Lecturer: Mr JC Kabala 16 May 2024

Operations Management Techniques 1: PBT150S

Tutorial – Chapter 5: Normal Distribution
Question 1
The sunlight group was interested to know the quantity (in kilograms) of Sunlight 2in1Auto
Washing Powder being purchased by the laundry business operators in Cape Town in
December month. The following data was obtained from sample of 50 laundry businesses.

93 95 102 104 112 113 114 116 118 123

123 124 124 127 127 131 132 134 134 135
136 137 138 138 138 138 138 140 141 141
142 142 143 144 145 145 148 148 151 154
155 157 157 160 162 165 165 170 173 178

a) Construct a frequency distribution for the data set using six number of classes. In the
table, include the midpoints, relative frequencies, and cumulative frequencies.
b) Which class has the greatest frequency, and which has the least frequency?
c) What proportion of the quantity (in kilograms) purchased in December month are 122kg
or less?
d) What percentage of the quantity (in kilograms) purchased in December month are more
than 167kg?
e) Construct a frequency histogram. Comment.
f) Draw a stem-and-leaf plot for the data.

Question 2
A sample of the hourly production of a small transistor radio, model 220A, by the day shift
revealed these production figures:

290 282 290 290 289 282 290

295 284 290 294 281 290 275
294 298 278 283 305 292
290 290 288 288 280 278

a) What is the modal hourly production?

b) Determine the median hourly production.
c) Find the mean hourly production.
d) Find the standard deviation hourly production.
e) Find the data set’s five number summary

Question 3

The average number of calls coming into a switchboard during the busiest part of the day
for a small firm is 5 calls per minute. If the number of incoming calls follows a Poisson
distribution (Round your answer to 4 decimal places),

a) what is the probability that for any given minute there will be exactly 2 calls?
b) what is the probability that for any given minute there will be less than 2 calls?
c) what is the probability that for any given hour there will be less than 2 calls?
d) what is the probability that for any given minute there will be at least 3 calls?
e) what is the probability that there will be no more than 1 call in the next 5 minutes?

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Lecturer: Mr JC Kabala 16 May 2024

Question 4

An electronics company produces electronic components and markets them on a national

basis. The components are sent to company warehouses in large batches. The warehouse
manager has assumed that 5% of the components in the batch are defectives. If 20
components are randomly sampled, find the following probabilities (Round your answer to
4 decimal places):

a) less than three defectives

b) three or more defectives
c) less than two conforming
d) more than two conforming
e) Find the mean and variance of the binomial distribution of the defective components.
Question 5
A new integrated computer system is to be installed worldwide for a major corporation. Bids
on this project are being solicited, and the contract will be awarded to one of the bidders. As
a part of the proposal for this project bidders must specify how long the project will take.
There will be a significant penalty for finishing late. One potential contractor determines that
the average time to complete a project of this type is 40 weeks with a standard deviation of
5 weeks. The time required to complete this project is assured to be normally distributed:
a) If the due date of this project is set at 38 weeks, what is the probability that the contractor
will have to pay a penalty?
b) If the due date of this project is set between 41 weeks and 43 weeks, what is the
probability that the contractor will not have to pay a penalty?
c) If the bidder wishes to set the due date in the proposal so that there is only a 5% chance
of being late, what due date should be set?

Question 6

The table below shows the results of a survey that asked 1048 SA adults whether they
supported or opposed a special tax on junk food (items like soda, chips, and candy). A
person is selected at random from the sample.

Support Oppose Unsure

Male 163 325 5
Female 233 300 22

Find the probability of the following events (round off all your answers to two decimal
places):
a) The person is female and unsure.
b) The person supports the tax or is male.
c) The person is not unsure or is female.
d) The person is male given that the person opposes the tax.
e) The person is female given that the person supports the tax.

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