BGC 410 Tutorial Test 1 2023

• Answer all the questions.

• Round off your answers to four decimal places.

1. Consider Figure 1 which shows an advertisement for the then new Apple iPhone 9. 1
Based on the advertisement alone, what dimension of quality is Apple competing on?

Figure 1: Advert described in Question 1

A. Performance.
B. Reliability.
C. Durability.
D. Serviceability.
E. Aesthetics.
F. Features.
G. Perceived quality.
H. Conformance to standards.

2. Where, on Figure 2, would statistical process control (SPC) be the most appropriate 1
statistical tool used for quality control and improvement?

Figure 2: Generic production process described in Question 2

1
 Solution: During the production process (owing to the fact that SPC is an on-
line quality control and improvement tool).

3. Consider the following definition of the term “quality”: 2

“In the final analysis of the market place, the quality of a product depends on how
well it fits patterns of consumer preferences”.
From which perspective is the definition based?
A. Manufacturing-based
B. Product-based
C. Transcendent
D. User-based
E. Value-based

4. Consider a laser printer as an example of a product and match the relevant description 3
of an aspect of the printer (in Column A) with the dimension of quality (in Column
B) Table 1.

Column A Column B
(a) Availability of authorised repair centres A. Aesthetics
(b) Brand name recognition B. Conformance to standards
(c) Multiple paper trays C. Features
(d) Exterior material finish D. Performance
(e) Mean time between failures E. Perceived quality
(f) Pages printed per minute F. Reliability
G. Responsiveness
H. Serviceability

Table 1: Dimensions of quality for the laser printer described in Question 4

Solution:
(a) Serviceability
(b) Perceived quality
(c) Features
(d) Aesthetics
(e) Reliability
(f) Performance

5. Daylight Inc. is a Pretoria-based manufacturer of laundry detergents. The concen-

tration of a chemical known internally as Chemical Z is one of the critical quality
characteristics of their laundry detergent. The specifications for Chemical Z are

2
 0.65 ± 0.15 mol/dm3 . Detergents whose Chemical Z concentration is within specifi-
cations are distributed to the country’s major retailers. Daylight Inc. classifies all
laundry detergents with a Chemical Z concentration outside of the specifications as
nonconforming. Furthermore, Daylight Inc. classifies the nonconforming detergents
into two groups, namely, defective and non-defective. The non-defective detergents
are sold, at a discounted price, to secondary markets as “factory rejects”.
(a) The specifications for the concentration of Chemical Z in the detergent are stated 2
as 0.65 ± 0.15 mol/dm3 . What are the technical terms for 0.5 mol/dm3 (i.e.
0.65 − 0.15 mol/dm3 ) and 0.65 mol/dm3 , respectively?

Solution:

• 0.5 mol/dm3 = Lower specification limit.

• 0.65 mol/dm3 = Nominal (or target) value.

(b) What is a nonconforming product? 1

Solution: A product that fails to meet one or more of its specifications.

(c) Explain how Daylight Inc. is able to legally sell some of its nonconforming 2
detergents as “factory rejects”?

Solution: The nonconforming detergents sold are not necessarily unfit for
use. The quantity or severity of defects (nonconformities) in the detergents
is not serious enough to affect their safe or effective use.

6. A multi-volume encyclopedia that has been in production for over a decade has 80
000 pages on which typographical errors could occur. Suppose that there are exactly
2 such errors randomly located on those pages.
(a) Find the probability that a random selection of 50 pages will contain no errors. 4

Solution:
2 1
p= =
80000 40000
n = 50
 50 
x
50−x
∴ p(x) = 1/40000 1 − 1/40000 , x = 0, 1, 2, . . . , 50.
x
 50 
0
50−0
Pr{x = 0} = 1/40000 1 − 1/40000
0
= 0.9988

(b) What is the probability that 50 randomly selected pages will contain one or 4
fewer errors?

3
Solution:
Pr{x ≤ 1} = Pr{x = 0} + Pr{x = 1}
 50 
0
50−0  50 
1
50−1
= 1/40000 1 − 1/40000 + 1/40000 1 − 1/40000
0 1
≈1