M.B.A-M.B.A 2nd Year Paper - VII : MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS (Acharya Nagarjuna University - Center for Distance Education, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh-2013)

M.B.A. DEGREE EXAMINATION, DEC. - 2013
Second Year
Paper - VII : MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

Time : 03 Hours                                                                    Maximum Marks : 80

SECTION-A (3 × 5 = 15)

Answer any Three of the following

1) a) Virtual organisation.
b) Data administration.
c) WAN.
d) Prototyping.
e) System feasibility study.
f) MIS concept.

SECTION-B (3 × 15 = 45)
Answer any Three of the following

2) Explain the characteristics of MIS.

3) Explain the steps in system design .

4) Explain system development life cycle and its limitations.

5) Describe the three principal network topologies.

6) Explain the benefits of a DBMS.

7) Distinguish between system software and application software.
SECTION-C (15)
Compulsory

8) Korean car manufacturer Kia Motors started selling in the North American
market, promising high-quality vehicles at prices well below the competition. In
1994, Kia sold 12,000 cars, and by 2004, Kia had sold 270,000 cars. From a
marketing end standpoint, Kia has been a phenomenal success. But until 2002
Kia ranked at the bottom of J.D. Power and Associates’ annual initial-quality
survey of new vehicle owners. In 1997 when the average North American car
had 1.1 defects per vehicle, Kia had 2.75. In 2002 Kia had improved to 2.12
defects per vehicle, but the industry average was 1.33. Kia had a long way to go,
and it was affecting its ability to sell cars, retain customers, and keep operational
costs down.

Like all manufacturers of vehicles sold in North America, Kia had to create a
system by December 1, 2003 to report any defects, accidents, or injuries
involving its vehicles to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA).

Kia Motors uses a manufacturing and production system to help in identifying
sources of defects in their automobiles. Kia uses the information from the system
to improve its production processes to eliminate or reduce defects. Improving
vehicle quality lowers Kia’s costs for warranty repairs while increasing customer
satisfaction.

Questions:

a) Why was it so difficult for Kia to identify sources of defects in the
cars it produced?;
b) What was the business impact of Kia not having an information system
to track defects? ; and
c) What management, organization and technology issues did Kia have to
address when it adopted its new quality control system?