with minimal inventories of raw materi-
Although some bagel companies have done poorly in recent years, als and inventories of partially completed bagels at the plant and
due mainly to poor management, Bruegger’s business is booming; very little inventory of bagels at the stores. One reason for this
CASE HARVEY INDUSTRIES it is number one nationally, with over 450 shops that sell bagels, is to maintain a high degree of freshness in the final product by
coffee, and bagel sandwiches for takeout or onpremise consump- continually supplying fresh product to the stores. A second rea-
tion. Many stores in the Bruegger’s chain generate an average of son is to keep costs down; minimal inventories mean less space is
Background $800,000 in sales annually.
Current Inventory Control System needed for storage.
Production of bagels is done in batches, according to flavor,
Harvey Industries, a Wisconsin company, specializes in the assem- The current inventory control “system” consists of orders for stock
with each flavor being produced on a daily basis. Production of Questions
bly of highpressure washer systems and in the sale of repair parts replenishment being made by the stockroom foreman, the pur-
bagels at Bruegger’s begins at a processing plant, where the basic
for these systems. The products range from small portable high- chasing manager, or the manufacturing managerFirst 1. Pages
Bruegger’s
whenever one ofmaintains relatively little inventory at either its
ingredients of flour, water, yeast, and flavorings are combined in
pressure washers to large industrial installations for snow removal them notices that the inventory is low. An order for replenishment plants or its retail stores. List the benefits and risks of this
a special mixing machine. After the dough has been thoroughly
from vehicles stored outdoors during the winter months. Typical of inventory is also placed whenever someone (eitherpolicy. a customer
mixed, it is transferred to another machine that shapes the dough
uses for high-pressure water cleaning include: or an employee in the assembly area) wants an item 2. and it isisnot
Quality very important to Bruegger’s.
into individual bagels. Once the bagels have been formed, they
in stock.
are loaded onto refrigerated trucks for shipping to individual a. What features of bagels do customers look at to judge their
Automobiles Airplanes Some inventory
stores. When the bagels reach a store, is needed
they for the assembly
are unloaded from theof the high-pressure
quality?
Building maintenance Barns equipment for thethey
car rise.
washThe andfinal
industrial applications.b. There
At what arepoints in the production process do workers check
trucks and temporarily stored while two steps
CASE Engines HARVEY INDUSTRIES
Ice cream plants of processing involve current andtheaccurate
boiling bagels in bills of material
a kettle for and
of water these assemblies. bagelThe quality?
Lift trucks Machinery malt for one minute, material
and thenneeds to support
baking the bagels the inassembly
an ovenschedule
for are
c. generally
List the steps in the production process, beginning with
Swimming pools known well in advance of the build schedule.
approximately 15 minutes. purchasing ingredients, and ending with the sale, and state
Background The processCurrent The majority
Inventory
is depicted of inventory
Control
in the figure. transactions are for repair parts
System and can be positively affected at each step.
how quality
Industrial customers include General Motors, Ford,Quality Chrysler, for supplies
featureused a by the car business.
washes, such as paper towels, deter-
Harvey Industries, a Wisconsin company, specializes in the assem- is an
Theimportant
current inventory ofcontrol
successful
“system” consists of orders 3.
Custom- for Which
stock inventory models could be used for ordering the ingre-
Delta Airlines, United Parcel Service, and Shell Oil Company.
bly of highpressure washer systems and in the sale of repair ersparts qualitygent,
judge thereplenishment and by
of bagels wax
being
concentrate.
their appearance
made
Because of the
(size, shape,
by the stockroom andconstant
foreman,
and rugged
thedients
pur- for bagels? Which model do you think would be most
Although the industrial applications are a significant use of the car
part of itsand consistency.
shine), wash equipment, there istoa the
steady demand for the for deciding how many bagels to make in a given
appropriate
for these systems. The products range from small portable high-taste, chasing manager,Customers are also sensitive
or the manufacturing manager whenever one of
sales, Harvey Industries is primarily an assembler service
of equipment
they them
receive various repairmake
when that
they parts.their purchases. Bruegger’s batch?
pressure washers to large industrial installations for snow removal notices the inventory is low. An order for replenishment
for coin operated self-service car wash systems. The typical car attention The stockroom is well organized, with from
parts stored in locationshas bagel-making machines at its plants. Another
from vehicles stored outdoors during the winter months.devotes Typical carefulof inventorytoisquality at every
also placed stage
whenever of operation,
someone (either 4. Bruegger’s
a customer
wash is of concrete block construction with an equipmentchoosingroom in
suppliers according to each vendor. The number of vendors is relatively lim-
uses for high-pressure water cleaning include: or an of ingredients,
employee careful
in the monitoring
assembly area) ofwants an item and it possibility
ingredients, is not would be to have a bagel-making machine at each
the center, flanked on either side by a number of bays. The carsequipment
and keeping ited, with each vendor generally supplying many different store. parts.
in stock. in good operating condition to monitoring What advantages does each alternative have?
are driven into the bays
Automobiles where the owner can wash and wax the
Airplanes For example, the repair parts from Allen Bradley, a manufacturer
Some inventory is needed for the assembly of the high-pressure
car, utilizing high-pressure hot water and liquid wax. A dollar bill of electrical motors, are stocked in the same location. These repair
Building maintenance Barns equipment for the car wash and industrial applications. There are
changer is available to provide change for the use of the equip- parts will be used to provide service for the many electrical motors
FLOU
R

