1. Which of the following is not a characteristic of the company's operations?

• Both cameras and drones are assembled by four-person product assembly teams (PATs), with each PAT performing the needed tasks at its own assigned workstation.
• The needed parts and components for assembling the companys line-up of camera and drone models are obtained from suppliers having the capabilities to make deliveries to the companys Taiwan assembly site on a just-in-time basis, thus eliminating the need to maintain inventories of parts or components.
• Camera models and drone models are assembled in advance; buyer orders are promptly filled from inventories of camera and drone models that are warehoused in the facilities where they were assembled; all camera/drone orders are typically shipped within 2-3 business days of receiving the order.
• The company has a staff of people engaged in product R&D; this group has the capability to develop new and improved models of cameras and drones as directed by top management.
• The cost of boxing cameras, packaging them for shipment, and freight charges average $5 per camera. Packaging and shipping costs for drones average $60 per unit.

2. The productivity of camera/drone PATs is affected by a variety of factors that include

• 1. perfect attendance bonuses, how much overtime is offered to PATs so as to boost their take-home pay, how many PAT members leave the company for jobs elsewhere, and the size of the year-end bonuses awarded to PATs for beating their annual assembly quotas and lowering warranty claim rates.
• 2. the size of weekly bonuses paid to PAT members for beating the weekly PAT assembly quota, the complexity of camera/drone designs, the number of camera/drone models being assembled, and the amount the company spends annually per camera/drone PAT on training and productivity-enhancing assembly methods.
• 3. the complexity of the companys camera/drone designs, cumulative spending for new product R&D for cameras/drones, the size of weekly bonuses paid to PAT members for perfect attendance, and the number of camera/drone components used in the assembly process.
• 4. the size of the year-end bonus for perfect attendance, cumulative expenditures for product R&D, increases or decreases in the number of models being assembled, and the size of the company-paid fringe benefits package for PAT members.
• percentage increases in the annual base wage, the size of the fringe benefits package, the amount of paid vacation per camera/drone PAT annually, and changes in the number of models being assembled.