EXERCISES ON

STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES
USING MINITAB
 EXERCISE 1

Imagine that the company you work for manufactures

metal bookcases. During final inspection, a certain
number of bookcases are rejected due to scratches,
chips, bends, or dents. Different defects observed
during inspection are recorded as they observed in
Column C1. You are interested to analyze the
inspection data to see which defect is causing most of
your problems.
 EXERCISE 2

Suppose you work for a company that

manufactures motorcycles. You hope to reduce
quality costs arising from defective
speedometers. During inspection, a certain
number of speedometers are rejected, and the
types of defects recorded. Data on inspection is
given in Columns C2 and C3. Use appropriate
tool to analyze the inspection data to project
which defect is causing most of your problems.
 EXERCISE 3

Imagine you work for a company that

manufactures dolls. Lately, you have noticed that
an increasing number of dolls are being rejected
at final inspection due to scratches, peels, and
smudges in their paint. You want to see if a
relationship exists between the type and number
of flaws, and the work shift producing the dolls.
The inspection data is given in Columns C10
and C11
 EXERCISE 4
Based on the earlier analysis you have discovered
that your parts are rejected most often due to
surface flaws. You had a meeting with members of
various departments to brainstorm on the potential
causes for these flaws. These causes are grouped
into certain labels and are presented in Columns
C24 to C32 with some columns represent the
sub causes. Make a cause-and-effect (fishbone)
diagram with sub-branches.
 EXERCISE 5
Suppose you work for a company that
manufactures floor tiles, and are concerned
about warping in the tiles. To ensure
production quality, you measured warping in
10 tiles each working day for 10 days. In
order to estimate the compliance to
specifications it is essential to know the
distribution of the data. Use appropriate
method to understand the underlying
distribution for warping data given in the
Column C34
 EXERCISE 6
A study was performed in order to evaluate the
effectiveness of two devices for improving the efficiency
of gas home-heating systems. Energy consumption in
houses was measured after one of the two devices was
installed. The two devices were an electric vent damper
(Damper=1) and a thermally activated vent damper
(Damper=2). The energy consumption data (BTU.In) are
Column C36 with a grouping column
stacked in one
(Damper) C35 containing identifiers or subscripts.
Compare the two devices w.r.t. mean effectiveness of
energy consumption. Compare also the variances of the
two populations.
 EXERCISE 7
A shoe company wants to compare two materials, A and B,
for use on the soles of boys' shoes. In this experiment,
each of ten boys wore a special pair of shoes with the sole
of one shoe made from Material A and the sole on the
other shoe made from Material B. The sole types were
randomly assigned to account for systematic differences in
wear between the left and right foot. After three months, the
shoes are measured for wear and the data are given in
Columns 39 and 40. Compare the two materials
based on the wear observed.
 EXERCISE 8
As your company's purchasing manager, you need to
authorize the purchase of twenty new photocopy
machines. After comparing many brands in terms of price,
copy quality, warranty, and features, you have narrowed
the choice to two: Brand X and Brand Y. You decided that
the determining factor will be the reliability of the brands
as defined by the proportion requiring service within one
year of purchase.
Because your company already uses both of these
brands, you were able to obtain information on the service
history of 50 randomly selected machines of each brand.
Records indicate that 6 (six) Brand X machines and 8
(eight) Brand Y machines needed service. Use this
information to guide your choice of brand for purchase.
 EXERCISE 9

You work for a shampoo manufacturer and need to ensure

that the caps on your bottles are being fastened properly.
If fastened too loosely, they may fall off during shipping. If
fastened too tightly, they may be hard for your customers
to open (especially in the shower). You collect a random
sample of bottles and test the amount of torque required
to remove the caps. Study the data collected and
presented on the CTQ torque in the columns C42 and
C43. Initially ignore the identity that caps are fastened on
two machines. Also study the closeness of the process
mean to the target value of 18 and the difference in the
behaviour of the two machines.
 EXERCISE 10

Imagine that you are working in an auto factory and are

having trouble with variability in the length of the
camshafts you use. You want to see if the shafts
provided by your two suppliers are comparable, so you
measure length for a random sample of 100 shafts from
each. The data on the lengths for the two suppliers are
presented in the Columns C45 and C46. Study
the data and comment on the behaviour of the processes
and decide on the future course of action w.r.t the
supplies. Estimate the percentage non-conformance, if
the specification for the component is 600 ± 4 mm.