Engines Ice cream plants current and accurate bills of material for these assemblies. The
ment and the purchase of various products from dispensers. The that are part of the high-pressure pump and motor assembly used
Liftproducts
trucks include towels,Machinery material
Mixerneeds to support the assembly schedule are generally
tire cleaner, and upholstery cleaner. by all of the car washes. of
Swimming pools known well in advance of Trays the build schedule.
bagels
The majority of inventory transactions are for repair parts and
Industrial customers include General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, for supplies used by the car washes, such as paper towels, deter-
President Shaper
Delta Airlines, United Parcel Service, and Shell Oil Company. gent, and wax concentrate. Because of the constant and rugged Kettle Oven
Although the industrial applications are a significant part of its use of the car wash equipment, there plant
Processing is a steady demand for the A retail store
sales, Harvey Industries is primarily an assembler of equipment various repair parts.
for coin operated self-service car wash systems. The typical car The stockroom is well organized, with parts stored in locations
wash is of concrete block construction Sales
with an equipmentManufacturing
room in according toController
each vendor. The number of vendors is relatively lim-
Purchasing
the center, flanked on either side by manager
a number of bays.manager
The cars ited, with each vendor generally supplying manager many different parts.
are driven into the bays where the owner can wash and wax the For example, the repair parts from Allen Bradley, a manufacturer
car, utilizing high-pressure hot water and liquid wax. A dollar bill of electrical motors, are stocked in the same location. These repair
changer is available to provide change for the use of the equip- parts will be used to provide service for the many electrical motors
ment and the purchase of various Assemblyproducts from dispensers. The
Stockroom that are partQuality
of the high-pressure pump and motor assembly used
products include towels, tire cleaner, foreman foreman
and upholstery cleaner. by all of the engineer
car washes.
604

In recent years Harvey Industries has been in financial difficulty. Because of the heavy sales volume of repair parts, there are
President
The company has lost money for three of the last four years, with
the last year’s loss being $17,174 on sales of $1,238,674. Inventory Cases
generally two employees working in the stockroom—a stockroom
foreman who reports to the manufacturing manager and an assis-
levels have been steadily increasing to their present levels of tant to the foreman. One of these two employees will handle cus-
$124,324. Untitled-5 604
The text includes short cases. The cases were
tomer orders. Many customers stop by and order the parts and 01/10/17 06:31 PM
The company employs Sales23 people with the management team supplies they need. Telephone
Purchasingorders are also received and are
consisting of the following
manager
Manufacturing
key employees: manager
president, sales man-
Controller
shipped by United Parcel selected to provide a broader, more integrated
Service the same day.
manager
ager, manufacturing manager, controller, and purchasing man-
ager. The abbreviated organization chart reflects the reporting
thinking opportunity for students without taking
The assembly area has some inventory stored on the shop floor.
This inventory consists of low-value items that are used every day,
relationship of the key employees and the three individuals who a full case approach.
such as nuts, bolts, screws, and washers. These purchased items
report directly to the manufacturing
Assembly manager.Stockroom do not amount to very much dollar volume throughout the year.
Quality
xvi foreman foreman engineer (continued)

601
In recent years Harvey Industries has been in financial difficulty. Because of the heavy sales volume of repair parts, there are
The company has lost money for three of the last four years, with generally two employees working in the stockroom—a stockroom
the last year’s loss being $17,174 on sales of $1,238,674. Inventory foreman who reports to the manufacturing manager and an assis-
INSTRUCTOR RESOURCES
Available within Connect, instructors have access to teaching supports such as electronic files
of the ancillary materials: Solutions Manual, Instructor’s Manual, Test Bank, PowerPoint
Lecture Slides, Digital Image Library, and Excel Lecture scripts.

Instructor’s Manual. This manual includes teaching notes, chapter overview, an outline
for each chapter, and solutions to the problems in the text.

Test Bank. Prepared by Larry R. White, Eastern Illinois University, the Test Bank includes
over 2,000 true/false, multiple-choice, and discussion questions/problems at varying levels of
difficulty.

TestGen. TestGen is a complete, state-of-the-art test generator and editing application soft-
ware that allows instructors to quickly and easily select test items from McGraw Hill’s testbank
content. The instructors can then organize, edit and customize questions and answers to rapidly
generate tests for paper or online administration. Questions can include stylized text, symbols,
graphics, and equations that are inserted directly into questions using built-in mathematical tem-
plates. TestGen’s random generator provides the option to display different text or calculated
number values each time questions are used. With both quick-and-simple test creation and flex-
ible and robust editing tools, TestGen is a complete test generator system for today’s educators.

