Lakeside Electric has been getting many complaints from its major customer, Home Station, about the quality of its shipments of home generators. Daniel Shimshak, the plant manager, is alarmed that a customer is providing him with the only information the company has on shipment quality. He decides to collect information on defective shipments through a form he has asked his drivers to complete on arrival at customers’ stores. The forms for the first 279 shipments have been turned in. They show the following over the past 8 weeks:
Week Number of Shipments Number of Shipments with Defects Reason for Defective Shipment
Incorrect Bill of Lading Incorrect Truckload Damaged Product Trucks Late
1 23 5 2 2 1 0
2 31 8 1 4 1 2
3 28 6 2 3 1 0
4 37 11 4 4 1 2
5 35 10 3 4 2 1
6 40 14 5 6 3 0
7 41 12 3 5 3 1
8 44 15 4 7 2 2
In addition, the following open-ended comments were collected from the drivers.
Open-Ended Comments on Survey Cards from Home Station
truck broke down mislabeled product Forklift broke down Lazy drivers incorrect loading instructions omitted items on the bill lack of written instructions on how to operate the forklift the wrong item was shipped to store drivers have no incentive to be prompt poor container quality improper training of forklift operator improper handling of the item computer does not update lack of training lack of training Even though Daniel increased his capacity by adding more workers to his normal contingent of 30, he knew that for many weeks he exceeded his regular output of 30 shipments per week. A review of his turnover over the past 8 weeks shows the following:
Week Number of Hires Number of Terminations Total Number of Workers
1 1 0 30
2 2 1 31
3 3 2 32
4 2 0 34
5 2 2 34
6 2 4 32
7 4 1 35
8 3 2 36
Use Minitab to develop a Pareto chart for the type of defects that have occurred.
Use Minitab to draw a cause-and-effect diagram showing the possible causes of the defective shipments. For the diagram use the categories of Machinery, Methods, Manpower, and Material.
Use Minitab to draw a scatter diagram using the total number of shipments and the number of defective shipments. Does there appear to be any relationship?
Use Minitab to draw a scatter diagram using the variable “turnover” (number of new hires plus number of terminations) and the number of defective shipments. Does the diagram depict a relationship between the two variables?
Instructions:
Write a paper summarizing your results. Please use the case study format template. Please include appropriate Minitab charts and answers to the questions.
Category: Quality Control and Improvement
The manager of Antonio’s Pizza Parlor collects data concerning customer complaints about pizza delivery. Either the pizza arrives late, or the wrong pizza is delivered.
Customer Complaints
Problem Frequency
Topping is stuck to box lid 17
Pizza arrives late 35
Wrong topping or combination 9
Wrong style of crust 6
Wrong size 4
Pizza is partially eaten 3
Pizza never arrives 6
a. Use a Pareto chart to identify the delivery problems. Comment on potential root causes of these problems and identify any especially egregious quality failures.
b. The manager of Antonio’s Pizza is attempting to understand the root causes of late pizza delivery and has asked each driver to keep a log of specific difficulties that create late deliveries. After 1 week, the logs included the entries shown in the table below. Organize these causes into a cause-and-effect diagram.
Pizza Delivery Log
Log Entry
the delivery vehicle broke down
couldn’t make it across town to deliver second pizza in time
couldn’t deliver four pizzas to four different customers in time
the kitchen was late in producing order
I got lost!
The order ticket was lost in production
I couldn’t read the address on the ticket and went to the wrong house.
Instructions:
Write a paper summarizing your results. Please use the case study format template. Please include appropriate Minitab graphs to support your answers. Please include appropriate Minitab charts and answers to the questions. Complete and submit the assignment by 05:00 PM CST Sunday.
Give your response to one of the following question.
Many product reviews are available on the internet. Two examples are reviews on electronics products such as DVD players and high-definition televisions. There are often both positive and negative reviews. Do such reviews (positive and negative) influence your purchasing decisions? Why or why not? Why do you suppose consumers take the time and effort to write such reviews? There is often a feedback button asking if you found the review helpful. Do you usually respond? Why or why not?
Select one tool or technique from this module and describe how you will apply it to your work or life. How will applying it improve your success with problem-solving?
Misunderstood, misused, or incomplete statistics can lead to incorrect decisions. Select one statistical topic from this module and explain how its use will help you make better decisions in your future.
Attached are a few are some of the module topics