Question

Which of the "Seven QC Tools" would be most use­ful in addressing each of the following situations? Explain your reasoning. A copy machine suffers frequent paper jams and users are often confused as to how to fix the problem. The publication team for an engineering depart­ment wants to improve the accuracy of its user documentation but is unsure of why documents are not error-free. A bank needs to determine how many teller posi­tions, drive-through stations, and ATM machines it needs for a new branch bank in a certain busy location. Its information includes the average numbers and types of customers served by other similar facilities, as well as demographic informa­tion to suggest the level of customer traffic in the new facility. A contracting agency wants to investigate why they had so many changes in their contracts. They believe that the number of changes may be related to the dollar value of the original contract or the days between the request for proposal and the contract award. A travel agency is interested in gaining a better understanding of how call volume varies by time of year in order to adjust staffing schedules.

Answer 1

1.       A copy machine suffers frequent paper jams and users are often confused as to how to fix the problem.

Answer: To analyze the issue for frequent paper jams, cause-and-effect diagram can be used because it is a simple graphical tool to represent the causes and their effects separately and establish association among various variables. It is also called as fishbone diagram, where problem is listed at the end and every branch in the stem points to the main cause contributed to each cause. This diagram helps in identifying the most likely causes of the issue, to further analysis can be done. In this case, this QC tool will help in letting know the actual cause for the paper jams.

2.       The publication team for an engineering depart­ment wants to improve the accuracy of its user documentation but is unsure of why documents are not error-free.

Answer: To understand any process, it is required to determine how the process works and how it supposed to be. Process mapping or Flowcharting are the commonly used QC tools to identify the order of tasks or information required in a process. Once the structure is ready it helps in identifying the quality problem and productivity related improvement areas.

3.       A bank needs to determine how many teller posi­tions, drive-through stations, and ATM machines it needs for a new branch bank in a certain busy location. Its information includes the average numbers and types of customers served by other similar facilities, as well as demographic informa­tion to suggest the level of customer traffic in the new facility.

Answer: In this case, Histograms can be used as a QC tool because it is a basic statistical tool that graphically represent the frequency of the event for a given group. This also offers clues for the sample and related population and helps is summarizing the interpretations.

4.       A contracting agency wants to investigate why they had so many changes in their contracts. They believe that the number of changes may be related to the dollar value of the original contract or the days between the request for proposal and the contract award.

Answer: In this case, Scatter diagrams can be used as QC tool to examine the relationship among various changes and variables. These are the graphical component used for regression analysis and showcase important association among variable. This is used to verify the outcomes of the causes and effect diagrams.

5.       A travel agency is interested in gaining a better understanding of how call volume varies by time of year in order to adjust staffing schedules.

Answer: In this case, Run charts can be used to understand the daily issue of call volume variation. It is a line graph to represent the data over time. These helps in summarizing data in a graphical form to understand the data and ease in interpretation by determining the process changes and trend for the specified time and represent the corrective actions.