Questions and Answers of Fundamentals Of Quality Control

Describe the major information that should be gathered in order to design an effective planning and control system. Describe why this information is important and how it will be used to develop the
What do you think the approach should be if a planning and control system has been designed and implemented, yet seems to "not work right"? What information should be used to evaluate the problems?
Do you believe the Theory of Constraints could be used with any of the hybrid systems described in the chapter? Why or why not?
Describe how the approach to planning and control is likely to be different for each of the following operations. Also, how will the approach to implementation differ?a. A barber shopb. A
Describe the type of data and information you would gather to try to justify the cost and time required to implement a major planning and control system project.
List major processes in your organization (see Fig. 1.6). Identify suppliers and inputs for each process. Identify outcomes and customers for each process. List key stages in each process. What are
Why is it important to state predictions about a change prior to running a test? Can you think of examples of testing where you would have no basis on which to make a prediction? LO6
Describe the concept of degree of belief in your own words. Write down your assessment about your degree of belief about a change you would like to make. LO6
Give two specific examples of each of the five basic approaches for improvement. LO6
Identify (1) outcome measures, (2) process measures, and (3)customer feedback for: (a) health care process (b) manufacturing process (c) managing process (d) teaching process. LO6
Discuss how the PDSA cycle may have aided your past experimental investigations. Can you think of an experimental investigation that was not iterative? LO6
List some examples of changes that have been carried out in your organization. Were they successful? Was data used? Were predictions made prior to the collection of data? How might planned
Discuss the potential impact that each of the following may have on the design of a planning and control system. Will the impact change if the organization is more focused on products rather than
Discuss the potential impact that the evolution of "quasimanufacturing" organizations can have on planning and control. An example of quasimanufacturing is the development of large consumer credit
What are the possible consequences on planning and control if the organization has a wide cross-section of product types (MTS, ATO, MTO) within the same organization?
Describe the possible cost implications of producing a standard product in a jobshop environment.
Discuss possible implications on planning and control if the customer base changes to the extent that an order qualifier has shifted to become an order winner.
Is it possible that there can be more than one order winner in a defined market?Why or why not?
What is the potential impact on planning and control if the organization has several types of customers, each with a different order-winning characteristic?
Discuss how a change in a product design could produce a change in the design of a planning and control system.
Would a change in process design necessarily imply a corresponding change in the design of a planning and control system? Why or why not?
Choose a product or process that you are familiar with. For an important quality characteristic, list potential causes that affect either the average level or the variation of the quality
The data in the following table were the result of an experiment to determine the effect that three factors—holding pressure, booster pressure, and screw speed—had on part shrinkage in an
List some factors related to your customers (internal or external) that could potentially affect their needs. These factors could be demographic, such as age, sex, work experience, and place of
The following artificial data are taken from Daniel (1976, p. 65) to illustrate the effect of one “bad value” in a factorial design. Find the test that seems to be influenced by a special cause.
Manufacture of plasticizer. Normally, the product is made in batches, and the reaction is allowed to continue until a certain viscosity is obtained. The unit manager desired that this reaction take
A manufacturer of automobiles developed a method of measuring noise in their engines. The method was calibrated to human responses. Engines that measured greater than 7.0 were considered noisy, and
Choose a product or process that you are familiar with. For an important quality characteristic, list potential causes that affect either the average level or the variation of the quality
Use the three entries in Table 5.25 that represent blocking arrangements for six factors. Set up the three blocking patterns.Randomize the tests for each pattern.
The manager of an administrative group supporting the sales department of a manufacturing company was concerned about the large number of notes of credit that were sent to customers to correct errors
A chemical company had just started production of a new product in its new batch process. After some initial tests, it was found that increasing the yield and decreasing the variation in the
Develop a design matrix for a three-factor nested design with the following number of levels for each factor:Factor Levels A 4 B within A 3 C within B 2
Select a Shewhart chart that you are familiar with. Describe the Shewhart chart as a nested design. Where does the effect of each factor appear on the chart?
