5. Cellular production is often conducted in a U-shaped (horseshoe-shaped) cell, rather than the rectangular cells shown in Figure 3.9b. What might be the advantages of this U shape? 6. What benefits would a virtual cell obtain, and not obtain, compared with a physical cell? 7. A number of firms are moving toward minifactories. What advantages might this offer over straight cellular production? 8. If efficiency, variety, and so on are the important measures of the low-contact or no-contact portion of a service, what are the important measures of the high- contact portion? 9. As the process life cycle changes with the product life cycle, should a firm change along with it or move into new products more appropriate to its existing process? What factors must be considered in this decision? 10 In Figure 2 11a showing the five tren