Q&A Hero

Q: Lean projects are usually simpler than six sigma projects.

Q: "A production process delivers large amount of scrap products. Top management has discovered that improper machine maintenance is the reason behind this failure." The above statement is an example of a special cause of variation.

Q: The quality tool that shows the relationship between two variables is a histogram.

Q: There are two indicators of a process shiftpoints outside the control limits and an upward or downward trend in the process average.

Q: A machining process is capable of producing a component with an average specification of 5 inches and a process standard deviation of 0.1 inch. Suppose the customer accepts the component as long as it falls between 4.8 inches and 5.2 inches, then the process capability is: A. 1.333 B. 1.5 C. 0.667 D. 1.0

Q: A process for filling liquid laundry detergent bottles monitors the volume in each bottle. The Operations Manager has taken 5 samples with 4 observations (bottles) in each sample to determine if the variation in volume is reasonable. The measurement unit is fluid ounces. Calculate the center line for a process control chart that indicates whether the variation within samples is reasonable (in a state of control).

Q: If failure costs were very high, a company would still use inspection.

Q: The Chair of the Quality Department at Motorola University wants to construct a p-chart for determining whether the four faculty members teaching the course are in a state of control concerning the number of students who fail in the course. Accordingly, the Chair sampled 500 final grades from last year for each instructor, and computed the number of failures per instructor as 13, 11, 0, and 16 respectively. Compute the upper and lower standard control limits for this chart. A. 0.9500 and 0.0500 B. 0.0600 and 0.1400 C. 0.0388 and 0.0012 D. None of the above

Q: Lean is another term for Six Sigma process improvement.

Q: Which of the following statements is NOT true about six sigma quality? A. Six sigma results in 3.4 ppm defects B. Six sigma corresponds to 3 standard deviations on either side of the mean C. Six sigma can be applied to administrative and service processes as well D. Motorola invented the term "six sigma quality" in the mid-80s

Q: Six Sigma projects are typically managed by workers certified as black belts.

Q: Six Sigma efforts are aimed at eliminating waste.

Q: The ability of the process to meet, or exceed, its specifications can be determined by: A. Pareto charts B. Cause-and-effect diagrams C. Histograms D. Cp index

Q: In process capability analysis, the standard deviation (s) refers to the standard deviation of sample measures.

Q: Which of the following techniques are used for continuous improvement? A. Pareto charts B. Cause-and-effect diagrams C. Process control charts D. All of the above

Q: The seven tools of quality control are equally applicable to both manufacturing and service industries.

Q: For which of the following would a p-chart be used? A. Monitor dispersion in sample data B. Measure the number of defects per unit C. Measure the central tendency D. Measure the fraction defective

Q: The Cp measure requires the process to be centered for an accurate measure of process capability.

Q: Which of the following quality control sample statistics indicates a quality characteristic that is an attribute? A. Mean B. Proportion C. Variance D. Standard deviation

Q: The central tendency (mean) of the process is the only information needed to determine if the process is in a state of control.

Q: Which of the following is/are assumption(s) of process control? A. Random variability cannot be eliminated unless the process is redesigned. B. Common causes represent random variability. C. Production processes are not usually found in a state of control. D. All of the above

Q: Attribute control occurs when the product characteristic is measured on a continuous scale.

Q: The appearance of a restaurant meal that is not satisfactory is an example of: A. Variable measurement B. Mean chart C. Range chart D. Attribute measurement E. None of the above

Q: Describe the relationship between control costs, failure costs, and overall levels of quality.

Q: One of the earliest steps in designing a quality control system is to decide on: A. The amount of inspection to use B. Who should do the inspection C. The type of measurement to be used D. Training workers to perform inspection on their own work

Q: Using the same data as in question 10, what is the lower control limit for a p-chart? A. .0750 B. .0191 C. .0000 D. .0692

Q: Describe the concept of rolled yield and how it is related to managing quality in a supply chain. Rolled yield accounts for the cumulative defect rate received by the final customer in a product or services that is made up of multiple parts or components. The yield is the multiplied product of the yield rate of each part or component. The yield (good quality; non-defects) for most parts/components should be 99% or more. But as parts with yield of 99% are assembled into large products and services, and the yields are multiplied to determine the yield of the final product/service, the final product/service can have a rapidly falling yield rate.