How many tests are required for a four-factor factorial design with each factor at two levels? How many tests are required for a fourfactor nested design with each factor at two levels? What are the
Describe a process in your workplace where the physical layout would require a nested design to study the process. What are the factors, and how many levels does each factor have? Develop a design
Consider a four-factor nested design with each factor at three levels.How many runs are required for a complete replication of the design? Sketch a dot-frequency diagram from such a study where the
Develop a design matrix for a three-factor nested design with each factor at two levels. Assume the study was completed but the order of testing was not randomized. The chemical tests to measure the
Delays in expense reports. The Accounting Department Quality Improvement Team is studying problems in handling expense reports. Many employees have complained about long delays in receiving
Measurement variation study. A study was done to evaluate the measurement of the flushness of a fitted assembly. The measurement process simulated the assembly by clamping the key part into a fixture
Variation in a milling process. A milling process was used to obtain the correct width of a metal part. Both the width and the microfinish(smoothness) of the part were important quality
Describe some examples of response variables that are presented or studied as a time series.
Give an example of rational subgrouping of data on a Shewhart chart. How is this different than the concept of planned grouping described in Chap. 3?
Developing a Shewhart chart. The accounting department is instituting process improvement and has been studying causes of delays, rework, and excess overtime. The department’s quality control
Shewhart chart of continuous data. A critical contaminant is regularly monitored on a run chart during continuous production of a chemical. Samples are selected three times (at somewhat regular
Approximately 200 deliveries are recorded by the receiving department each week. Each delivery includes accompanying paperwork. There are many different mistakes that can occur with these deliveries,
Weekly sales (in thousands of dollars) are carefully monitored by a marketing organization. The following table shows sales for the first three months of the year. Develop a time series baseline for
Refer to the factorial study of the weekly test scores from Example 8.2. During the factorial study to reduce weekly test score variation, the average test scores were also monitored for each
Study the effect of poor quality product design and production process design for products in an organization. (Use warranty claims and work backward.)
Compare the processes in an organization with those in the evolution of a new product from Fig. 11.1.
Identify the three sources of product performance variation(external, internal, and unit-to-unit) for the major products in an organization.
Complete a QFD relationship diagram for a new or existing product.
Determine how many planned experiments were carried out by product design engineers or manufacturing engineers in an organization in the last two years.
The paper box factory. Design a paper box that stores change(quantity equal to the change in most people’s pockets). Materials and technologies include:Two pair of scissors Two small staplers Four
Study Example 11.1 on designing a new floor covering throughout the chapter. Discuss possible alternative approaches to the design and analysis of data. Discuss why this example involved analytic
Pick a system, process, or product you are familiar with. If you were to plan a study of that process or product, list examples of each of the following: LO4(a) response variables(b) factors and
Select a cause-and-effect diagram that you have used in a previous improvement project. Use this diagram to identify response variables, potential factors and levels, and background variables for an
How does one distinguish between a factor and a background variable in a study? LO4
What is the relationship between degree of belief and the conditions studied in an experiment? LO4
What are the four tools for planned experimentation? Give an example of the specific application of each of the tools in a study. LO4
The manager of a large office wants to compare two different types of computer screens for future use in the office. The hardware vendors have made three of each type of screen available for a
Consider a study in which you have recently been involved. What was the aim of the study? Were the results of the study used for prediction? Was the study an enumerative or an analytic study? For any
How would you define “experimental error” for analytic studies? LO4
The 14 members of the accounting department will participate in a study. Each person will collect data for a one-week period. Since the study will take more than three months to complete, nuisance
Identify an appropriate experimental unit and the required replication of units for a test for each the following scenarios.Specify any other assumptions you need to make: LO4 Scenario A: Supply
Management has identified some important areas for improvement in a continuous production unit, including yields, costs, efficiencies, scrap, and rework. A number of process changes have been
Describe how a Shewhart chart can be used to conduct a one-factor experiment on a process. List the key steps involved in conducting such a study. How is this different from using a Shewhart chart to
Design an experiment with one factor for a process you are familiar with. Complete a planning documentation form, including objective, background information, experimental variables, replication,
Describe some situations that would make a paired-comparison design appropriate for studying one factor.
Why are randomized block designs important in analytic studies?Describe how blocking could be used in a study to evaluate three alternative teaching methods in a school.
