Question 1
Dittenhoefer Fine Company of China is competing on several dimensions. To begin with, the company will compete on customer service. Irrespective of how good the product is, the product may start to get bad reviews with bad customer service. If there is no improvement in the customer service, then the number of orders made may experience a sharp decline. The second quality dimension that the company can compete on is reliability. Prior to the introduction of the polymer coating machine, the company boasted of a good reliability record. However, a lot of reliability issues have been experienced over the last few years. The third dimension is perception. Perception is a critical aspect of any business venture due to the fact that it can either build or destroy a business. With a good, bad perception, the company is at risk of incurring losses even if it has a superior product.
The fourth dimension of quality competition is performance. It is the goal of every company to attain the highest performance levels possible. However, the company’s performance has dwindled since the introduction of the polymer coating machines. Customer care department too has pulled the company backward in terms of performance due to the fact that they do not handle client concerns in a timely manner.
Question 2
There is need to constantly monitor the manufacturing process to ascertain that the number of impacted customers is minimal in the event of something going amiss with the polymer coating machine. There is an instance in which the machine operated under extremely high temperature impacting a substantial number of plates. This was occasioned by the failure of one employee to turn the thermostat back to its standard temperature.
The above problems could be avoided in the near future by installing a monitoring machine that has the capability of sensing any anomalies and sending an alert signal to the concerned individuals when the temperature exceeds the optimum. Also. The company can deploy a new polymer coating machine that has the capability of collaborating with the staff in real-time if something goes amiss.
Question 3: Pareto Chart
Figure 1: Pareto Chart
PDCA is an acronym for plan, do, check and act. The cycle can be applied to resolve the above problems. The cycle is a four-step methodology used in problem-solving; one can test the various proposed solutions and settle on one solution that is considered more effective. In the planning phase, the problem at hand is investigated. In the Do phase, a number of prospective solutions are generated In the check phase, the effectiveness of the phase is evaluated. In the act phase, the chosen solution is implemented.
Question 4
Calculations for Temperature
Process Mean : 160 - 170 Degrees
Standard Deviation: 2.55 Degrees
(170-160)/6(2.55) = 0.653
According to the requirements of the engineering standards, the value should be at least 1. The calculated value of 0.653 is not sufficient enough to meet the threshold of 99.7% engineering standards.
Calculation of Thickness
Mean=3-5 Microns
Standard Deviation: 0.42 Micron
= (5-3)/6(0.42) =0.793
Question 5
Mean and Range
Figure 2: Mean and Range Chart
Mean=165.55/4.04
Range=5.58/0.88
Temperature
Figure 3: Temperature Control Chart
Thickness
Figure 4: Thickness Control Chart