Q: The definition of quality management has evolved from "quality by inspection" toward "delivering competitive advantage to the firm." Briefly discuss the various definitions of quality management described in this chapter. In the 1900s, quality management primarily meant inspecting the quality of a manufactured product. Inspection was the fundamental method of monitoring quality during these years.

Q: Suppose that you have taken 30 samples of 200 units each and calculated the proportion defective as p = .075. What is the upper control limit for a p-chart? A. .2192 B. .0191 C. .1309 D. .7500

Q: Using the information from question 8, what is the upper control limit for the range chart? A. 57.7 lbs B. 211.5 lbs C. 317.25 lbs D. 86.55 lbs

Q: If a company uses three parts in a product, each with a yield of 50%, the overall rolled-yield will equal 50%.

Q: Scrap and rework are examples of internal failure costs.

Q: Suppose that a process is in a state of control and we have the following information for a human weights measurement study. Average weight of males in the study = 150 lbs. Average range of the male weights = 100 lbs. A2 = .577 D3 = 0 D4 = 2.115 What is the upper control limit for the average (mean) chart? A. 207.7 lbs B. 92.3 lbs C. 361.5 lbs D. 175 lbs

Q: Availability refers to the length of time a product can be used before it fails.

Q: Which of the following statements about process capability is accurate? A. Cpk is a better measure of process capability than Cp. B. Cp is exactly equal to Cpk when the mean is centered in the specification limits. C. Given the same process, Cpk is always less than or equal to Cp. D. All of the above are accurate.

Q: The Japanese term for mistake-proofing is "poka-yoke."

Q: A cause-and-effect diagram: A. Identifies common causes of quality defects B. Is often used in conjunction with a Pareto chart C. Is also called a fishbone diagram D. All of the above are true

Q: The total cost of quality in an organization is the sum of control costs and failure costs.

Q: A Pareto chart: A. Shows causes and effects of quality problems B. Shows the prevalence of the various types of defects that have been found C. Is not useful when first studying a quality problem D. Has both upper and lower specification limits

Q: A process control chart:A. Assumes that 99.74% of special cause variation will fall between upper and lower limitsB. Has upper and lower control limits set at 2 standard deviations from the center lineC. Separates the assignable cause of variation from the common cause of variationD. Assigns causes of variation to operator, machine, or material

Q: The Baldrige Award is only given in the U.S.

Q: Which of the following statements about process quality control is NOT true? A. Assignable cause variation is also referred as special cause variation B. An observation outside the control limits is an example of a special cause of variation C. Common cause variation can be eliminated from the process by removing the potential causes D. The control limits will include 99.74% of the population under the normal probability distribution assuming that the process is in control

Q: ISO 9000 standards guarantee that a product or service has no defects

Q: SERVQUAL is widely used in practice to measure manufacturing operations such as production and assembling processes.

Q: It is important to determine the quality of design even before producing the product.

Q: ________ is a combination of reliability and maintainability. A. Field service B. Availability C. Quality of conformance D. Mean time to repair

Q: Which of the following is NOT true about the cost of quality? A. Cost of quality is actually the cost of poor quality B. Increasing prevention cost increases appraisal, internal and external failure costs C. Training cost is an example of prevention cost D. Warranty is an example of external failure cost

Q: The Baldrige Award is given in which of the following categories? A. Manufacturing companies B. Small businesses C. Healthcare organizations D. All of the above

Q: The Baldrige Award criteria emphasize all of the following EXCEPT: A. Strategic planning B. Process management C. Customer focus D. Zero defects

Q: If an organization were having difficulty trying to get customers' opinions into the definition of quality, which of the following approaches would be most suitable? A. TQM B. ISO 9000 certification C. Quality Function Deployment D. Six-Sigma

