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Lecture 16 PDF
Lecture 16 PDF
Learning objective
Service organizations incur cost ranging between 25% and 40% of the operating
expenses due to poor quality. Whenever a process fails to satisfy a customer it
results in loss of customer which in turn adds extra cost to an organization. Various
costs of quality can be seen in Table 5.6. It is very important for service
organizations to control quality so that various costs can be minimized.
To correct non-conforming
Payment of interest penalties,
work after delivery to the
External Investigation time, legal
customer or to correct work that
failure judgments, negative word of
did not satisfy a customer’s
mouth and loss of future business
special needs
5.7 Service Process Control
There are two ways to evaluate performance that is to measure variables and to
measure attributes.
Variation is inherent in the service output. The two main causes of variation are
common causes and assignable causes.
Any service process produces output, which can be represented for its performance
measure with the help of process distribution. The process distribution is described
by distribution parameters called mean and standard deviation, which can be
determined when complete inspection of process is done with 100 percent
accuracy. It is very time consuming and sometimes costly to inspect for quality
each service instance/process or each stage of service process. So, a sampling plan
is devised comprised of specified sample size to randomly select observations of
process outputs, the time between successive samples and decision rules to
determine when action should be taken. The objective of sampling is to estimate
variable or attribute measure for the output of the process. This measure is used to
assess the performance of the process itself. Sampling will be used to estimate the
parameters of the process distribution using sample statistics such as sample mean
and sample standard deviation or sample range. Sample statistics have their own
distributions called sampling distribution.
Figure 5.17: Control chart with upper control limit and lower control limit
Depending on the performance measures, the control charts can be of two types;
Variable control chart (X bar chart and range chart) and Attribute control chart
(p chart).
Example
Calculate the range of a set of sample data by subtracting the smallest from the
largest measurement in each sample. The process variability will result as out of
control if any of the ranges fall outside the control limits.
The upper control limit, U C L R , and the lower control limit, L C L R , for R-Chart are
presented below
UCL R = D 4 R
Center line= R
LCL R = D 3 R
Where
R : Average of past R values and the central line of the control chart.
The upper control limit UCL X and lower control limit, LCL X for X chart are given
below.
UCL X= X + A 2 R
Centerline = X
LCL X= X − A 2 R
where X : central live of the control chart which is average of post sample means or
a target value set for a process
R
W=
σ
In practice, usually µ and σ are not known. In such case µ can be estimated by the
grand average that is average of sample means. Whereas, σ can be estimated using
distribution of relative range, W. The parameters of the distribution of W are a
function of the sample size of n.
R
σˆ =
d2
Where, R is the average range of the m preliminary samples.
Using above relations, the control limits of X chart can be written as
3
UCL X= X + R
d2 n
3
LCL X= X − R
d2 n
and A 2 is defined as
3
A2 =
d2 n
We can write,
R= Wσ
The standard derivation of W, represented by d 3, is a known function of n.
σR = d 3σ
R
σˆ R =d3
d2
We can rewrite the control limits for R-chart by substituting the estimators of σ are
given below
UCL R = R + 3σˆ R
R
= R + 3d 3
d2
LCL R = R − 3σˆ R
R
= R − 3d 3
d2
where
d3
D3 = 1 − 3 and
d2
d3
D3 = 1 + 3
d2
Since the factors A 2 , D 3 and D4 are dependent on sample size, these can be drawn
from table 5.6.
3 1.023 0 2.575
4 0.729 0 2.282
5 0.577 0 2.115
6 0.483 0 2.004
Step 1: collect data on the variable quality measurement and assign number to each
sample from 1 to m. (Preferable, m should be of atleast 20 samples)
Step 2: compute the range for each sample, where sample size for each sample is n.
compute the average range, R , for the set of samples, m.
R 1 = x max , 1 – x min , 1
R 2 = x max , 2 – x min , 2
.
.
.
.
R 1 = x max , m – x min , m
R1 + R 2 + ........ + R m
R=
m
Where R m is the range for mth sample and x max,m and x min,m are the maximum and
minimum values of mth sample where the sample size is n.
Step 3: use the table for D 3 and D 4 and determine the control limits of the R-chart.
