BUS 2211: Operations Management

Chapter 10. Solution to Exercise

Question 1.
Answer:

1. The centerlines of the mean and range charts are computed as

P
= x 5:03 + 4:97 + + 5:04
x = = = 5:020 centimeters,
The number of samples 16
P
R 0:18 + 0:27 + + 0:30
R = = = 0:191 centimeters.
The number of samples 16

Because the sample size n = 10, we can …nd that A2 = 0:308, D3 = 0:223, and D4 = 1:777. The
upper and lower control limits are computed as follows:

Chart UCL LCL

= =
Mean x + A2 R = 5:079 x A2 R = 4:961
Range D4 R = 0:339 D3 R = 0:043

The above values are in centimeters.

2. The mean and range charts are plotted in Figure 1 and Figure 2, respectively. From the above two

Figure 1: Mean Chart for Problem 1

charts, we can …nd that Sample #10 falls outside the three-standard deviation zone in the mean
chart; thus, the process is out of control. The trial control limits are not reliable and cannot be
used for Phase 2 monitoring directly. We shall investigate Sample #10 for assignable causes.
BUS 2211: Operations Management

Figure 2: Range Chart for Problem 1

Question 2.
Answer:

1. Use the c-chart, since we investigate the number of customer complaints per week,which is attribute
data, and there is no sample size.

2. The centerline, the lower control limit (LCL), and the upper control limit (UCL) of the chart are
found as

18 + 11 + 18 + +9
c = = 16:600 complaints,
p 15 p
LCL = c 3 c = 16:600 3 16:600 = 4:377 complaints,
p p
U CL = c + 3 c = 16:600 + 3 16:600 = 28:823 complaints.

Since Sample #5 is above the upper control limit, the process is not in control. The trial control
limits are not reliable and cannot be directly applied for Phase 2 monitoring. We should investigate
Sample #5 for possible assignable causes.

Question 3.
Answer:
Let U SL denote the upper speci…cation limit, LSL the lower speci…cation limit, the process mean,
and the process standard deviation. From the question, we have

U SL = 205 grams, LSL = 195 grams; = 198:5 grams, = 0:9 gram.

2
BUS 2211: Operations Management

Since the process is not centered, we compute

8
> LSL 198:5 195
< = = 1:30
Cpk = min 3 3 0:9 = 1:30 < 1:33,
> U SL 205 198:5
: = = 2:41
3 3 0:9

which implies that the process is not capable.