Statistical Quality Control- Exercises

1) A quality control process monitors the weight per

carton of laundry detergent. Control limits are set at
UCL = 20.12 ounces and LCL = 19.90 ounces. Samples
of size 5 are used for the sampling and inspection
process. What are the process mean and process
standard deviation for the manufacturing operation?
2) Twenty-five samples of size 5 resulted in in x¯= 5.42
and R = 2.0. Compute control limits for the x¯ and R
charts, and estimate the standard deviation of the
process.
 …cont’d
3) Wendy’s fills their soft drinks with an automatic machine that
operates based on the weight of the soft drink. When the process
is in control, the machine fills each cup so that the grand mean is
10.0 ounces and the mean range is 0.25 for samples of 5.
(a) Determine the upper and lower control limits for the process
for both the mean and the range.
(b) The manager of a store tested five soft drinks served last hour
and found that the mean was 10.16 ounces and the range was
0.35 ounces. Is the process in control? Should other action be
taken?
 …cont’d
4) An automatic machine produces 5.0mm bolts at a high rate of
speed. A quality control program has been started to control the
number of defectives. The quality control inspector selects 50 bolts
at random and determines how many are defective. The number
of defectives in the first 10 samples is 3, 5, 0, 4, 1, 2, 6, 5, 7, and
7.
(a) Design a percent defective chart. Insert the mean percent
defective, UCL, and LCL.
(b) Plot the percent defective for the first 10 samples on the chart.
(c) Interpret the chart.
 …cont’d
5) Eric’s Cookie House sells chocolate chip cookies in shopping
malls. Of concern is the number of chocolate chips in each cookie.
Eric, the owner and president, would like to establish a control
chart for the number of chocolate chips per cookie. He selects a
sample of 15 cookies from today’s production and counts the
number of chocolate chips in each. The results are as follows: 6, 8,
20, 12, 20, 19, 11, 23, 12, 14, 15, 16, 12, 13, and 12.
(a) Determine the centerline and the control limits.
(b) Develop a control chart and plot the number of chocolate
chips per cookie.
(c) Interpret the chart. Does it appear that the number of
chocolate chips is out of control in any of the cookies sampled?
 …cont’d
6) The Inter Global Moving and Storage Company is setting up a
control chart to monitor the proportion of residential moves that
result in written complaints due to late delivery, lost items, or
damaged items. A sample of 50 moves is selected for each of the
last 12 months. The number of written complaints in each sample is
8, 7, 4, 8, 2, 7, 11, 6, 7, 6, 8, and 12.
(a) Design a percent defective chart. Insert the mean percent
defective, UCL, and LCL.
(b) Plot the proportion of written complaints in the last 12 months.
(c) Interpret the chart. Does it appear that the number of
complaints is out of control for any of the months?
 …cont’d
7) Dave Christi runs a car wash chain scattered throughout
Manitoba. He is concerned that some local managers are giving
away free washes to their friends. He decides to collect data on
the number of “voided” sales receipts. Of course, some of them
are legitimate voids. Would the following data indicate a
reasonable number of “voids” at his facilities: 3, 8, 3, 4, 6, 5, 0, 1,
2, 4? Construct a control chart for this process and comment on
whether the process is “in control.”
 …cont’d
8) Wendy’s fills their soft drinks with an automatic machine that
operates based on the weight of the soft drink. When the process
is in control, the machine fills each cup so that the grand mean is
10.0 ounces and the mean range is 0.25 for samples of 5.
(a) Determine the upper and lower control limits for the process
for both the mean and the range.
(b) The manager of a store tested five soft drinks served last hour
and found that the mean was 10.16 ounces and the range was
0.35 ounces. Is the process in control? Should other action be
taken?
 …cont’d
9) The mean of sample ranges of 45 samples of size 7 taken from
a process assumed to be under control is 11.90. Calculate the
central line, the upper control limit, the lower limit of the R-chart
and from the chart, comment on the process.
10) A bicycle manufacturer randomly selects 10 frames each day
and tests for defects. The number of defective frames found over
the last 14 days is 3, 2, 1, 3, 2, 2, 8, 2, 0, 3, 5, 2, 0, 4. Construct
a control chart for this process and comment on whether the
process is “in control.”
 …cont’d
11) Samples of size 5 are selected from a manufacturing process.
The mean of the sample ranges is 0.50. What is the estimate of
the standard deviation of the population?
12) A process that is in control has a mean of µ = 12.5 and a
standard deviation of σ =0 .8.
a. Construct an x¯ chart if samples of size 4 are to be used.
b. Repeat part (a) for samples of size 8 and 16.
c. What happens to the limits of the control chart as the sample
size is increased? Dis-cuss why this is reasonable.
 …cont’d
13) Twenty-five samples, each of size 5, were selected from a
process that was in control. The sum of all the data collected was
677.5 pounds.
a. What is an estimate of the process mean (in terms of pounds
per unit) when the process is in control?
b. Develop the control chart for this process if samples of size 5
be used. Assume that the process standard deviation is .5 when
the process is in control, and that the mean of the process is the
estimate developed in part (a).
 …cont’d
14) Twenty-five samples of 100 items each were inspected when
a process was considered to be operating satisfactorily. In the 25
samples, a total of 135 items were found to be defective.
a. What is an estimate of the proportion defective when the
process is in control?
b. What is the standard error of the proportion if samples of size
100 will be used for statistical process control?
c. Compute the upper and lower control limits for the control chart.
 …cont’d
15) Over several weeks of normal, or in-control, operation, 20 samples of 150
packages each of synthetic-gut tennis strings were tested for breaking strength.
A total of 141 packages of the 3000 tested failed to conform to the
manufacturer’s specifications.
a. What is an estimate of the process proportion defective when the system is in
control?
b. Compute the upper and lower control limits for a P-chart.
c. Using the results of part (b), what conclusion should be drawn about the
process if tests on a new sample of 150 packages find 12 defective? Do there
appear to be assignable causes in this situation?
d. Compute the upper and lower control limits for an C-chart.
e. Answer part (c) using the results of part (d).
f. Which control chart would be preferred in this situation? Explain.
 …cont’d
16) The number of “near misses” recorded for the last 20 months
at the Lima International Airport is 3, 2, 3, 2, 2, 3, 5, 1, 2, 2, 4, 4,
2, 6, 3, 5, 2, 5, 1, and 3. Develop an appropriate control chart.
Determine the mean number of misses per month and the limits on
the number of misses per month. Are there any months where the
number of near misses is out of control?
17) The following table gives the number of defects observed in 8 woolen carpets passed as
satisfactory. Construct the C-chart for the number of defects and comment on it.

Sample number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Number of defects 3 5 8 4 3 5 7 5