Q: Which of the following is NOT part of the quality trilogy that Juran advocates? A. Planning B. Operations C. Control D. Improvement

Q: The reasons for failure of quality improvement efforts include: A. Managers continue to focus on short-term financial results B. Managers instinctively blame employees when there is a quality failure C. Managers interfere with true teamwork D. a and b E. a, b, and c

Q: Costs of inspectors, testing, testing equipment, and labs are examples of: A. Prevention costs B. Appraisal costs C. Internal failure costs D. External failure costs

Q: Which of the following is NOT part of Deming's 14 points? A. Cease dependence on mass inspection B. Create constancy of purpose C. End the practice of awarding business on the basis of price tag alone D. Exhort the workers to improve the quality system

Q: Which of the following is the most important criterion (highest number of points) of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award? A. Process management B. Results C. Customer focus D. Leadership

Q: A production center is available for 8 hours per day in a factory. It is comprised of several rotary parts, and the worker operating it is required to lubricate these rotary parts once each day. It takes 2 hours to remove these parts from the equipment, lubricate them, and re-assemble them. The production center is not available for production during these times. The availability of the production center is: A. 50% B. 75% C. 25% D. Cannot be computed with the given information

Q: Which of the quality gurus advocated organizations driving out employee fear? A. Deming B. Juran C. Crosby D. Ishikawa E. Taguchi

Q: The quality cycle: A. Begins with defining customer needs B. Is stated as tolerances or minimum and maximum acceptable limits C. Is used for services, not products D. Produces control points and inspection techniques

Q: Which of the following is incorrect about the philosophies advocated by Joseph Juran?

Q: A product's conformance to specifications: A. Is in response to customers' needs B. Determines sales price to the customer C. Is defined as continuity of service to the customer D. Is independent of the quality of design

Q: Quality of design: A. Is one of the four decision areas of engineering B. Is determined before production by a cross-functional product design team C. Means a product has high reliability, maintainability, and availability D. Is the prime responsibility of production

Q: Poka-yoke is: A. Designing products for multiple uses B. A workforce that is likely to make mistakes C. A service designed for the customer D. Designing a process so that it can only be performed correctly

Q: The number of defects in a product measures: A. Reliability of the process B. Conformance quality of the process C. Repeatability of the process D. Performance quality of the process

Q: The six-step quality cycle approach includes all of the following EXCEPT: A. Set quality standards B. Define quality attributes on the basis of customer needs C. Find and correct causes of poor quality D. Reward employees for quality improvement

Q: SERVQUAL measures which dimension of service quality A. Reliability, Tangibles, Assurance, Empathy, and Conformance Quality B. Performance Quality, Tangibles, Responsiveness, Reliability, and Assurance C. Responsiveness, Tangibles, Empathy, Assurance, and Reliability D. Reliability, Tangibles, Responsiveness, Empathy, and Conformance Quality

Q: Preventive maintenance is another term for stabilizing the master schedule.

Q: Mean time between failure: A. Is used to measure a product's reliability B. Is used to measure a product's maintainability C. Is used to measure a product's maintainability and availability D. Is a measure of up time/(up time + down time)

Q: One of the keys to reducing inventory is reducing lead-time.

Q: Define the English terms in the 5S technique. How is this applied in practice?

Q: How is the 5 Whys technique used in a lean system?

Q: With lean thinking, a firms operations layout should evolve to a cellular manufacturing layout.

Q: One-touch setups could require as long as 9 minutes to perform.

Q: Explain the concept of value stream mapping.

Q: Kaizen events typically take between 1 to 2 months.

Q: What are the seven forms of waste associated with a lean system?

Q: What are the five tenets of lean thinking? In your own words, provide a road map for implementing lean thinking in a manufacturing or service operations.

Q: A kanban system cannot be used in service industries.

Q: The Japanese term for waste is "gemba."

Q: Lean is an example of a pull system while lean thinking is an example of a push system.

Q: "Gemba" refers to data collection using the company's information system.