MANAGEMENT SCIENCE 1

CASE 3 - Coca-Cola Goes Small in Russia

1. Because of the variability of bottling machinery, it is likely that every 200-milliliter bottle of
Coca-Cola does not contain exactly 200 milliliters of fluid. Some bottles may contain more
fluid and others less. Because 200-milliliter bottles are somewhat unusual; a production
engineer wants to test some of the bottles from the first production runs to determine how
close they are to the 200-milliliter specification. Suppose the following data are the fill
measurements from a random sample of 50 bottles. Use the techniques presented in this
chapter to describe the sample. Consider measures of central tendency, variability, and
skewness. Based on this analysis, how is the bottling process working?

Measures of Central Tendency

MEAN 200.12
MEDIAN 200.15
MODE 200.20

Measures of Variability

RANGE 1.9
STANDARD DEVIATION 0.41
VARIANCE 0.171876

Based on the results of measures of tendency and variability, it can be seen that the bottling
process is still efficient. In 50 bottles, the content mostly reaches the standard measure of liquid
content. However, it can be noted that there is only low standard deviation.

2. Suppose that at another plant Coca-Cola is filling bottles with the more traditional 20
ounces of fluid. A lab randomly samples 150 bottles and tests the bottles for fill volume.
The descriptive statistics are given in both Minitab and Excel computer output. Write a
brief report to supervisors summarizing what this output is saying about the process.

Based on the descriptive statistics, the median is lower than the mean that determines the
skewness of the normal curve to the left, thus, we figure out that there are some bottles
that are not fully filled because there is still a 5% margin of error towards refilling it.