Tutorial Questions

Managing Quality

Question 1
The Digi-Secure Company issues policies that protect clients from downtime costs due to
computer system failures. It is very important to process the policies quickly because
long cycle times not only put the client at risk, they could also lose business for Digi-
secure. Management is concerned that customer service is degrading because of long
cycle times. The following table contains the data from five samples, each sample
consisting of eight observations.

Observation
Sample 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 11 7 6 10 6 13 10 8
2 9 13 10 8 12 12 12 13
3 10 9 6 9 10 10 11 13
4 10 9 10 11 9 10 10 10
5 10 10 8 10 9 7 10 10

a. What is your estimate of the process average?

b. What is your estimate of the average range?
c. Are assignable causes present in this process? Explain.

Question 2
In an attempt to judge and monitor the quality of instruction, the administration of Mega-
Byte Academy devised an examination to test students on the basic concepts that all
should have learned. Each year, a random sample of 10 graduating students is selected for
the test. The average score is used to track the quality of the educational process. Test of
the results for the past 10 years are shown in table:

Student
Year 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Average
1 63 57 92 87 70 61 75 58 63 71 69.7
2 90 77 59 88 48 83 63 94 72 70 74.4
3 67 81 93 55 71 71 86 98 60 90 77.2
4 62 67 78 61 89 93 71 59 93 84 75.7
5 85 88 77 69 58 90 97 72 64 60 76.0
6 60 57 79 83 64 94 86 64 92 74 75.3
7 94 85 56 77 89 72 71 61 92 97 79.4
8 97 86 83 88 65 87 76 84 81 71 81.8
9 94 90 76 88 65 93 86 87 94 63 83.6
10 88 91 71 89 97 79 93 87 69 85 84.9

Use these date to estimate the center and standard deviation for this distribution. Then
calculate the two-sigma control limits for the process average. What comments would
you make to the administration of the Mega-Byte Academy?

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Question 3

As a hospital administrator of a large hospital, you are concern with the absenteeism
among nurses’ aides. The issue has been raised by registered nurses, who feel they often
have to perform work normally done by their aides. To get the fact, absenteeism data
were gathered for the last two weeks, which is considered a representative period for
future conditions. After taking random samples of 64 personnel files each day, the
following data were produced:

Day Aides Absent Day Aides Absent

1 4 9 7
2 3 10 2
3 2 11 3
4 4 12 2
5 2 13 1
6 5 14 3
7 3 15 4
8 4

Because your assessment of absenteeism is likely to come under careful scrutiny, you
would like a type I error of only 1 percent. You want to be sure to identify any instances
of unusual absences. If someone present, you will have to explore them on behalf of the
registered nurses.

a. Design an attribute control chart.

b. Base on your p-chart and the data, what can you conclude about the absenteeism of
nurses’ aides?

Question 4

The Big Black Bird Company produces fiberglass camper tops. The process for
producing the tops must be controlled so as to keep the number of dimples low. When the
process was in control, the following defects were found in 10 randomly selected camper
tops over an extended period of time:

Top Dimples Top Dimples

1 7 6 12
2 9 7 8
3 14 8 4
4 11 9 7
5 3 10 6

Determine the c-chart two sigma upper and lower control limits for this process. Is the
process in statistical control?

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Question 5

The specification for a plastic liner for concrete highway projects call for a thickness of
3.0mm±0.1mm. The standard deviation of the process is estimated to be 0.02mm. What
are the upper and lower specification limits for this product? The process is known to
operate at a mean thickness of 3.0mm. What is the Cpk for this process? About what
percentage of all units of this liner will meet specification?

Question 6

A critical dimension of a certain service is its time. Periodically, random samples of three
services in instances are measured for time. The results of the last four samples are in the
following table.

Sample Time (Sec)

1 495 501 498
2 512 508 504
3 505 497 501
4 496 503 492

a. Using the historical information contained in the four samples, determine whether the
process is in statistical control.
b. Suppose that the standard deviation of the process distribution is 5.77. If the
specifications for the time of the service are 500±18sec, is the process capable?
Assume four-sigma quality.

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Appendix 1

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Appendix 2