PowerPoint Lecture Slides. Prepared by James Anthony Swaim, Kennesaw State Uni-
versity, the PowerPoint slides draw on the highlights of each chapter and provide an opportu-
nity for the instructor to emphasize the key concepts in class discussions.

Digital Image Library. All the figures in the book are included for insertion in PowerPoint
slides or for class discussion.

Operations Management Video Series

The operations management video series, free to text adopters, includes professionally devel-
oped videos showing students applications of key manufacturing and service topics in real
companies. Each segment includes on-site or plant footage, interviews with company manag-
ers, and focused presentations of OM applications in use to help the companies gain competi-
tive advantage. Companies such as Zappos, FedEx, Subaru, Disney, BP, Chase Bank, DHL,
Louisville Slugger, McDonald’s, Noodles & Company, and Honda are featured.

xvii
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 SCREENCAM TUTORIALS Confirming Pages

These screen “movies” and voiceover tutorials explain key chapter

screenCam tutorial content, using Excel and other software platforms. Confirming Pages

94 Chapter Three Forecasting

Chapter Three Forecasting 95

c. Substituting
Trend-Adjusted values
Exponential of t into this equation, the forecasts for the next two periods
Smoothing
A variation of simple(i.e., t = 11
exponential and tcan
smoothing =be12)
usedare:
when a time series exhibits a linear
trend. It is called trend-adjusted exponential smoothing or, sometimes, double smoothing, Trend-adjusted exponential
F
to differentiate it from 11 = 699.40 + 7.51(11)
simple exponential smoothing, which = 782.01
is appropriate only when data smoothing Variation of expo-
vary around an average F12or =
have699.40 + 7.51(12)
step or gradual changes. If = 789.52
a series exhibits trend, and simple nential smoothing used when
smoothing is used on it, the forecasts will all lag the trend: If the data are increasing, each a time series exhibits a linear
forecast will be too low; if decreasing, each forecast will be too high. trend.
d. For purposes of illustration, the original data, the trend line, and the
The trend-adjusted forecast (TAF) is composed of two elements—a smoothed error and a
two projections
LO3.12 Prepare a trend-
trend factor. (forecasts) are shown on the following graph: adjusted exponential
TAF t+1 = St + T t 800 (3–11) smoothing forecast.
where
St = Previous forecast plus smoothed error Forecasts
Tt = Current trend estimate 780
and
screenCam tutorial
St = TAF t + α(At − TAF t )
Tt = Tt−1 + β (TAF t − TAF t−1 − Tt−1 ) (3–12)
760
where
Sales

α = Smoothing constant for average

β = Smoothing constant for trend
740
Data through trial and
In order to use this method, one must select values of α and β (usually Trend line
error) and make a starting forecast and an estimate of trend.
Excel Templates Using the cell phone data from the previous example (where it was concluded that the data
720 smoothing to obtain forecasts for
exhibited a linear trend), use trend-adjusted exponential
periods 6 through 11, with α = .40 and β = .30.
Templates created by Lee Tangedahl, University of Montana, are included on the OLC. The templates, over 70 total,
The initial estimate of trend is based on the net change of 28 for the three changes from
period 1 to period 4, for an average of 9.33. The700 Excel spreadsheet is shown in Table 3.2.
include dynamically linked graphics and variable controls. They allow you to solve a number of problems in the text
Notice that an initial estimate of trend is estimated from the first four values and that the start-
ing forecast (period 5) is developed using the previous (period 4) value of 728 plus the initial
or additional problems. All templates have been revised to allow formatting of1 all2 cells,
trend estimate:
3 4 hiding 5 6 7rows 8 9or 10
columns,
11 12 and
Starting forecast = 728 + 9.33 = 737.33
entering data or calculations in blank cells. Many of the templates have been expanded to accommodate
Week
Unlike a linear trend line, trend-adjusted smoothing has the ability to adjust to changes solving
in trend. Of course, trend projections are much simpler with a trend line than with trend-
larger problems and cases. adjusted forecasts, so a manager must decide which benefits are most important when choos-
ing between these two techniques for trend.

