Chapter 16: Using Control Charts in Business (Vocabulary, Quiz, and Practice Exam Questions)

After figuring out whether a change reduces variation, the PDSA method requires that the company do which of the following?

Act

The now defunct automaker Saturn experimented with a rational sub-group process control mechanism by which any employee at the company could:

Immediately and unilaterally stop the entire assembly line if they noticed a process problem that could impact quality or safety.

Which of the following would NOT qualify as a rational subgroup for a sampled process?

Widgets produced over a 10-year period

Control Chart

a graph that shows how something changes across time

Khalil wants to see how much variation there is in the cost of manufacturing his company's products. He is likely going to use a control chart to see the _____ data.

distribution of

Rational Sub-grouping

is a process control method used to compare variance in outputs produced under substantially similar conditions

Statistical Process Control

is a way to apply statistics to identify and fix problems in quality control, like Mario's bad shoes. It was first developed by Dr. Walter A. Shewhart at Bell Laboratories in the 1920s, and has since been developed further.

Attribute Data

is non-continuous data. It can be clumped into buckets instead of being mapped on a continuum

Np Chart

looks at how often something occurs with a fixed sample size when the choices are yes/no

PDCA

plan, do, check, act

PDSA

plan, do, study, act

ABC Widgets has a manufacturing plant that produces 100,000 units per day. Every unit produced on any given day should have virtually no variances between units. The term _____ describes the act of scrutinizing a part of the process for the purpose of evaluating whether the process is proceeding as expected.

process sampling

Gradual Change

which indicates that something is happening on a continuous basis or something that has happened is gaining steam

Uses for Control Charts

Monitor a situation, Understand when to take action and what action to take, Determine whether implemented changes are working as expected

P Chart

which looks at how often something occurs with varying sample sizes when the choices are yes/no

U Chart

which looks at how often something occurs with varying sample sizes when there are more than two choices

Jamestown Steel produces beams for building construction. Which scenario is the BEST example of a rational subgroup?

The company randomly chooses a few beams from every batch to make sure they are substantially similar in specification and quality.

How does the Act step relate to the Planning step of PDSA?

The process is cyclic so Act leads to Planning

Process Control

is the mechanism by which a company ensures that its processes are standardized to the point that variance is minimal and there is high reliability in the outputs of the process

C Chart

looks at how often something occurs with a fixed sample size when there are more than two choices

Special Cause

of variation comes from a specific issue or event

Common Cause

of variation comes from a stable system

Trend

on a control chart is present if the data goes up or down over time. It indicate that something has happened to shift manufacturing

Systematic Cycles

on a control chart looks like a regular up and down pattern. It indicates that there is something that regularly influences production

Sudden Change

which indicates something major occurred once to shift manufacturing

A process that, when followed strictly, still produces a poor output is a process that _____.

automates error