Internal Assessment

A firm's strengths that cannot be easily matched or imitated by competitors are called:

• internal audits.

• distinctive competencies.

• external audits.

• interrelated properties.

Who should perform an internal audit?

• A private auditing firm

• The organization's accounting department

• Representative managers and employees from throughout the firm

• A small team of top-level managers

All of the following are key questions that can reveal internal strengths and weaknesses in the management department EXCEPT

• Is the organization's structure appropriate?

• Are reward and control mechanisms effective?

• Are the organization's products positioned well against competing products?

• Does the firm use strategic-management concepts?

Is an analytical tool used to determine whether a firm’s value chain analysis is competitive compared to those of rivals and thus conducive to winning in the marketplace.

• Benchmarking

• Value chain Analysis

• Swot Analysis

• Capacity Utilization

Refers to the process whereby a firm determines the costs associated with organizational activities from purchasing raw materials to manufacturing product(s) to marketing those products.

• Research and Development

• Benchmarking

• Value chain analysis

• Competitive Analysis

Receives raw material from both the external and internal evaluation of an organization.

• reseach and dvelopment

• production and operation

• management information system

• value chain analysis

These decisions include choice of technology, facility layout, process flow analysis, facility location, line balancing, process control, and transportation analysis. Distances from raw materials to production sites to customers are a major consideration.

• Process

• Capacity

• Inventory

• Workforce

These decisions involve managing the skilled, unskilled, clerical, and managerial employees by caring for job design, work measurement, job enrichment, work standards, and motivation techniques.

• capacity

• inventory

• quality

• workforce

Consists of all those activities that transform inputs into goods and services. production/operations management deals with inputs, transformations, and outputs that vary across industries and markets.

• process creation

• production/operations function

• capacity utilization

• managing voluminous consumer data

These decisions involve managing the level of raw materials, work-in- process, and finished goods, especially considering what to order, when to order, how much to order, and materials handling

• quality

• inventory

• capacity

• process