Provided by James R. Martin, Ph.D., CMA
Professor Emeritus, University of South Florida
Constrained
Optimization Main Page | Constrained
Opt MC Questions | Graduate
MA Course
1. What is the meaning of the term constrained optimization model? (See the Constrained Optimization summary).
2. The main controversy relates to how the constrained optimization techniques conflict with some other concepts or techniques. What are these other concepts? (See the Constrained Optimization summary).
3. What is the main conflict between the constrained optimization techniques from the continuous improvement perspective? (See the Constrained Optimization summary).
4. Is the linear cost-volume-profit model a constrained optimization model? Why? (See the Constrained Optimization summary).
5. What are the underlying assumptions of the conventional linear cost-volume-profit model? (See Chapter 11).
6. What are the sub-assumptions underlying the assumption concerning constant unit variable costs? (See Chapter 11).
7. Is the theoretical non-linear cost-volume-profit model also a constrained optimization model? Why? (See Figure 11-16)
8. Are the master budget profit planning and standard cost control techniques constrained optimization techniques? Explain. (See the Constrained Optimization summary).
9. The economic order quantity (EOQ) model provides a typical constrained optimization calculation by equating ordering costs and carrying costs to find the economic order quantity. Does the JIT concept make this calculation invalid or just irrelevant? Explain how? (See the Constrained Optimization summary).
10. What is the difference between quality of design and quality of conformance? (See the Morse, the Constrained Optimization, Anderson & Sedatole summaries and Chapter 8).
11. Which concept of quality (design or conformance) are Deming, Juran, Crosby and the Japanese talking about? (See the Shank & Govindarajan, Anderson & Sedatole, Kim & Liao, and Carr & Ponemon summaries).
12. Can a company produce too much quality, i.e., have a quality conformance level that is too high? (See the Gabel, Morse, Anderson & Sedatole, Kim & Liao, and the Constrained Optimization summaries).
13. How does the quality cost conformance model find the economic conformance level? (See the Morse and the Constrained Optimization summaries).
14. What are some examples of prevention and appraisal costs? (See the Kettering, Morse, Hughes & Willis, Pasewark, and Fargher & Morse summaries).
15. What are some examples of internal failure costs? (See the Morse, Hughes & Willis, Pasewark and Fargher & Morse summaries).
16. What are some examples of external failure costs? (See the Morse, Hughes & Willis, Pasewark, Rusk and Fargher & Morse summaries).
17. What is the main objective of a quality program? (See the Morse and Hughes & Willis summaries).
18. Compare Deming’s view on the relationship between quality and costs to Juran’s view. (See the Constrained Optimization summary, Albright & Roth, Kim & Liao, and Roth & Albright summaries) , Albright & Roth, Kim & Liao, and Roth & Albright summaries).
19. How could Deming’s view be valid based on the graphic illustration of prevention, appraisal, internal and external failure costs, i.e., how would the illustration in Exhibit 4 be different? (See Exhibit 5 and the Anderson & Sedatole summary).
20. What does the term "inspect quality in" mean and what is the alternative? (See Deming quotes).
21. Crosby said that "quality is free". What do you think he meant by this? Quality Is Free: The Art of Making Quality Certain).
22. Does quality have anything to do with teamwork? (See Chapter 8).
23. What are some other traditional constrained optimization models? (See the Constrained Optimization summary).
24. How does investment management make the capital budgeting model dynamic? (See the investment management and Sinason summaries).
25. How is the SPC concept used as a dynamic model rather than a static model? (See the Constrained Optimization and Albright & Roth 1993 summaries).