F- Statistics

Question 1 (10 marks)
Case – Northwestern Furniture
Northwestern Furniture is a huge retail design and furniture store. Northwestern Furniture store regularly orders unique merchandise at the request of its valued customers. Nevertheless, the store recently experienced problems with the on-time delivery of these special orders. Sometimes the orders were never received, resulting in irate customers.
The process of fulfilling a special order commences with the sales associate who records the customer information and obtains approval from a manager to process the order. The sales associate puts the order form in a bin for the office manager to fax to the special order department at the regional office. When the office manager faxes the special order forms from the bin, she files them in a notebook.
If a problem arises with the order, the manager receives notification, and contacts the sales associate who took the order to decide what needs to be done next. Typical problems that are often observed include sales associates not filling out the order form completely or entering a request date that is impossible to fulfill. Sometimes the sales associate does not put the form in the proper bin, so the form never gets faxed. Other times, sales associates are asked to obtain more information from the customer, but fail to call the customer back, or do not inform the office associate to refax the form after getting additional information from the customer.
At the regional office, the special order department receives the fax from the store, reviews it, and informs the store if additional information is needed. When all the information is complete, they process the order. Sometimes they lose or misplace the form after it arrives on the fax machine, order the wrong merchandise, or fail to notify the store when additional information is needed or when the merchandise should be expected to arrive.
In light of the above, develop a cause-and-effect diagram for finding causes why special orders are not received on time.

Question 2 (10 marks)
In a recent conference, one of the presenters stated that the introduction of TQM (Total Quality Management) leads to the following in any organization:
–high motivation
–high productivity
–reduced errors and
–less work repetitions
As a quality management specialist, explain how and why each of these eventuates.
Word limit (maximum): 800 words

Question 3 (10 marks)
Customers’ establishing new bank accounts at the BSP bank in Suva are expected to average 10 minutes each. Numerous observations of these samples were taken, as presented below. From the sample data given, construct the relevant control charts. Do the results suggest that the process is in control? Why or why not? Explain

Sample 1 Sample 2 Sample 3 Sample 4 Sample 5 Sample 6
9.5 10.3 9.9 10.3 9.6 10.2
8.4 9.9 10.5 10.4 10.9 8.9
9.8 10.2 9.9 10.8 10.8 9.7
10.3 10.5 10.8 10.6 10.1 10.5

Question 4 (10 mark)
Using relevant examples, discuss how total quality management could be used bring about better efficiency and productivity in the manufacturing/service industries.
Word limit (maximum): 800 words

Question 5 (10 marks)
(a) What type of control chart would you use to control the following process? Why? (2 mark)

Lot number Number inspected Number of units outside specifications
1 1050 26
2 685 53
3 139 32
4 72 23
5 210 30

(b)What type of control chart would you use to control the following process? Why? (2 mark)

Lot number Rolls of cloth produced inspected Number of defects
1 40 28
2 40 29
3 40 28
4 40 30
5 40 30

(c) A production analyst takes 12 samples of jelly beans from production over a shift period. The number of minor defects in each sample is shown below.

Sample Number of defects
1 6
2 6
3 5
4 8
5 6
6 5
7 5
8 3
9 7
10 3
11 4
12 6

Develop the appropriate control chart for this process. Does the process appear to be in control? Why? (6 marks)

The End
 
APPENDIX

Control Chart Factors

Subgroup Size A2 D3 D4 d2 d3
2 1.880 0.000 3.267 1.128 0.853
3 1.023 0.000 2.574 1.693 0.888
4 0.729 0.000 2.282 2.059 0.880
5 0.577 0.000 2.114 2.326 0.864
6 0.483 0.000 2.004 2.534 0.848
7 0.419 0.076 1.924 2.704 0.833