Step 4: Plot the sample ranges on the R-chart if all are in control then proceed to
next step. If all values are not in control then identify assignable causes. Correct
the assignable causes and repeat step 1, 2 and 3.
Step 5: Calculate X for each sample and determine X using following relation
x1 + x 2,1 .............x n,1
X1 =
n
x1,2 + x 2,2 .............x n,2
X2 =
n
.
.
.
x1,m + x 2,m .............x n,m
Xm =
m
X + X 2 .............X m
Xm = 1
m
Where x n,m are the nth data in mth sample, where each sample is of sample size n.
Step 7: Plot the sample means. If all the data points are in control, the process is in
statistical control in terms of process average and process variability. If any data
point is out of control then find assignable causes and return to step 1.
Figure 5.18 (b) presents the data point out of control limits. Investigate for
assignable cause
Example 1:
A call-centre wants to check whether their service process is in control for the
quality measure of response time. The management expects to respond back to the
customer as soon as possible. Management decided to take hourly sample of four
calls to calculate a sample mean response time. The past records of call centre
working yield an estimated population mean response time of 4.5seconds with an
estimates range of 4 seconds. The data for sample means and sample range are
given below. Calculate the control limits for X chart and R chart and analyze the
pattern.
Average Range of
Time Mean response
response time
(hrs) time (seconds)
(seconds)
1 3 2
2 5 4
3 4 5
4 2 6
5 7 4
6 4 2
7 6 6
8 5 3
Solution:
The control limits for X chart with 8 samples of each sample of each sample size
of 4 can be calculated as given below.
UCL X= X + A 2 R
LCL X= X − A 2 R
=
A 2 0.729(from table for n 4)
R =4
UCL X = 4.5 + (0.729 × 4) = 7.416
LCL X = 4.5 − (0.729 × 4) = 1.584
UCL R = D 4 R
LCL R = D3R
R =4
=
D 4 2.282(from table for n 4)
=
D3 0(from table for n 4)
UCL=
R 2.82 × =
4 9.128
Examples
A random sample is selected and that sample is inspected for each item relative to
the attribute in terms of yes or no decision. Calculate the sample proportion
defective, p.
p is the number of defective units divided by the sample size. Here, yes or no
means the output is defective or not. The underlying statistical distribution for such
attribute based random variables is based on binomial distribution. But, for large
sample sizes for such attribute measure, normal distribution is good approximation.
So, we need to define mean and standard deviation to this distribution.
p(1 − p)
σp =
n
Where n is the sample size.
The control limits for p-chart can be determined using following relations
UCL p = p + Zσ p
LCL p = p − Zσ p
Step 2: Count the number of defective services. Divide the number of defectives by
the sample size, n, to get a sample proportion defective p.
Step 3: Take m samples and determine p for all m samples and determine average
of p as p .
Step 4: Determine the control limits and plot sample proportion defectives on the
p-chart. The plots outside the control limits need investigation for assignable
causes.
Example:
A life insurance company registers many complaints from the customers regarding
the errors in customers profile at the time of policy issuing the company wants to
control the errors and for that samples are taken randomly for 10days with a
sample size of 30 applications. The average number of errors or proportion of error
for each day is given in the table below.
Day Number of
errors
1 5
2 3
3 7
4 10
5 2
6 3
7 6
8 4
9 3
10 4
Management wants to monitor the performance of policy using process using
control chart. Analyze the process.
Solution Using the sample data for 10 samples where each sample has sample size
of 30. We will calculate p
Totalerrors
p=
Total number of observations
5 + 3 + 7 + ........ + 4 47
= = = 0.157
(10)(30) 300
p(1 − p)
σp =
n
0.157 (1 − 0.157)
= 0.004
30
The controllimits are
UCL p = p + Zσp
= 0.157 + 3(0.004)
= 0.17
LCL p = p − Zσp
= 0.14
Calculate the sample proportion errors as given in the following table and plot each
sample proportion error on the chart.
Day Sample proportion
error
1 5/30=0.167
2 3/30=0.1
3 7/30=0.233
4 10/30=0.333
5 2/30=0.067
6 3/30=0.1
7 6/30=0.2
8 4/30=0.133
9 3/30=0.1
10 4/30=0.133
The value lower than LCL p but greater than zero will be good for the company. The
system is out of control since four values are above UCL p .