Answer Discussion point 1 with details and calculation.

THERMATRIX In 1985, a company called In-Process Technology was set up to tions as customers, hoping to use its client list as a selling tool. produce and sell a thermal oxidation process that could be used In addition, realizing that they were a small, thinly capitalized to reduce industrial pollution. The initial investors acquired the company, Thermatrix partnered with many of its clients in rights to technology developed at the U.S. Department of developing solutions to the clients' specific environmental Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to more effi- problems. ciently convert energy in burners, process heaters, and others. In April 2002, Thermatrix was acquired by Linde AG, For several years, the company performed dismally and by 1991 through its subsidiary Selas Fluid Processing Corporation was only earning $264,000 annually. (SFPC) of Blue Bell, Pennsylvania. SFPC specializes in the In 1992, the company realized that there was potential for design and engineering of fired process heaters, LNG vaporiz- utilizing this technology for the control and destruction of ers, and thermal oxidizers. Presently, Thermatrix offers a wide volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants in range of flameless thermal oxidizers and has the capability of improving the environment, and the company was reorgan- providing stand-alone emission devices in a variety of ways. ized and renamed Thermatrix. More than $20 million in pri- Thermatrix is located in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, as a part of vate equity offerings was raised over a period of several years the Selas Fluid Processing Corporation, where there are 90 to produce, market, and distribute the new product. In June employees. 1996, there was a successful public offering of Thermatrix in the financial markets. This allowed the company to expand its Discussion global presence and increase its market penetration in the 1. Thermatrix has grown and flourished because of its good United States. In 1997, as a result of research and develop customer relationships, which include partnering, deliver- ment, the company engineers were able to develop a more ing a quality product on time, and listening to the cus- effective treatment of waste streams with significantly less cost tomer's needs. Suppose company management wants to to the customer. formally measure customer satisfaction at least once a year Thermatrix's philosophy has been to give their customers and develops a brief survey that includes the following more than their competitors did without charging more. four questions. Suppose 115 customers participated in this During this time period, the company targeted large corpora survey with the results shown. Use techniques presented in Mean 8.6 86 29 27.4 12.7 14 6.3 33.4 8.1 this chapter to analyze the data to estimate population Standard responses to these questions. Question Deviation Question Yes No 1. Are you treated fairly as an employee? 37.9 1. In general, were deliveries on time? 63 52 2. Were the contact people at 2. Has the company given you Thermatrix helpful and courteous? the training you need to do the job adequately? 3. Was the pricing structure fair to your company? 3. Does management seriously 101 consider your input in making 4. Would you recommend Thermatrix decisions about production? 41.8 to other companies? 105 10 4. Is your physical work 2. Now suppose Thermatrix officers want to ascertain environment acceptable? 5. Is the compensation for your employee satisfaction with the company. They randomly work adequate and fair? sample nine employees and ask them to complete a satis- faction survey under the supervision of an independent testing organization. As part of this survey, employees are asked to respond to questions by providing a score from 0 Source: Adapted from "Thermatrix: Selling Products, Not Technology. Insights to 50 along a continuous scale where 0 denotes no satis- and Inspiration: How Businesses Succeed, published by Nation's Business on faction and 50 denotes the upmost satisfaction. Assume the Blue Chip Enterprise Initiative, 1997; and Thermatrix, Inc., available at behalf of MassMutual and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in association with that the data are normally distributed in the population. http://www.thermatrix.com/text_version/background/backgrnd.html The questions and the results of the survey are shown (Company Background) and http://www.thermatrix.com/overview.html in the next column. Analyze the results by using tech- Background Information). http://www.selasfluid.com/thermatrix/history. niques from this chapter. 39.5 2.1