Operations Management Question

Answer Operations Management Questions. Must show work. See Document attached.

B.1. Control Charts

The dietitian at Utah Hospital has warned that the meals delivered to patients contain too much sodium. For the past 10 days, she has sampled four batches of the “entrée du jour” and recorded the sodium content per serving. Assume based on historical data that the average sodium content is 500 mg/serving, and the standard deviation is 25 mg.

Day	Sodium Content (mg/serving)
	Batch 1	Batch 2	Batch 3	Batch 4
1	502	485	516	550
2	495	519	514	480
3	482	516	530	495
4	543	496	402	516
5	475	489	526	502
6	513	489	497	526
7	532	462	523	495
8	495	485	521	505
9	512	523	452	476
10	500	502	513	487

a) Is the process in control? Why or Why not?

b) Given the fact that the sodium content should be between 450 and 520 mg per serving for meal-type products, does the dietitian have a valid concern?

B.2. Process Quality in Wound Closure

A start-up called Surgi-Stik, Inc. (SSI) has developed a wound closure adhesive intended for surgeons to use as a substitute for sutures after surgery.At the point in the surgical procedure when the patient is ready for “closing”, the doctor holds the incision closed between thumb and forefinger and applies this liquid adhesive to the wound from a small uni-dose tube.The adhesive acts immediately and the incision is sealed within five seconds.

The adhesive contains an active pharmaceutical ingredient which comes into contact with the patient’s exposed tissue (skin, underlying muscle, etc.), consequently precise delivery of the adhesive is crucial. The tube is designed to deliver enough adhesive to close one average-sized incision, but must not deliver excess active ingredient to the incision.

SSI’s product has become very popular with surgeons and demand is sky-rocketing.They must begin to scale their operation and automate the tube filling and sealing operation.SSI has sought proposals from custom filling machine producers to meet both their technical and business requirements.SSI’s development team is particularly concerned about control of adhesive volume in the tube, thus their technical evaluation will entail analysis of the machines process capability for precise volume filling.

SSI and their surgeon advisers have determined that each tube must be filled with between 33.5 and 38.5 grams of the adhesive.An over-filled tube would deliver more active ingredient than the patient can tolerate and side effects may occur.An under-filled tube would deliver inadequate adhesive to properly close the incision, requiring the surgeon to intervene with sutures – a costly and time consuming alternative.

Two filling machine suppliers, Fill-N-Seal Corporation and Acme Filling Inc. are competitively bidding to supply the automated filling machines to SSI.As a final test SSI has asked for 50 filled tube samples from the two suppliers, each filled using the machine design the companies are proposing.SSI has evaluated each filled tube by precisely weighing the contents; the results of the test are presented in the two tables in Figure 1.The shaded table contains the results from Fill-N-Seal and the un-shaded table contains the results from Acme Filling.Both sets of data are normally distributed about the mean.

FIGURE 1Fill ‘N Seal Results (in grams)Acme Filling Results (in grams)

1.Judging only by these data sets, are the two companies offering machines with capable filling processes?Which supplier should SSI prefer and why?Substantiate your answer using both mathematical analysis and a graphical representation.

2.If the SSI team decides to work only with a machine supplier capable of meeting the specifications with Six Sigma quality levels, what values for standard deviation would be required, assuming a centered process?

3.Which vendor do you think would be more able to modify their machine process to meet the new requirements of Six Sigma Quality?Please explain your answer.

B.3. Costs of Quality

Please indicate whether the examples below represent a cost of quality, and if affirmative, which cost of quality is represented (Prevention, Appraisal, Internal Failure or External Failure). Explain in detail your rationale for the choice and provide ONE example of cost or financial benefit.

1) Marin Mountain Bikes is creating a new hotline to handle a recall of the Marin 2014 model MBX 50 and Tiny Trail boys and girls bicycles due to fall hazard – Handlebars Can Loosen.	COQ?________________________ Explain: Cost/financial benefit:
2) GE Lighting has announced a major LED retrofit project that is underway in Malaysia and that will ultimately include more than 1700 7-Eleven convenience stores managed by local operator 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Berhad. GE said that the $2 million lighting project will deliver a projected $2.4 million in annual energy savings.	COQ?________________________ Explain: Cost/financial benefit:
3) FSX is a leading wholesale distributor. FSX offers salvage buyers an opportunity to purchase distressed cargo directly from the firm at a discount price. They sell merchandise that may be damaged in transit such as rolled paper.	COQ?________________________ Explain: Cost/financial benefit:
4) At Global Electronics Services we check incoming materials for box damaged, type of package, humidity indicator card pass H2O test, documents match and country origin match components.	COQ?________________________ Explain: Cost/financial benefit: