Let's look at reviewing the quality of a bag of M&Ms at retail locations. Imagine you are developing the Quality Management Plan and your operational definitions will be carried out by clerks at stores that sell M&Ms across the US. This plan needs to accommodate staff in rural Pennsylvania or in downtown Los Angeles. The measures from all locations need to have consistent results.

Because we can't open every bag or touch every M&M to ensure quality management of each piece, samples need to be selected and measured over time. The statistical sampling method is to randomly select one bag of M&Ms from the shelf in the store.

1. In what ways did having a clear operational definition help to ensure accuracy in counting defects?
2. How were the operational definitions you wrote different from those written by our Quality Expert?
3. One rule of inspection is that you should inspect where you can influence the process. How likely is it that roundness and color mix can be fixed in a retail store? Where should inspections for roundness, M stamp, and color mix be done?
4. What should retail clerks be inspecting for? What would impact your willingness to purchase a bag of M&Ms in a retail store? What can be fixed at the retail level?
5. Document an operational definition for assessing defects for something else.
6. Be careful not to explain how to do the task. You want to explain the steps that someone would perform to check for defects and to assess whether the task was completed correctly or not. Make sure you include a scorecard for your checker to report defects.