Module 1 Question set Prepare detailed written responses to the following questions: List the three questions Jonah asked regarding the robots' impact on the plant and explain why these questions were relevant to determining the plant's efficiency. According to Jonah, what does it mean to be productive? Is this an appropriate definition of productivity for all work environments? Why was Alex concerned about the warehouses? What is the cost vs. the benefit of carrying inventory? After much discussion, what does Alex and the management team determine as the goal for the business? How does this determination change their thinking? What are the three measurements for developing operational rules for running the plant? Are these sufficient by themselves? Explain the impact of statistical fluctuations and dependent events on manufacturing operations. Who is Herbie and what insight did Alex gain from his encounter with Herbie? Why did Jonah believe the focus should be on balancing flow of product through the plant with demand from the market? What is a "bottleneck?" How does the team identify the system bottlenecks? Discuss how Jonah helps the team discover hidden capacity for the bottlenecks? How does the team decide to manage the bottlenecks? What problems do they encounter? What is a Zmegma? What impact did it have? Was it a costeffective solution to the challenges the business was facing? How is additional capacity gained on the bottlenecks? Why does it appear that the bottlenecks are spreading? What is the impact of this? What is done to correct it? What are the problems with the current system of measuring the plant's performance? (Consider the effectiveness vs. the efficiencies that are being measured.) What impact does the change in batch size have on the measurements? What is the real impact?