Solutions Manual
Fundamentals of Quality Control and Improvement 3rd Edition
By
Amitava Mitra
( All Chapters Included - 100% Verified Solutions )
, 1-18 a) Call center that sells computers - possible definitions of quality that involve
different variables/attributes could be as follows:
i) Time to process customer order for computers - Time measured in hours.
ii) Total turn over time (starting with customer placement of order to customer
receipt of computer) - Time measured in hours.
iii) Proportion of delivered orders that do not match customer requirements exactly.
iv) Proportion of orders that are fulfilled later than promised date.
Integration of the various measures to one measure is not easily attainable.
Individual measures, as proposed, should not be difficult to measure.
b) Emergency services for a city or municipality:
i) Time to respond to an emergency - Time measured in minutes.
ii) Time to process an emergency call - Measured in minutes and seconds.
Proposed measures readily obtainable.
c) Company making semiconductor chips:
i) Total manufacturing costs/10,000 chips.
ii) Parts per million of defective chips.
iii) Equipment and overhead costs/10,000 chips.
Measure iii) can be integrated into measure i). Measure ii) will influence
manufacturing costs per conforming product. All of the measures should be easily
obtainable.
d) A hospital: Variety of measures exist based on patient satisfaction, effectiveness
of services, efficiency of operations, rate of return to investors, and
employee/staff/nurse/physician satisfaction.
i) Proportion of in-patients satisfied with services.
ii) Length of stay of patients, by specified diagnosis related groups - Measured in
days.
iii) Turn around time for laboratory tests, by type of test - Measured in
hours/minutes.
iv) Annual or quarterly rate or return.
Most of the measures can be readily obtained. It may be difficult to integrate all
such measures. However, some of these measures, such as annual rate of return, may
serve as an integrated measure.
e) Deliver mail/packages on a rapid basis:
1-18
1
,i) Total turn around time (from taking order to delivery) for packages - Measured in
hours.
ii) Processing time of orders - Measured in minutes.
iii) Proportion of packages not delivered within promised time.
iv) Proportion of packages delivered to wrong address/person.
All of these measures should be easily obtainable. Measure ii) obviously is part
of measure i). Measure i) may also influence measure iii). Measures iii) and iv) may
involve causal analysis to identify reasons for errors or long delivery times. Measures i)
and ii) could be analyzed for improving efficiency of the process.
f) A department store - Several forms of measures exist based on customer
satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and rate of return to investors.
i) Proportion of customers satisfied with the store services.
ii) Time taken to service individual customers - Measured in minutes.
iii) Waiting time of customers before being serviced - Measured in minutes.
iv) Proportion of staff turnover.
v) Annual or quarterly rate of return to investors.
Majority of the proposed measures can be obtained with reasonable ease. Some
serve as an integrated measure, for example, annual rate of return to investors.
g) A bank - Several forms of measure exist based on customer satisfaction,
employee satisfaction, or rate of return to investors.
i) Proportion of customers satisfied with the bank services.
ii) Total time taken to serve the bank customer - Measured in minutes.
iii) Waiting time of customers before being serviced - Measured in minutes.
iv) Proportion of staff turnover.
v) Annual rate of return to investors.
Majority of the measures can be obtained with reasonable ease. Some of these
serve as an integrated measure, for example, annual rate of return to investors.
h) A hydro-electric power plant - Several operational, effectiveness, and financial
measures exist:
i) Cost per kilowatt-hour of electricity produced - Measured in dollars and cents.
ii) Total kilowatt-hours produced monthly - Influenced by demand.
iii) Proportion of total customer demand met by particular plant.
iv) Annual rate of return to investors.
Most of these measures can be obtained with reasonable ease. Some of these
serve as an integrated measure, for example, annual rate of return to investors.
3
2
, 1-18 Quality of design - Ensure total service time to the customer or alternatively waiting
time to the customer is minimized. Ensure a variety of services demanded by customers
are provided. For example, such may include guidelines on investment, home mortgage
loans, home improvement loans, automobile loans, financial management services for the
elderly, availability of several locations that are of proximity to customers, etc. Quality
of conformance should address the means to achieve the variety of features that are
discussed in the design stage. Quality of performance will finally address and
measure how the bank does in meeting the desired goals when it is operational. Some
measures in this performance phase could be:
i) Percentage of customers satisfied with all services.
ii) Percentage of customers satisfied with financial management services.
iii) Dollar volume of loans processed per month.
iv) Time to respond to customer inquiry - Measured in minutes.