Techniques
TABLE 3.1 Excel solution for Seasonality
for Example 5
Seasonal variations in time-series data are regularly repeating upward or downward move- Seasonal variations Regu-
ments in series values that can be tied to recurring events. Seasonality may refer to regu- larly repeating movements in
series values that can be tied
lar annual variations. Familiar examples of seasonality are weather variations (e.g., sales of
to recurring events.
winter and summer sports equipment) and vacations or holidays (e.g., airline travel, greeting
card sales, visitors at tourist and resort centers). The term seasonal variation is also applied
to daily, weekly, monthly, and other regularly recurring patterns in data. For example, rush
hour traffic occurs twice a day—incoming in the morning and outgoing in the late afternoon.
Theaters and restaurants often experience weekly demand patterns, with demand higher later
in the week. Banks may experience daily seasonal variations (heavier traffic during the noon
hour and just before closing), weekly variations (heavier toward the end of the week), and
monthly variations (heaviest around the beginning of the month because of Social Security,
payroll, and welfare checks being cashed or deposited). Mail volume; sales of toys, beer, auto-
mobiles, and turkeys; highway usage; hotel registrations; and gardening also exhibit seasonal
variations.

ste67472_ch03_074-135.indd 95 01/06/17 08:04 PM

xx
 .Note to Students
The material in this text is part of the core knowledge in your edu-
cation. Consequently, you will derive considerable benefit from
your study of operations management, regardless of your major.
Practically speaking, operations is a course in management.
This book describes principles and concepts of operations
management. You should be aware that many of these prin-
ciples and concepts are applicable to other aspects of your
professional and personal life. You can expect the benefits of
your study of operations management to serve you in those
other areas as well.
Some students approach this course with apprehension, and
perhaps even some negative feelings. It may be that they have
heard that the course contains a certain amount of quantitative
material that they feel uncomfortable with, or that the subject mat-
ter is dreary, or that the course is about “factory management.”
This is unfortunate, because the subject matter of this book is
interesting and vital for all business students. While it is true that
some of the material is quantitative, numerous examples, solved
problems, and answers at the back of the book will help you with
the quantitative material. As for “factory management,” there
is material on manufacturing as well as on services. Manufac-
turing is important, and something that you should know about
for a number of reasons. Look around you. Most of the “things”
you see were manufactured: cars, trucks, planes, clothing, shoes,
computers, books, pens and pencils, desks, and cell phones. And
these are just the tip of the iceberg. So it makes sense to know
something about how these things are produced. Beyond all that
is the fact that manufacturing is largely responsible for the high
standard of living people have in industrialized countries.
After reading each chapter or supplement in the text,
attending related classroom lectures, and completing assigned
questions and problems, you should be able to do each of the
following:
1. Identify the key features of that material.
2. Define and use terminology.
3. Solve typical problems.
4. Recognize applications of the concepts and techniques
covered.
5. Discuss the subject matter in some depth, including its
relevance, managerial considerations, and advantages
and limitations.
You will encounter a number of chapter supplements.
Check with your instructor to determine whether to study
them.
This book places an emphasis on problem solving.
There are many examples throughout the text illustrat-
ing solutions. In addition, at the end of most chapters and
supplements you will find a group of solved problems. The
examples within the chapter itself serve to illustrate con-
cepts and techniques. Too much detail at those points would
be counterproductive. Yet, later on, when you begin to solve
the end-of-chapter problems, you will find the solved prob-
lems quite helpful. Moreover, those solved problems usu-
ally illustrate more and different details than the problems
within the chapter.
I suggest the following approach to increase your chances
of getting a good grade in the course:
1.
Look over the chapter outline and learning objectives.
2.
Read the chapter summary, and then skim the chapter.
3.
Read the chapter and take notes.
4.
Look over and try to answer the discussion and review
questions.
5. Solve the problems, referring to the solved problems and
chapter examples as needed.
Note that the answers to many problems are given at the
end of the book. Try to solve each problem before turning to
the answer. Remember—tests don’t come with answers.
And here is one final thought: Homework is on the High-
way to Happiness! Enjoy the journey!
W.J.S.
xxi
 Brief Contents

Preface vii
1 Introduction to Operations Management 2
2 Competitiveness, Strategy, and Productivity 40
3 Forecasting 74
4 Product and Service Design 136
SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER 4: Reliability 174
5 Strategic Capacity Planning for Products and Services 188
SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER 5: Decision Theory 220
6 Process Selection and Facility Layout 242
7 Work Design and Measurement 296
SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER 7: Learning Curves 330
8 Location Planning and Analysis 342
9 Management of Quality 372
10 Quality Control 416
11 Aggregate Planning and Master Scheduling 462
12 MRP and ERP 500
13 Inventory Management 550
14 JIT and Lean Operations 608
SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER 14: Maintenance 644
15 Supply Chain Management 652
16 Scheduling 690
17 Project Management 730
18 Management of Waiting Lines 782
19 Linear Programming 822

