Question 3 (15 points)

Tom Dooley just graduated from SIUE and now works for the Meyerson Candy Company.One of their major products is gumdrops that are packaged in an assortment of colors, each color being a different flavor.Most of the process is automated with machines producing the gumdrops, mixing the different flavors, and packaging them in plastic bags.Each bag should contain 16 ounces of candy; each gumdrop is about 1/2 ounce.

Recently, the company has received too many customer complaints. The customers are complaining that the bags do not appear full and they believe that they are not getting a fair measure for what they are paying, but no one has verified this.Tom has been given copies of the complaint letters and the assignment to "fix the problem."He decides his first step is to determine if there really is a problem with the process.To do that he will need to use the tools and ideas he learned in his Quality Management course.

a.Tom has studied the process for the last two weeks and has concluded that it is stable.The mean weight of the bags produced is 15 oz and the standard deviation is 1/3 oz. The customers expect the bag to weigh 16 oz. The complaints he has studied clearly indicate that customers complain when the weight of the bag is less than 15 oz.He also knows that the company does not want the weight to be more than 17 oz.Calculate the process capability indices.

b.Use the above indices to explain to Tom why he might be receiving so many customer complaints, even though the process seems to be in control.