Basic needs in this context could consist of the following: Offer a variety of
checking/savings accounts, safe deposit boxes, several ATM locations in convenient
places easily accessible to customers. Performance needs could be measured by time to
respond to customer inquiry, waiting time of customers, time to process loan application,
etc. Excitement needs could consist of special services for customers over the age of 50
years, investment planning assistance, attractive savings/investment promotions that
become the benchmark in the industry, remote service locations in buildings with major
employers/entertainment/shopping, cash advance with no interest for very short term
periods, such as a week, etc.
3.
1-18 The travel agency should consider improving on the various performance needs, relative
to the existing competitors, and possibly providing some of the excitement needs.
Obviously, basic needs are assumed to be provided by the travel agency. Some
performance needs could be measured by the following: Turn around time per customer,
i.e., the total time to provide the customer with the requested service; cost of providing
the service; time to respond to a telephone call from a customer; accuracy in fulfilling
customer requirements. Some excitement needs could be measured by the following:
Meeting with the customer in a convenient location (i.e., place of employment or home);
delivery of travel documents to home personally; updating customer with additional
promotional/savings features on travel packages even after packet has been delivered, etc.
Impact on the various costs will be as follows: For basic and performance needs,
process costs will likely increase. To improve response time, more agents or more
convenient locations might be necessary. To reduce external failure costs, which is
equivalent to improving customer satisfaction with the provided services, either
additional services will have to be provided through an increase in process investment
costs (personnel, facilities, etc.) or the efficiency of services will have to be improved.
This will also necessitate added process costs. Internal failure costs (detecting inaccurate
travel documents before delivery to customers) can be reduced through additional
training of existing staff, so that fewer errors are made or through automated error
1-18
3
Fundamentals of Quality Control and Improvement 3rd Edition
By
Amitava Mitra
( All Chapters Included - 100% Verified Solutions )
, 1-18 a) Call center that sells computers - possible definitions of quality that involve
different variables/attributes could be as follows:
i) Time to process customer order for computers - Time measured in hours.
ii) Total turn over time (starting with customer placement of order to customer
receipt of computer) - Time measured in hours.
iii) Proportion of delivered orders that do not match customer requirements exactly.
iv) Proportion of orders that are fulfilled later than promised date.
Integration of the various measures to one measure is not easily attainable.
Individual measures, as proposed, should not be difficult to measure.
b) Emergency services for a city or municipality:
i) Time to respond to an emergency - Time measured in minutes.
ii) Time to process an emergency call - Measured in minutes and seconds.
Proposed measures readily obtainable.
c) Company making semiconductor chips:
i) Total manufacturing costs/10,000 chips.
ii) Parts per million of defective chips.
iii) Equipment and overhead costs/10,000 chips.
Measure iii) can be integrated into measure i). Measure ii) will influence
manufacturing costs per conforming product. All of the measures should be easily
obtainable.
d) A hospital: Variety of measures exist based on patient satisfaction, effectiveness
of services, efficiency of operations, rate of return to investors, and
employee/staff/nurse/physician satisfaction.
i) Proportion of in-patients satisfied with services.
ii) Length of stay of patients, by specified diagnosis related groups - Measured in
days.
iii) Turn around time for laboratory tests, by type of test - Measured in
hours/minutes.
iv) Annual or quarterly rate or return.
Most of the measures can be readily obtained. It may be difficult to integrate all
such measures. However, some of these measures, such as annual rate of return, may
serve as an integrated measure.
e) Deliver mail/packages on a rapid basis:
1-18
1
,i) Total turn around time (from taking order to delivery) for packages - Measured in
hours.
ii) Processing time of orders - Measured in minutes.
iii) Proportion of packages not delivered within promised time.
iv) Proportion of packages delivered to wrong address/person.
