mgt415a4

Note: The following problem is fictitious but employs names of, and news from, real organizations. The idea is to increase the reality of the situation, and to improve your awareness of various industries and organizations.

You are a quality engineer at Shaw Industries Group hardwood floors operations. The company president has been questioning the capabilities of the division's operations because of recent complaints from a new customer, KB Homes (KBH), related to poor fitting 2 1/4 inch oak plank floors being installed in some of KBH subdivision construction sites outside of New Orleans, LA.

The specifications for the width of these oak planks are 2.2500 inches ± .0025 inches.

The production managers has asked your boss, the quality director, to look into potential quality concerns. Your boss has come to you, since you've recently initiated a control charting program of plank widths on the oak plank line. Thus far, you've acquired 10 days of 2 1/4 inch oak plank width data (see spreadsheet). The plant operates two shifts per day. Five planks are randomly drawn from finished production each shift, and the width is measured to the nearest .001 inch. Name of the technician who did the measurement is also recorded.

Develop a control chart for the data. Do any out-of-control situations exist?
If out-of-control situations exist, does any of the available information suggest the source(s) of the special causes? What should be done to eliminate the special causes?
Compare the process performance to the specification limits. Is the process capable of meeting product specifications? If not, what activities might be pursued to improve process capability? (Consider, perhaps a fishbone diagram of possible causes of process variation, and suggest ways to eliminate the causes).
Is Shaw hearing complaints from other customers? What might cause only one customer to complain? How would you investigate this further?

Report your analysis and findings to your boss in a memo. When making control charts, be sure to keep in mind tips for making effective graphs.

NOTE: You should find this page of QC formulas and factors handy.