Operations Management: An Integrated Approach, 5th Edition

Solved Problems

(See student companion site for Excel template

• Problem 1

A quality control inspector at the Crunchy Potato Chip Company has taken ten samples with four observations each of the volume of bags filled. The data and the computed means are shown in the following table:

Sample of Potato Chip Bag Volume in Ounces

If the standard deviation of the bagging operation is 0.2 ounces, use the information in the table to develop control limits of 3 standard deviations for the bagging operation.

• Before You Begin:

To compute the control limits, you must first calculate the mean of the four samples and then use the UCL and LCL formulas.

• Solution

The center line of the control data is the average of the samples:

The control limits are:

Following is the associated control chart:

The problem can also be solved using a spreadsheet.

• Problem 2

Use of the sample range to estimate variability can also be applied to the Crunchy Potato Chip operation. A quality control inspector has taken ...