APICS CPIM-Part-2 Exam With Confidence Using Practice Dumps

A fishbone diagram, also known as a cause-and-effect diagram or an Ishikawa diagram, is a tool for identifying and analyzing the possible causes of a problem or an effect. It is often used in quality management to find the root causes of defects or errors. A fishbone diagram has a main branch that represents the problem or effect, and several sub-branches that represent the categories of causes, such as people, processes, equipment, materials, environment, etc. Each category can have further sub-branches that represent more specific causes. A fishbone diagram would help a service organization determine the source of a quality-of-service issue by allowing them to visualize and organize the potential factors that contribute to the problem and identify the most likely cause. References: CPIM Part 2 Exam Content Manual, Domain 8: Manage Quality, Continuous Improvement, and Technology, Section 8.1: Quality Management Concepts and Tools, p. 59-60.

Activity-based costing (ABC) is a method of allocating costs to products or services based on the activities that consume resources in the production or delivery process. ABC identifies the cost drivers, which are the factors that cause or influence the amount of resources used for each activity. ABC then assigns costs to products or services based on the amount of cost drivers they use. An advantage of ABC is that it uses cost drivers to allocate costs to products, which provides a more accurate and realistic picture of the cost structure and profitability of each product or service. ABC helps to identify the value-added and non-value-added activities, and to eliminate or reduce the waste and inefficiency in the process. ABC does not allow raw material costs to be allocated on a per unit basis, as raw material costs are usually considered as direct costs that can be traced to each product or service. ABC does not make it easier to establish standard costs, which are the predetermined or expected costs of producing or delivering a product or service. ABC does not enable overhead costs to be allocated evenly across all products, as overhead costs are the indirect costs that cannot be traced to each product or service. ABC allocates overhead costs based on the cost drivers, which may vary for different products or services. References: CPIM Exam Content Manual Version 7.0, Domain 8: Manage Quality, Continuous Improvement, and Technology, Section 8.2: Continuous Improvement Concepts, p. 46; Activity-Based Costing (ABC) Definition; Activity-based costing.

 Establishment of goals and baselines prior to entering the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle allows improvement teams to determine whether an effective change was made in the process. Goals are the desired outcomes or targets that the improvement teams want to achieve by implementing changes in the process1. Baselines are the current or initial performance levels of the process beforeimplementing any changes2. By establishing goals and baselines, improvement teams can have a clear direction and a reference point for their improvement efforts.

In the PDCA cycle, improvement teams follow four steps: plan, do, check, and act. In the plan step, they define the problem, analyze the root cause, and propose countermeasures. In the do step, they test the countermeasures on a small scale. In the check step, they measure and evaluate the results of the test and compare them with the goals and baselines. In the act step, they standardize and sustain the successful countermeasures or revise and repeat the cycle if needed3.

By comparing the results with the goals and baselines in the check step, improvement teams can determine whether an effective change was made in the process. An effective change is one that improves the performance of the process and meets or exceeds the goals set by the improvement teams4. If the results show that an effective change was made, improvement teams can move to the act step and implement the change on a larger scale. If not, improvement teams can go back to the plan step and identify new or revised countermeasures5.

Therefore, establishment of goals and baselines prior to entering the PDCA cycle allows improvement teams to determine whether an effective change was made in the process.

References: 1: Goal Setting Definition 1 2: Baseline Definition 2 3: What is an A33 4: How to Use an A3 Report for Problem Solving 4 5: The A3 Problem Solving Method