Practice Questions for Session 6

Question 1:
In an attempt to judge and monitor the quality of instruction, MOE devised an examination to
test junior college 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.
Student
Year 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 63 57 92 87 70 61 75 58 63 71
2 90 77 59 88 48 83 63 94 72 70
3 67 81 93 55 71 71 86 98 60 90
4 62 67 78 61 89 93 71 59 93 84
5 85 88 77 69 58 90 97 72 64 60
6 60 57 79 83 64 94 86 64 92 74
7 94 85 56 77 89 72 71 61 92 97
8 97 86 83 88 65 87 76 84 81 71
9 94 90 76 88 65 93 86 87 94 63
10 88 91 71 89 97 79 93 87 69 85

Calculate the control limits for the process average. What comments would you make to MOE?

Question 2:
The light-bulb production process yields bulbs with an average life of 900 hours and a standard
deviation of 48 hours. The nominal value of the tolerance range is 1,000 hours, with an upper
specification of 1,200 hours and a lower specification of 800 hours. Calculate the process
capability ratio and the process capability index. What can we do to reduce the fraction of
defective units made by this process?

Question 3:
In a bearing production shop, control charts were set up to monitor the bearing sleeve
production process. Samples of size 5 were taken from the production line every hour for 15
hours. The eccentricities (i.e., out-of-roundness) of the sleeves were measured. The means and
ranges of the eccentricities of these samples, measured in thousandths of an inch, are as
follows.

sample 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
mean 17 14 8 17 12 13 15 16 13 14 16 9 11 9 12
range 6 11 4 8 9 14 12 15 10 10 11 6 9 11 13

a. Construct the R chart and X-bar chart. What can we say about the process?

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b. Estimate the standard deviation of the process, then calculate the process capability ratio
and capability index, assuming the specification limits for the eccentricity of the bearing
sleeves are 5 and 25.
c. What should the mean and standard deviation of the process be in order for six-sigma
quality to be achieved?

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 Answer Key
Question 1:
From the sample data, we obtain X =77.8, and R =36.6. For n=10, A2 = 0.308. Thus UCL = 89.07,
and LCL = 66.53. The X-bar control chart is plotted as follows:

100
90
80
70
60 Sample mean
50 UCL
40 LCL
30
20
10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Although all points are within limits, we can easily observe an upward trend, implying the
process mean changes (increases) with time. In other words, the quality of the education
process was constantly increasing over the past 10 years. We may want to explore the reason
for improvement and keep it up. (In our course, we used a somewhat simplified criterion to
check if a process is in statistical control, i.e., to check if there’re any points outside the control
limits. Actually, this is not the only criterion used in practice. Usually, if we can observe some
pattern or trend, we should explore possible assignable causes.)

Question 2:
To assess process capability, we calculate the process capability ratio and capability index as
follows:
Cp = (1200 – 800)/6(48) = 1.39
Lower specification calculation: (900-800)/3(48) = 0.69
Upper specification calculation: (1200-900)/3(48) = 2.08
So Cpk = min {0.69, 2.08} = 0.69

From the table in notes, we know if Cp = 1.33, then the fraction of good units is 0.99994. The
capability ratio for this process is 1.39, which means if the process mean coincides with the
nominal specification, then the fraction of good units should be higher than 0.99994. Since this
fraction is very close to 1, we conclude that the machine’s variability is acceptable relative to
the range of the tolerance limits.

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However, the process mean (900) is too close to the lower specification (800). Therefore, short-
lived bulbs will be produced. So the company could invest in aligning the process mean closer
to the mean of the design specifications (which is 1000).

Background information: The operations manager searched for the causes of the off-center
production. In conjunction with product design engineers, he determined that the filament
materials used in the light bulb were not capable of achieving the nominal 1000-hour life. New
materials were selected for the filaments, and the process began producing high-quality light
bulbs.

Remarks: when the process mean deviates from the nominal specification, the process
capability decreases sharply. Therefore, one way to increase process capability is to bring the
mean closer to the nominal specification. Another way is, of course, to reduce the process
variability, i.e., to reduce the standard deviation.

Question 3:
a. X =13.07, and R =9.933. For n=5, A2 = 0.577, D3 = 0, D4=2.114.
For R chart:
UCL = 21, LCL = 0. The R chart is as follows.
Range

20

15

10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Range

From the chart, we can see that the process variability is in statistical control.

For X-bar chart:

UCL = 18.8, LCL = 7.34. The X-bar chart is as follows.

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 20

15

10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Mean UCL LCL

From the chart, we can see that the process mean is in statistical control.

Since both the process variability and the process mean are in statistical control, we can
conclude that the process is in statistical control.

̅
b. 𝜎̂ = 𝑅⁄𝑑 = 9.933/2.326 = 4.27
2
Cp = (25-5)/6(4.27) = 0.78
Cpk = min{(13.07-5)/3(4.27), (25-13.07)/3(4.27)} = min{0.63, 0.93} = 0.63

c. In order to achieve six-sigma quality, we should first take actions to make sure the process
mean coincides with the nominal specification ((25+5)/2=15). Then we should strive to
reduce the process variability such that the process standard deviation becomes (15-5)/6
=1.667. (If sigma is reduced to 1.667, then each specification limit is 6*sigma away from the
nominal specification.)

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