Project #2

MATH 153 / BUS 240

Business Topic: Quality Control
A quality control supervisor is looking at production machines used to fabricate steel pins for a particular
product assembly. The desired specifications for acceptable pins is for a diameter of 3.52 mm, with
acceptable pins being within +/- 0.1 mm. The machine must be realigned to the target diameter if it
appears that the population mean for all rods produced by that machine is different than 3.52 mm at
95% confidence/5% significance. A machine must be recalibrated for consistency if it appears that the
population percentage (proportion) of unacceptable rods is above 10%, again at 95% confidence/5%
significance.

The accompanying Fathom file contains rod diameter measurements in mm for random samples of rods
taken from three different production machines on a given day.

The goal of this project is for you to apply statistical inference procedures (confidence intervals and
significance tests) to determine which if any of the machines need to be serviced, and how.

1. Produce appropriate graphs to display the sample distributions, and briefly comment on what
they reveal or don’t reveal.

2. Conduct appropriate inference procedure(s) for each machine to determine if the population
mean rod diameter for rods produced by that machine appears to be 3.52 mm, using 95%
confidence/5% significance. Make sure you complete all of the steps for the procedure,
including a check of the technical conditions. Fathom or other technology should be used, rather
than by-hand calculations. Make sure to state your conclusions in context, indicating whether or
not each machine should be serviced to realign the target diameter.

3. Conduct appropriate inference procedure(s) for each machine to determine if the population
proportion of unacceptable rods produced by that machine appears to be more than 0.10, using
95% confidence/5% significance. Make sure you complete all of the steps for the procedure,
including a check of the technical conditions. Fathom or other technology should be used, rather
than by-hand calculations. Make sure to state your conclusions in context, indicating whether or
not each machine should be serviced to recalibrate for consistency.

While looking at a graph, you can right-click on the center of a graph and choose “Plot
Value” to graph a vertical line at each of the cutoffs for acceptable rods, 3.42 and 3.62,
in order to see which rods fall outside the acceptable range. Also, items are dynamically
linked in Fathom, so if you click on a point on the graph, or select a group of points by
click-holding and drawing a box around them, the point(s) are highlighted on any
comparative graphs and their row(s) in the table are highlighted as well.

The video here shows how this can be done. http://screencast.com/t/Fvtct098

4. An employee claims that random samples were not in fact taken from both Machine 2 and
Machine 3, but rather both samples were taken from the same machine. Perform significance
 tests to compare the population mean rod diameters, and population proportions of
unacceptable rods using the samples “supposedly” from Machine 2 and Machine 3. Using
support from the results of these procedures, do you think that the employee is telling the
truth?

Your submission should be typed in a word processor, and saved as .doc, .docx, or .pdf format. The
graphs and Fathom Summary calculation boxes must be included. Make sure all calculations are
interpreted in context, and that you explain what they mean in answering the questions.

Project #2Grading Rubric

Grade Component Description Grade Weight
Student shows an understanding of data analysis by
providing all useful graphs for analyzing the data. Graphs
Comparative Graphs #1 are made with technology (Fathom) and are adjusted as
necessary so that they do a good job of displaying the
10%
distributions.
Student performs all steps in the inference procedure(s):
see “Wrap-Up” for Topic 17 p.368-369, and “Step 6” on
All Steps Shown for page 359 that was missed in the “Wrap-Up”, and see the
Inference Procedures
for #2
six steps again for means on page 425. Fathom or other
technology should be used to calculate confidence
30%
intervals, and for the test stats & p-values of significance
tests.
Student performs all steps in the inference procedure(s):
see “Wrap-Up” for Topic 17 p.368-369, and “Step 6” on
All Steps Shown for page 359 that was missed in the “Wrap-Up”, and see the
Inference Procedures
for #3
six steps again for means on page 425. Fathom or other
technology should be used to calculate confidence
30%
intervals, and for the test stats & p-values of significance
tests.

Student writes a well-written statement of the conclusions

for the inference procedure(s) for each machine.
Business Decisions Conclusions are supported with appropriate calculations
(conclusions) in Context from the inference procedures. Conclusions are not 20%
generic, but rather specifically state what should be done
with each machine.

All Steps Shown for Student performs all steps in the inference procedures.
Inference Procedures
for #4
Conclusion about the employee’s honesty reasonably
follows from the results of the significance tests.
10%
Student performs both types of inference procedures
(interval & test) in each situation for each machine,
Connections showing strong knowledge of how these procedures are up to 10%
“duals” of each other, and how their different perspectives extra credit
show the same conclusion.