Appendix A: Answers to Selected Problems 854

Appendix B: Tables 866
Appendic C: Working with the Normal Distribution 872
Company Index 877
Subject Index 879

xxiii
 Contents

Preface vii 2 Competitiveness, Strategy, and

Productivity 40
1 Introduction to Operations Introduction 41
Management 2
Competitiveness 42
Introduction 4 Mission and Strategies 44
Production of Goods Versus Providing Reading:
Services 8 Amazon Tops in Customer Service 45
Why Learn About Operations Management? 10
Operations Strategy 51
Career Opportunities and Professional
Implications of Organization Strategy for Operations
Societies 12
Management 54
Process Management 13
Transforming Strategy into Action: The Balanced
The Scope of Operations Management 14 Scorecard 54
Reading: Productivity 56
Why Manufacturing Matters 17
Readings:
 perations Management and Decision
O Why Productivity Matters 59
Making 18
Dutch Tomato Growers’ Productivity
Reading: Advantage 60
Analytics 20
Productivity Improvement 62
T he Historical Evolution of Operations Summary 62
Management 21 Key Points 63
Operations Today 24 Key Terms 63
Solved Problems 63
Reading: Discussion and Review Questions 64
Agility Creates a Competitive Edge 26 Taking Stock 64
Critical Thinking Exercises 65
Key issues for Today’s Business Operations 27 Problems 65
Readings: Case
Universities Embrace Sustainability 28 An American Tragedy: How a Good Company
Diet and the Environment: Vegetarian vs. Died 67
Nonvegetarian 29 Home-Style Cookies 68
Operations Tour Hazel Revisited 69
Wegmans Food Markets 33 “Your Garden Gloves” 70
Summary 36
Key Points 36 Operations Tour
Key Terms 36 The U.S. Postal Service 70
Discussion and Review Questions 36 Selected Bibliography and Further Readings 73
Taking Stock 37
Critical Thinking Exercises 37 3 Forecasting 74
Case
Introduction 76
Hazel 38
Selected Bibliography & Further Readings 38
Features Common to All Forecasts 77
Problem-Solving Guide 39 Elements of a Good Forecast 78

xxv
xxvi Contents

Forecasting and the Supply Chain 78 Cultural Factors 145

Steps in the Forecasting Process 79 Global Product and Service Design 145
Forecast Accuracy 79 Environmental Factors: Sustainability 146
Reading: Readings:
High Forecasts Can Be Bad News 80 Best Buy Wants Your Junk 147
Approaches to Forecasting 82 Kraft Foods’ Recipe for Sustainability 148
Qualitative Forecasts 82 Xerox Diverts 2 Billion Pounds of
Forecasts Based on Time-Series Data 84 Waste From Landfills Through Green
Associative Forecasting Techniques 101 Initiatives 149
Monitoring Forecast Error 106 Recycle City: Maria’s Market 149
Choosing a Forecasting Technique 110 Other Design Considerations 151
Using Forecast Information 111 Readings:
Computer Software in Forecasting 112 Lego A/S in the Pink 152
Operations Strategy 112 Fast-Food Chains Adopt Mass
Reading: Customization 155
Gazing at the Crystal Ball 113 P hases in Product Design and
Summary 114 Development 161
Key Points 116 Designing for Production 162
Key Terms 117
Solved Problems 117 Service Design 165
Discussion and Review Questions 123 Operations Strategy 169
Taking Stock 124
Critical Thinking Exercises 124 Reading:
Problems 124 The Challenges of Managing Services 169
Case Summary 170
M&L Manufacturing 134 Key Points 170
Key Terms 170
Highline Financial Services, Ltd. 135 Discussion and Review Questions 170
Selected Bibliography and Further Readings 135 Taking Stock 171
Critical Thinking Exercises 171
4 Product and Service Design 136 Problems 172
Operations Tour
Reading:
High Acres Landfill 173
Design as a Business Strategy 138
Selected Bibliography and Further Readings 173
Introduction 138
SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER 4: Reliability 174
Readings:
Product Redesign, Not Offshoring,
Holds Cost Advantage for U.S. 5 Strategic Capacity Planning for Products
Manufacturers 139 and Services 188
Dutch Boy Brushes up Its Paints 140 Introduction 189
Idea Generation 140 Reading:
Reading: Excess Capacity Can Be Bad News! 190
Vlasic on a Roll with Huge Pickle Slices 142 Capacity Decisions are Strategic 191
Legal and Ethical Considerations 143 Defining and Measuring Capacity 192
Human Factors 144 Determinants of Effective Capacity 193
Reading: Strategy Formulation 195
Do You Want Pickled Beets with That? 145 Forecasting Capacity Requirements 196
 Contents xxvii

