1) Why are pull systems more robust than push systems? What practical consequences does this have for manufacturing plants? 2) Give an example of applying the following: a. Vroom's Expectancy Theory- b. Hawthorne effect C. Maslow Hierarchy of needs 3) A purchasing agent has requested quotes for value gaskets with diameters of 3.0 +/-0.018 inches. SPC studies of the three suppliers have indicated that their processes are in statistical control and produce measurements that are normally distributed with the following statistics: o= 0.009 inch Supplier 1: = 3 inches Supplier 2: = 3 inches o= 0.0044 inch Supplier 3: = 2.99 inches o= 0.003 inch Assuming that all suppliers offer the same price and delivery reliability/flexibility, which supplier should the agent purchase from? Why? Given the monthly sales for your product in the table below: Use a five-period moving average to compute forecasts of sales for months 6 to 20 and a seven-period moving average to compute forecasts for months 8 to 20. Which fits the data better. Explain. b. IF you used an exponential smoothing approach with smoothing constant a = 0.2 to forecast sales would this make the fit better or worse than the moving average technique? Why? a. Month 1 Sales 22 Month 11 Sales 50 2 21 12 55 3 24 13 44 4 30 14 48 5 25 15 55 6 25 16 47 7 33 17 61 8 40 18 58 9 36 19 55 10 39 20 60