All of these measures should be easily obtainable. Measure ii) obviously is part
of measure i). Measure i) may also influence measure iii). Measures iii) and iv) may
involve causal analysis to identify reasons for errors or long delivery times. Measures i)
and ii) could be analyzed for improving efficiency of the process.
f) A department store - Several forms of measures exist based on customer
satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and rate of return to investors.
i) Proportion of customers satisfied with the store services.
ii) Time taken to service individual customers - Measured in minutes.
iii) Waiting time of customers before being serviced - Measured in minutes.
iv) Proportion of staff turnover.
v) Annual or quarterly rate of return to investors.
Majority of the proposed measures can be obtained with reasonable ease. Some
serve as an integrated measure, for example, annual rate of return to investors.
g) A bank - Several forms of measure exist based on customer satisfaction,
employee satisfaction, or rate of return to investors.
i) Proportion of customers satisfied with the bank services.
ii) Total time taken to serve the bank customer - Measured in minutes.
iii) Waiting time of customers before being serviced - Measured in minutes.
iv) Proportion of staff turnover.
v) Annual rate of return to investors.
Majority of the measures can be obtained with reasonable ease. Some of these
serve as an integrated measure, for example, annual rate of return to investors.
h) A hydro-electric power plant - Several operational, effectiveness, and financial
measures exist:
i) Cost per kilowatt-hour of electricity produced - Measured in dollars and cents.
ii) Total kilowatt-hours produced monthly - Influenced by demand.
iii) Proportion of total customer demand met by particular plant.
iv) Annual rate of return to investors.
Most of these measures can be obtained with reasonable ease. Some of these
serve as an integrated measure, for example, annual rate of return to investors.
3
2
, 1-18 Quality of design - Ensure total service time to the customer or alternatively waiting
time to the customer is minimized. Ensure a variety of services demanded by customers
are provided. For example, such may include guidelines on investment, home mortgage
loans, home improvement loans, automobile loans, financial management services for the
elderly, availability of several locations that are of proximity to customers, etc. Quality
of conformance should address the means to achieve the variety of features that are
discussed in the design stage. Quality of performance will finally address and
measure how the bank does in meeting the desired goals when it is operational. Some
measures in this performance phase could be:
i) Percentage of customers satisfied with all services.
ii) Percentage of customers satisfied with financial management services.
iii) Dollar volume of loans processed per month.
iv) Time to respond to customer inquiry - Measured in minutes.
Basic needs in this context could consist of the following: Offer a variety of
checking/savings accounts, safe deposit boxes, several ATM locations in convenient
places easily accessible to customers. Performance needs could be measured by time to
respond to customer inquiry, waiting time of customers, time to process loan application,
etc. Excitement needs could consist of special services for customers over the age of 50
years, investment planning assistance, attractive savings/investment promotions that
become the benchmark in the industry, remote service locations in buildings with major
employers/entertainment/shopping, cash advance with no interest for very short term
periods, such as a week, etc.
3.
1-18 The travel agency should consider improving on the various performance needs, relative
to the existing competitors, and possibly providing some of the excitement needs.
Obviously, basic needs are assumed to be provided by the travel agency. Some
performance needs could be measured by the following: Turn around time per customer,
i.e., the total time to provide the customer with the requested service; cost of providing
the service; time to respond to a telephone call from a customer; accuracy in fulfilling
customer requirements. Some excitement needs could be measured by the following:
Meeting with the customer in a convenient location (i.e., place of employment or home);
delivery of travel documents to home personally; updating customer with additional
promotional/savings features on travel packages even after packet has been delivered, etc.
Impact on the various costs will be as follows: For basic and performance needs,
process costs will likely increase. To improve response time, more agents or more
convenient locations might be necessary. To reduce external failure costs, which is
equivalent to improving customer satisfaction with the provided services, either
additional services will have to be provided through an increase in process investment
costs (personnel, facilities, etc.) or the efficiency of services will have to be improved.
This will also necessitate added process costs. Internal failure costs (detecting inaccurate
travel documents before delivery to customers) can be reduced through additional
training of existing staff, so that fewer errors are made or through automated error
1-18
3
