Module 1B

QSO 510 Final Project Case Addendum

Vice-president Arun Mittra speculates:

We have always estimated how many transformers will be needed to meet demand. The usual method is to look at the sales figures of the last two to three months and also the sales figures of the last two years in the same month. Next make a guess as to how many transformers will be needed. Either we have too many transformers in stock, or there are times when there are not enough to meet our normal production levels. It is a classic case of both understocking and overstocking.

Ratnaparkhi, operations head, has been given two charges by Mittra. First, to develop an analysis of the data and present a report with recommendations. Second, “to come up with a report that even a lower grade clerk in stores should be able to fathom and follow.”

In an effort to develop a report that is understood by all, Ratnaparkhi decides to provide incremental amounts of information to his operations manager, who is assigned the task of developing the complete analyses.

A-Cat Corporation is committed to the pursuit of a robust statistical process control (quality control) program to monitor the quality of its transformers. Ratnaparkhi, aware that the construction of quality control charts depends on means and ranges, provides the following descriptive statistics for 2006 (from Exhibit 1).