In: Statistics and Probability
22) The company uses its excess chips and sawdust as furnish for the manufacture of particleboard. The particleboard plant has a variable forming machine that discharges furnish in amounts that are normally distributed with a mean, μ kg, and a standard deviation of 2.57 kg. If the company wishes to use the forming machine to fill a forming belt that holds a maximum of 200 kg of furnish at once and only wants to overfill the forming belt 1% of the time, at what value of μ should the company set its forming machine?
Let X kg be the amount furnish discharged on any given fill. X has a normal distribution with a mean μ kg, and a standard deviation of
We want the forming machine to fill a forming belt that holds a maximum of 200 kg of furnish at once and only wants to overfill the forming belt 1% of the time. This is same as, we want the the probability that the forming machine fills more than 200 kg to be 0.01
The z values corresponding to 0.01 is
Using the standard normal tables, we get for z=2.33, P(Z<2.33)=0.99
Hence
We need
We can equate the z score of 200 to 2.33 and get
ans: The value of μ the company should set its forming machine at is 194.01 kg (rounded to 2 decimals)