In: Operations Management
Elon Corporation manufactures parts for an aircraft company. It uses a computerized numerical controlled (CNC) machining center to produce a specific part that has a design target of 2.317 inches with tolerances of + 0.032 inch. The CNC process that manufactures these parts has a mean of 1.527 inches and a standard deviation of 0.095 inch. Compute the process capability ratio and process capability index, AND comment on the overall capability of the process to meet the design specifications.
The design target of 2.317 with tolerance of 0.032 and process mean of 1.527 doesn't make any sense (because if it is so, then it is quite obvious that the process mean being far lower than the design target, process is incapable of producing to specification)
Considering 2.317 is a typing mistake and the design target is 1.317 (instead of 2.317) and that tolerance is +/- 0.032
USL = 1.317 + 0.032 = 2.349 inch
LSL = 1.317 - 0.032 = 1.285
Process Mean, m = 1.527
Process Std deviation, s = 0.095
Process capability ratio, Cp = (USL - LSL)/6s = (1.347 - 1.285)/(6*0.095) = 0.1088
Process capability index, Cpk = MIN( (USL - m)/3s, (m - LSL)/3s )
= MIN( (1.349-1.527)/(3*0.095), (1.527-1.285)/(3*0.095) )
= -0.6246
Cp is very low, which means that process is clearly incapable of producing to specification.
Cpk is negative, which means process mean is not even within the specification limits. It's an off-center process as well.
The process is incapable as well as off-center.