Stooge Enterprises manufactures wooden mallets for commercial and residential applications. Stooges landed a major contract as a supplier to Slapsticks, Inc., a leading retailer in several major cities throughout the upper Midwest. Because of the large volume of demand, Stooges has to expand its manufacturing operation to three shifts and hire additional workers. Not long after Stooges began mallets to Slapsticks, it began receiving some complaints about mallet head diameters. This problem was somewhat alarming to Stooges, because its reputation as a high quality manufacturer was the principal reason that it was selected as a supplier to Slapsticks. Stooges placed a great deal of confidence in its manufacturing capability because of its well trained and dedicated employees, and it never felt the need to consider formal process control approaches. In view of the recent complaints, the company president suspected that the expansion to a three- shift operation and the pressures to produce higher volumes and meet just-in-time delivery requests was causing a breakdown in their quality. On the recommendation of the plant manager, Stooges hired a recent College of Saint Rose graduate to train the shift supervisors and selected line workers in statistical process control methods. As a trial project, the plant manager wants to evaluate the capability of a critical cutting operation that he suspects might be the source of the diameter problem. The nominal specification for the diameter operation is 16.500 inches with a tolerance of plus or minus 0.04 inches. The consultant suggested inspecting five consecutive mallet heads in the middle of each shift over a 10-day period and recording the dimension of the cut. The table that follows shows 15 days data collected for each shift.

1. Interpret the data, establish a state of statistical control, and evaluate the capability of the process to meet the specifications. Consider the following questions: a) What do the initial control charts tell you? b) If the process is not in control, what might be the likely causes? Take corrective action based on the information that is available. 2. What is the process capability? What does the process capability tell the company? a) Is Stooges facing a serious problem that needs to be addressed? b) If 10,000 mallets are selected at random, how many are expected to not meet the customer specification?

								Observations
Sample	Shift	Operator	1	2	3	4	5	x-bar	R
1	1	Moe	16.523	16.489	16.513	16.493	16.481
2	2	Curly	16.486	16.483	16.482	16.471	16.513
3	3	Larry	16.523	16.502	16.514	16.493	16.514
4	1	Moe	16.499	16.499	16.490	16.500	16.517
5	2	Shamp	16.426	16.489	16.482	16.448	16.438
6	3	Curly	16.509	16.496	16.496	16.504	16.527
7	1	Larry	16.487	16.495	16.493	16.496	16.502
8	2	Moe	16.495	16.476	16.471	16.506	16.492
9	3	Curly	16.485	16.500	16.484	16.488	16.487
10	1	Moe	16.521	16.488	16.511	16.498	16.521
11	2	Curly	16.514	16.500	16.511	16.471	16.499
12	3	Larry	16.478	16.492	16.489	16.504	16.517
13	1	Moe	16.520	16.483	16.501	16.488	16.485
14	2	Curly	16.504	16.512	16.494	16.476	16.497
15	3	Larry	16.490	16.504	16.500	16.521	16.500
16	1	Moe	16.537	16.499	16.514	16.493	16.506
17	2	Curly	16.498	16.483	16.498	16.520	16.488
18	3	Larry	16.497	16.491	16.499	16.520	16.509
19	1	Moe	16.489	16.507	16.521	16.501	16.481
20	2	Curly	16.511	16.524	16.519	16.493	16.503
21	3	Shemp	16.440	16.441	16.495	16.486	16.477
22	1	Moe	16.522	16.511	16.482	16.497	16.503
23	2	Curly	16.533	16.506	16.511	16.512	16.519
24	3	Shemp	16.450	16.438	16.490	16.439	16.439
25	1	Moe	16.515	16.506	16.509	16.500	16.500
26	2	Curly	16.523	16.503	16.520	16.496	16.485
27	3	Larry	16.497	16.496	16.492	16.511	16.505
28	1	Moe	16.529	16.516	16.490	16.514	16.517
29	2	Curly	16.502	16.525	16.490	16.500	16.493
30	3	Larry	16.498	16.500	16.461	16.492	16.484
31	1	Moe	16.515	16.506	16.509	16.500	16.500
32	2	Curly	16.523	16.503	16.520	16.496	16.485
33	3	Larry	16.497	16.496	16.492	16.511	16.505
34	1	Moe	16.529	16.516	16.490	16.514	16.517
35	2	Curly	16.502	16.525	16.490	16.500	16.493
36	3	Larry	16.498	16.500	16.461	16.492	16.484
37	1	Moe	16.523	16.489	16.513	16.493	16.481
38	2	Curly	16.486	16.483	16.482	16.471	16.513
39	3	Larry	16.523	16.502	16.514	16.493	16.514
40	1	Moe	16.499	16.499	16.490	16.500	16.517
41	2	Moe	16.515	16.506	16.509	16.500	16.500
42	3	Curly	16.523	16.503	16.520	16.496	16.485
43	1	Larry	16.497	16.496	16.492	16.511	16.505
44	2	Moe	16.489	16.507	16.521	16.501	16.481
45	3	Moe	16.522	16.511	16.482	16.497	16.503