 dditional Challenges of Planning Service

A Critical Thinking Exercises 288
Problems 288
Capacity 198
Selected Bibliography and Further Readings 295
Do it in-House or Outsource it? 199
Reading: 7 Work Design and Measurement 296
My Compliments to the Chef, er, Buyer 200 Introduction 297
Developing Capacity Strategies 200 Job Design 297
Constraint Management 205 Quality of Work Life 301
Evaluating Alternatives 205 Methods Analysis 306
Operations Strategy 211 Motion Study 310
Summary 211
Work Measurement 311
Key Points 212
Key Terms 212 Operations Strategy 322
Solved Problems 212 Summary 323
Discussion and Review Questions 215 Key Points 323
Taking Stock 215 Key Terms 324
Critical Thinking Exercises 215 Solved Problems 324
Problems 216 Discussion and Review Questions 325
Case Taking Stock 326
Critical Thinking Exercises 326
Outsourcing of Hospital Services 219
Problems 326
Selected Bibliography and Further Readings 219 Selected Bibliography and Further Readings 329
SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER 5: Decision SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER 7: Learning
Theory 220 Curves 330
6 Process Selection and Facility Layout 242 8 Location Planning and Analysis 342
Introduction 243 The Need for Location Decisions 343
Process Selection 244 The Nature of Location Decisions 344
Operations Tour Global Locations 346
Morton Salt 248
General Procedure for Making Location
Technology 250 Decisions 348
Readings: Identifying a Country, Region, Community, and
Foxconn Shifts its Focus to Automation 252 Site 349
Self-Driving Vehicles are on the Horizon 257 Service and Retail Locations 356
Process Strategy 257 Reading:
Strategic Resource Organization: Facilities Layout 257 Site Selection Grows Up: Improved Tech Tools
Reading: Make the Process Faster, Better 357
A Safe Hospital Room of the Future 267 Evaluating Location Alternatives 358
Designing Product Layouts: Line Balancing 269 Summary 364
Key Points 364
Reading: Key Terms 364
BMW’s Strategy: Flexibility 278 Solved Problems 364
Discussion and Review Questions 366
Designing Process Layouts 278 Taking Stock 366
Summary 283 Critical Thinking Exercises 366
Key Points 283 Problems 367
Key Terms 283
Case
Solved Problems 283
Discussion and Review Questions 287 Hello, Walmart? 370
Taking Stock 288 Selected Bibliography and Further Readings 370
xxviii Contents

9 Management of Quality 372 Reading:

Making Potato Chips 422
Introduction 373
Reading: Statistical Process Control 423
Whatever Happened to Quality? 374 Process Capability 441
The Evolution of Quality Management 374 Operations Strategy 446
The Foundations of Modern Quality Management: Reading:
The Gurus 375 Bar Codes Might Cut Drug Errors in
Hospitals 447
Insights on Quality Management 378
Summary 447
Readings: Key Points 447
The Sounds of Quality 380 Key Terms 449
Solved Problems 449
Hyundai: Kissing Clunkers Goodbye 384 Discussion and Review Questions 453
Rework and Morale 386 Taking Stock 454
Critical Thinking Exercises 454
Quality Awards 386 Problems 454
Quality Certification 387 Case
Quality and the Supply Chain 389 Toys, Inc. 460
Reading: Tiger Tools 460
Improving Quality and Reducing Risk in Selected Bibliography and Further Readings 461
Offshoring 390
Total Quality Management 390 11 Aggregate Planning and Master
Problem Solving and Process Scheduling 462
Improvement 394 Introduction 464
Reading: Reading:
What Keeps Six Sigma Practitioners up at Duplicate Orders Can Lead to Excess
Night? 397 Capacity 468
Quality Tools 398  asic Strategies for Meeting Uneven Demand
B 471
Reading: Techniques for Aggregate Planning 474
Benchmarking Corporate Websites of Fortune 500 Aggregate Planning in Services 481
Companies 406 Disaggregating the Aggregate Plan 483
Operations Strategy 406 Master Scheduling 483
Summary 406
Key Points 407
The Master Scheduling Process 484
Key Terms 407 Summary 489
Solved Problem 407 Key Points 489
Discussion and Review Questions 408 Key Terms 490
Taking Stock 409 Solved Problems 490
Critical Thinking Exercises 409 Discussion and Review Questions 493
Problems 409 Taking Stock 493
Critical Thinking Exercises 493
Case Problems 493
Chick-N-Gravy Dinner Line 411 Case
Tip Top Markets 412 Eight Glasses a Day (EGAD) 498
Selected Bibliography and Further Readings 414 Selected Bibliography and Further Readings 498

10 Quality Control 416 12 MRP and ERP 500

Introduction 417 Introduction 501
Inspection 418 An Overview of MRP 501
 Contents xxix

