Your team has been hired by a wallets producer company called Middle Eastern Fine Leather Company (MEFL). MEFL makes wallets and supplies them through several retail outlets in the Middle Eastern region. Recently some problems have emerged:

• A lengthy delivery in supply to the retail outlets.

• A complaint letter to the company from a customer stating that as a frequent consumer of the products, they are dissatisfied with the delivery time and that often delayed delivery are returned to the retail outlets.

MEFL monitored and examined their production process by recording the delivery time, displayed in the table below. MEFL are unsure how to analyze this situation, however, they intend to get to the bottom of it and if possible improve the situation and regain the customers’ loyalty.

Help MEFL to solve this problem.

a) MEFL wanted to show the variation in the lead time. They recorded the lead time for 20 randomly selected shipments.

Lead times are presented in the table below. Select and construct the most appropriate problem-solving tool to show and present the lead time distribution. (Hint: Class width: 10-15, 15-20, 20-25, etc.)

NUMBER OF SHIPMENTS LEAD TIME IN DAYS NUMBER OF SHIPMENTS LEAD TIME IN DAYS 1 15 11 12 2 20 12 10 3 10 13 30 4 20 14 31 5 21 15 34 6 15 16 22 7 10 17 33 8 29 18 25 9 23 19 22 10 18 20 26

b) MEFL is not happy; the customers are still complaining about the delivery time. Your team and MEFL have identified the major categories (the main contributors) as: people, method, machine, and material. Causes are presented in the table below. Use the most appropriate problem solving tools to show the root cause of this problem.

CAUSES CODE FREQUENCY Raw material not to specifications A 20 No proper planning B 10 Defective raw material from vendor C 190 Machine breakdown D 15 Lack of standardization E 110 Improper data collection methods F 8 Employee absenteeism G 12 Low skilled workers H 30

c) Use the data in the table above and select and construct the most appropriate problem-solving tool to identify which variables have the most influence on the company’s production.

d) Your team has suspected a potential relationship between order quantities and the lengthy delivery (lead time). Use the data in the table below and select and construct the most appropriate problem-solving tool to check if there is a relationship between order quantities and lead time.
QUANTITY 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 LEAD TIME (DAYS) 15 3 30 5 35 12 10