Acme Electronics, a leading manufacturer of electronic components, has been experiencing a sudden increase in defects in a specific type of microprocessor chips. These defects have been identified during the final quality check before shipment. The process for manufacturing these chips has been in place for years without significant changes. The Quality Control team, after thorough analysis, insists that the process itself has not changed, and this spike in defects is likely due to some specific, assignable cause. The CEO of Acme Electronics is concerned about the increasing number of customer complaints and has called you, the head of Quality Assurance, for an explanation.

Discussion Questions:

$1-$ What explanation would you provide to the CEO about the sudden increase in defects?

$2-$ The CEO is considering making changes to the manufacturing process to quickly address the rising defect issue. How would you convince the CEO that altering the process may not be the most effective solution at this point?

$3-$ In order to bring the operation back to normal, what approach would you recommend to identify and address the assignable cause responsible for the spike in defects?