MRP Inputs 502 Summary 585

Key Points 586
MRP Processing 506 Key Terms 587
MRP Outputs 513 Solved Problem 587
Discussion and Review Questions 592
Other Considerations 514 Taking Stock 592
MRP in Services 516 Critical Thinking Exercises 592
Problems 593
Benefits and Requirements of MRP 516
Case
MRP II 517
UPD Manufacturing 600
Capacity Requirements Planning 519
Harvey Industries 601
ERP 521
Grill Rite 602
Readings:
The ABCs of ERP 523 Farmers Restaurant 603
The Top 10 ERP Mistakes 527 Operations Tour
Bruegger’s Bagel Bakery 604
Operations Strategy 529
Summary 529 PSC, Inc. 605
Key Points 529 Selected Bibliography and Further Readings 607
Key Terms 530
Solved Problems 530
Discussion and Review Questions 539 14 JIT and Lean Operations 608
Taking Stock 539
Critical Thinking Exercises 540 Introduction 610
Problems 540 Reading:
Case Toyota Recalls 612
Promotional Novelties 545 Supporting Goals 613
Dmd Enterprises 546 Building Blocks 614
Operations Tour Readings:
Stickley Furniture 546 General Mills Turns to Nascar to Reduce
Selected Bibliography and Further Readings 549 Changeover Time 617
“People” Firms Boost Profits, Study
13 Inventory Management 550 Shows 621
Introduction 551 Lean Tools 631
Reading: Reading:
$$$ 552 Nearby Suppliers Match Ford’s Mix 633
The Nature and Importance of Inventories 552 Transitioning to a Lean System 633
Requirements for Effective Inventory Lean Services 634
Management 555 Reading:
Reading: To Build a Better Hospital, Virginia Mason Takes
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Lessons from Toyota Plants 636
Tags 557 JIT II 637
Inventory Ordering Policies 561 Operations Strategy 637
How Much to Order: Economic Order Quantity Summary 638
Models 561 Key Points 639
Key Terms 639
Reorder Point Ordering 573 Solved Problems 639
How Much to Order: Fixed-Order-interval Model 577 Discussion and Review Questions 640
Taking Stock 640
The Single-Period Model 580 Critical Thinking Exercises 640
Operations Strategy 585 Problems 640
xxx Contents

Case Key Terms 685

Discussion and Review Questions 685
Level Operations 641
Taking Stock 686
Operations Tour Critical Thinking Exercises 686
Boeing 642 Problems 686
Selected Bibliography and Further Readings 643 Case
Master Tag 687
SUPPLEMENT TO CHAPTER 14: Selected Bibliography and Further Readings 688
Maintenance 644

15 Supply Chain Management 652 16 Scheduling 690

Introduction 654 Scheduling Operations 692
Trends in Supply Chain Management 655 Scheduling in Low-Volume Systems 695
Reading: Scheduling Services 713
At 3M, a Long Road Became a Shorter Road 658 Operations Strategy 717
Summary 717
Global Supply Chains 659 Key Points 717
ERP and Supply Chain Management 659 Key Terms 718
Solved Problems 718
Ethics and the Supply Chain 660
Discussion and Review Questions 722
Small Businesses 660 Taking Stock 722
Management Responsibilities 661 Critical Thinking Exercises 722
Problems 723
Procurement 662 Case
Reading: Hi–Ho, Yo–Yo, Inc. 729
IBMs Supply Chain Social Responsibility 665 Selected Bibliography and Further Readings 729
E-Business 666
Reading:
17 Project Management 730
E-Procurement at IBM 668
Introduction 732
Supplier Management 669
Project Life Cycle 732
Reading:
NestléUSA and Ocean Spray Form Strategic Behavioral Aspects of Project Management 733
Operations Alliance 671 Reading:
Project Managers Have Never Been More
Inventory Management 672
Critical 738
Order Fulfillment 673
Work Breakdown Structure 739
Logistics 674
Planning and Scheduling with Gantt Charts 739
Operations Tour
Wegmans’ Shipping System 675 PERT and CPM 740
Deterministic Time Estimates 743
Readings:
Springdale Farm 677 A Computing Algorithm 744
RFID Tags: Keeping the Shelves Stocked 678 Probabilistic Time Estimates 751
Determining Path Probabilities 754
Active RFID vs. Passive RFID 678
Simulation 756
Creating An Effective Supply Chain 680
Budget Control 757
Reading:
Clicks or Bricks, or Both? 681 Time–Cost Trade-offs: Crashing 757
Advantages of Using PERT and Potential Sources of
Strategy 684
Summary 685
Error 760
Key Points 685 Critical Chain Project Management 761
 Contents xxxi

 ther Topics in Project Management 761

O Summary 813
Key Points 814
Project Management Software 762 Key Terms 814
Operations Strategy 763 Solved Problems 814
Discussion and Review Questions 816
Risk Management 763 Taking Stock 816
Summary 764 Critical Thinking Exercises 816
Key Points 765 Problems 816
Key Terms 765
Solved Problems 765
Case
Discussion and Review Questions 772 Big Bank 820
Taking Stock 772 Selected Bibliography and Further Readings 820
Critical Thinking Exercises 772
Problems 772
Case 19 Linear Programming 822
The Case of the Mexican Crazy Quilt 779 Introduction 823
Time, Please 781 Linear Programming Models 824
Selected Bibliography and Further Readings 781
Graphical Linear Programming 826
The Simplex Method 838
18 Management of Waiting Lines 782
Computer Solutions 838
Why is There Waiting? 784 Sensitivity Analysis 841
Managerial Implications of Waiting Lines 785 Summary 844
Reading: Key Points 844
Key Terms 844
New Yorkers Do Not Like Waiting in Line 785 Solved Problems 844
Goal of Waiting-Line Management 785 Discussion and Review Questions 847
Problems 847
Characteristics of Waiting Lines 786
Case
Measures of Waiting-Line Performance 790
Son, Ltd. 851
Queuing Models: Infinite-Source 790
Custom Cabinets, Inc.© 852
Queuing Model: Finite-Source 805 Selected Bibliography and Further
Constraint Management 811 Readings 853
The Psychology of Waiting 811 APPENDIX A Answers to Selected Problems 854
Reading: APPENDIX B Tables 866
David H. Maister on the Psychology of APPENDIX C Working with the Normal
Waiting 812 Distribution 872
Operations Strategy 812
Reading: Company Index 877
Managing Waiting Lines at Disney World 813 Subject Index 879
TEN THINGS TO REMEMBER BEYOND THE FINAL EXAM