The production manager wants to evaluate four new types of drill bits for consideration as the plant standard. There are three machines that could use the drill bits, each with a different operator
In the one-factor example for control methods for a chemical process(Example 3.1), two other response variables were also measured.The results for purity (%) and a contaminant (ppm) were the
During the paired-comparison experiment evaluating tool wear(Example 3.3), parts were selected from each lot to evaluate the variability of a specified dimension. The quality manager was concerned
In the study to choose a catalyst (Example 3.4), another response variable (purity) was also evaluated for each of the catalyst types. A composite sample was taken from each batch produced and
The accounts payable quality improvement team was studying the process of paying invoices. They wanted to improve the efficiency and accuracy of payments. During the development of flowcharts, the
Review the case study. Discuss possible alternative approaches to the design and analysis of data. Discuss why the case study was an analytic study.
Study some case studies involved with improving quality. Compare and discuss approaches used to those presented in this book.
Write up a case study for one of your completed improvement projects. Use run charts or control charts to plot the project outcome and process measures.
Describe a situation where it would be desirable to include more than two levels of a factor in a study. Give an example for a qualitative factor and a quantitative factor.
Refer to the 2 × 2 plasticizer example in Exercise 4.5. In addition to the eight runs in the study, two runs were made at the current process levels of 45% Ingredient X and 182^C. One run was made
Refer to the 23 dye process example in Chap. 4. Four additional tests were made at a midlevel oxidation temperature and oven pressure.Two of the runs were done with Material Quality A, and two of
Plan an experiment for a large system that has multiple processes, subprocesses, stages, or steps.
9.4 Describe a study to improve quality where it is appropriate to use a mixture design.
9.5 An in-process scale was used in preparing additives for an industrial process. The improvement team had made significant improvements in the accuracy of the scale by standardizing operations and
A person with a long standing problem of insomnia—short duration of sleep and poor quality—who had tried a variety a behavioral changes in a nonsystematic way decided to use factorial methods to
Choose a personal health problem that you would like to solve or at least mitigate its effects. Use the planning form to design an experiment to find combinations of the factors that give the most
Review the design matrix in Fig. 10.10. For the group’s next round of testing suggest what new combinations of factors and levels different participants could add to their previous changes to fill
Discuss the approach to Sales and Operations Planning that might be the most appropriate for the following companies. Explain your reasoning:.. A bank.. A fast-food restaurant.. An automobile service
Discuss the potential impact that an especially militant labor union can have on the strategic approach to S&OP.
A company has traditionally used a level strategy for planning for several years.Discuss the potential changes in their environment that could make them consider using more chase tactics.
What changes, if any, will the perishability of the inventory have on the capability of a company in using a level strategy. Consider, for example, a meat market and a fast-food restaurant.
How, if at all, will the overall strategic plan of the company alter its approach to S&OP?
How, if at all, will the overall economic conditions in a company's environment alter their approach to S&OP? Give several examples.
Discuss the potential pros and cons of the aggregation process that must be done prior to developing the S&OP. For example, what are the trade-offs when deciding to aggregate the data into quarters
The ABC Company has recognized the following demand for the next four quarters:ABC has traditionally used the hiring and firing of workers to accommodate the changes in demand for their products, but
Use the data from exercise #1 to consider another possibility: They could hire a set of workers at the beginning of the year and build inventory. They could then use the inventory (and some
The Icanride Bicycle Company has the following projected sales demand for the next 6 months (assume each month has the same number of production days):Inventory costs them $10 per month per bike
The Mesa Table Company has projected the following demand for their dining room table line:There are currently 20 workers on the line, each capable of producing 10 tables per week on regular time,
Another family of products for Mesa Table Company has the following projected monthly demand:There are currently 30 workers each capable of producing 50 tables per month.They have a no-inventory
The Imsocool Refrigerator Company has projected the following demand for their family of specialty refrigerators:There are currently 10 workers on the production line, and there is no physical space
The Cramer Computer Company has the following projected demand for the next 6 months:There are currently 100 workers, each working a normal 8-hour shift, 5 days a week. They can work an extra 10

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