Process improvements. One way to improve a process is to eliminate non–value-added activities (e.g., extra movements)

and wasted effort (e.g., looking for materials). A consultant was hired to improve the efficiency in a large shop floor operation. She tested three different workspace designs and two different storage/retrieval systems. She measured process flow time for three randomly selected operations through each of the combinations of workspace design and storage/retrieval systems. The data and twoway ANOVA results are shown here.

a) Is this an experiment or observational study? Explain.

b) What is the response variable?

c) How many treatments are involved?

d) Based on the two-way ANOVA results, management concludes that neither the workspace design nor the storage/
retrieval system impacts process flow time (and that the consultant wasn’t worth the money). Do you agree with this conclusion? Explain.

Transcribed Image Text:

Workspace Design Storage System Flow Time (Days) 123123123123123123123123123123 1 4.5 1 3.3 1 3.4 1 4.0 1 3.0 1 2.9 1 4.2 1 3.0 1 3.2 1 4.5 1 3.5 1 3.2 1 3.8 1 2.8 1 2 222222222222222 0086805058022068 3.8 3.6 2.8 4.0 3.5 3.0 3.5 3.8 4.0 4.2 4.2 3.0 3.6 3.8 3.0 3.0