1 The way work is organized (i.e., project, job shop, batch, assembly, or continuous)
has significant implications for the entire organization, including the type of work
that is done, forecasting, layout, equipment selection, equipment maintenance,
accounting, marketing, purchasing, inventory control, material handling, schedul-
ing, and more.

2 Pay attention to variability, and reduce it whenever you can. Variability causes
problems for management, whether it is variability in demand (capacity planning,
forecasting, and inventory management), variability in deliveries from suppliers
(inventory management, operations, order fulfillment), or variability in production
or service rates (operations planning and control). Any of these can adversely
affect customer satisfaction and costs. Recognize this, and build an appropriate
amount of flexibility into systems.

3 “Homework is on the Highway to Happiness.” This relates not only to course-

work, but also to your career: Be prepared for interviews, meetings, conferences,
presentations (yours and others’), and other events. You can achieve a great deal
of success by simply “doing your homework.”

4 How managers relate to subordinates can have a tremendous influence on the

success or lack of success of an organization. Selection, training, motivation, and
support are all important. One philosophy is: “Choose the right people, give them
the tools they need, and then stay out of their way.”

5 Quality and price will always be prominent factors in consumers’ buying decisions.
Strive to integrate quality in every aspect of what you do, and to reduce costs.

6 Pay careful attention to technology; consider both the opportunities and the risks.
Opportunities: improvements in quality, service, and response time. Risks:
technology can be costly, difficult to integrate, needs to be periodically updated
(for additional cost), requires training, and quality and service may temporarily
suffer when new technology is introduced.

7 Pay attention to capacity; the roads to success and failure both run through
capacity.

8 Never underestimate your competitors. Assume they will always make the best
decisions.

9 Most decisions involve tradeoffs. Understand the tradeoffs.

10 Make ethics a part of everything you do.

 1 Introduction
to Operations
Management

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After completing this chapter, you should be able to:
LO1.1 Define the terms operations management and supply chain.
LO1.2 Identify similarities and differences between production and service operations.
LO1.3 Explain the importance of learning about operations management.
LO1.4 Identify the three major functional areas of organizations and describe how they interrelate.
LO1.5 Summarize the two major aspects of process management.
LO1.6 Describe the operations function and the nature of the operations manager’s job.
LO1.7 Explain the key aspects of operations management decision making.
LO1.8 Briefly describe the historical evolution of operations management.
LO1.9 Describe current issues in business that impact operations management.
LO1.10 Explain the need to manage the supply chain.

C H A P T E R O U T L I N E

1.1 Introduction 4 1.7 Operations Management The Influence of Japanese

1.2 Production of Goods versus
Providing Services 8
1.3 Why Learn about Operations
Management? 10
1.4 Career Opportunities and
Professional Societies 12
1.5 Process Management 13
Managing a Process to Meet
Demand 13
Process Variation 14
1.6 The Scope of Operations
Management 14
Managing the Supply Chain to
Achieve Schedule, Cost, and
Quality Goals 15
and Decision Making 18 Manufacturers 24
Models 18 1.9 Operations Today 24
Quantitative Approaches 19
1.10 Key Issues for Today’s
Performance Metrics 19
Business Operations 27
Analysis of Trade-Offs 19
Environmental Concerns 27
Degree of Customization 20
A Systems Approach 20
Ethical Conduct 29
Establishing Priorities 20 The Need to Manage the Supply
Chain 30
1.8 The Historical Evolution of
Elements of Supply Chain
Operations Management 21
Management 32
The Industrial Revolution 21
Operations Tour: Wegmans Food
Scientific Management 21
Markets 33
The Human Relations
Case: Hazel 38
Movement 24
Decision Models and Problem Solving Guide 39
Management Science 24

2
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 DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
 FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
 Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA

I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
 The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

 This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
 “We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
 Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
 BRAZIER

Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT

SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB

CUTTING THE EDGE

 FINISHING THE BOTTOM

LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING

FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

 LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE

TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL

NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
 Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK

DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG

REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

 BEATING THE BARK

WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT

MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN