Module 8 - Quality, Technology, and Continuous Improvement

Question 1

In quality function deployment (QFD), what is typically the next step once the voice of the customer requirements are known?

Answer 1

Translate the wants into engineering specifications through a series of well defined steps.

Question 2

How does the failsafe concept relate to equipment?

Answer 2

Improper internal setup actions cannot be taken. Hard stope are used to eliminate adjustments as part or internal setup. However, even failsafe methods cannot guarantee that there will be no defects.

Question 3

What is the first step in the A3 process?

Answer 3

Identify the root cause and importance of the issue.

A3 problem solving includes root cause analysis, current and target conditions, implementation, and follow-up plans to ensure that an objective has been met.

Question 4

The following are true for qualifying the manufacturing process except for which statement?

It uses historical data on a supplier’s process capability analysis for similar products.

It uses process capability analysis of key product characteristics in a pre-production environment.

It uses process capability analysis of key product characteristics in a product test environment.

It uses quality process surveys of a supplier’s quality management and assurance system.

Answer 4

Manufacturing process capability analysis is not done in a product test environment. The product test environment is used for product testing. Manufacturing process capability analysis is done in a production environment.

Question 5

Reducing setup time to enable quick changeovers of products on a manufacturing line is an example of

Answer 5

continuous process improvement

Continuous process improvement is a never-ending effort to expose and eliminate the root causes of problems, focusing on small-step improvement as opposed to big-step improvement.

Question 6

Which quality management technique measures controllable and uncontrollable process variables and their effects on managing satisfactory outputs from the process?

Answer 6

Design of experiments is a quality management technique used to evaluate the effect of carefully planned and controlled changes to input process variables on the output variable. The objective is to improve production processes.

Question 7

The process that targets reducing defects and errors in existing products and services is:

Answer 7

DMAIC identifies problems in existing products, determines root causes, and provides solutions.

Question 8

Which of the following will have the greatest influence on an employee’s evaluations and promotions?

Answer 8

An employee’s problem-solving skills provide the most value to an organization. The other measures will show productivity, but what is really valued is an employee’s ability to propose new ideas and search for avenues for continuous improvement.

Question 9

What is the term for the processes of creating, producing, and delivering a good or service to the market?

Answer 9

Value Stream

Question 10

Which of the following statements is true of companies that begin to automate before implementing lean production?

They find that the conversion to lean production goes faster.

They tend to spend more money on material handling.

They find that the conversion to automation goes faster.

They tend to have a higher success rate.

Answer 10

Companies that automate before moving to lean will normally be using technologies to solve process problems. This will result in the addition of unnecessary technologies. The success of an automation project will be greater if lean is implemented first.

Question 11

A direct handoff from one operation to the next, such as a customer and a supplier located in the same facility, will:

Answer 11

Supplier co-location with a key customer is similar to cellular manufacturing, where families of parts are produced within a single line or cell of machines controlled by operators who work only within the line or cell. Quality defects are discovered almost instantly as product moves from one station to the next. Therefore, the process itself drives quality up.

Question 12

What should a company’s first step be upon recognizing an uncertainty of the value streams that generate customer value?

Answer 12

When value streams are defined (presumably using value stream mapping) and a sharing of knowledge occurs simultaneously, with all groups together discussing the issues, the company will be able to identify the specific functional processes that deliver value to customers. Once these are identified and shared, the company will be able to improve these processes.

Question 13

Involving the customer in the design of a product is part of which methodology?

Answer 13

Quality function deployment (QFD) is a methodology to ensure that all the major requirements of the customer are identified and met or exceeded.

Question 14

Which of the following is true about lean production planning?

Answer 14

Lean plans materials at the assembly level, which is enabled by flattening the BOM or relying heavily on suppliers to provide subassemblies. This reduces the number of parts assembly operations and shortens manufacturing lead time.

Question 15

An operation’s actual run time is 300 minutes and its planned run time is 400 minutes. The operation’s actual quantity produced is 900 units but its target quantity produced is 1,000 units. Of the 900 units produced, 810 were produced right the first time and 90 required rework. What is the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)?

Answer 15

The OEE is the availability times the performance times the quality. Availability is actual run time divided by planned run time, or 300 minutes/400 minutes = 0.75. Performance is actual quantity produced divided by target quantity produced, or 900 units/1,000 units = 0.9. Quality is the quantity produced right the first time divided by the total quantity produced, or 810 units/900 units = 0.9. OEE = 0.75 x 0.9 x 0.9 = 0.6075, or 60.75%.

Question 16

Which of the following is an activity associated with sort, the first of the five S’s?

Answer 16

Place red tags on items that should be taken to a red tag storage location

Question 17

Which of the following control chart types is used to track the percentage of parts that pass a specification over time?

Answer 17

P Chart

Average percentages for attribute data, such as pass/fail, are tracked on a P chart. Attribute data are tracked on X Bar and R Charts. Counts are tracked on a C Chart.

Question 18

Continuous improvement measures are typically more important than traditional accounting measures in which of the following environments?
- batch
-job shop
-intermittent
- continuous

Answer 18

In a continuous flow, labor cost is typically lower, and accounting costs are not associated with particular orders.

Question 19

In reviewing an activity network diagram for an engineer-to-order product, the person responsible for one upcoming activity thinks that the task will actually take two days longer than the current duration estimate. What information should the project manager seek from the activity network diagram when assessing the impact of this change?

Whether adding another resource to the activity would help keep the current schedule

Whether other activities to be done simultaneously have enough float to absorb this change

Whether lessons learned from prior projects could have prevented this poor estimate

Whether the activity is on the critical path

Answer 19

Whether the activity is on the critical path. A critical path is the sequence of activities that will take the longest to complete and therefore is the shortest possible overall project duration (if assumptions hold). If the activity is on the critical path, this change in estimate will impact the overall project duration and so it is an important thing to check on an activity network diagram. Looking to see if the activity has slack and how much is available would be another good answer. Slack in simultaneous activities is not useful information. Other incorrect answers cannot be answered using an activity network diagram, such as whether adding a resource would be helpful. The latter depends on factors such as learning curves, availability and so on, and this information is not on the diagram.

Question 20

End-of-line inspection often fails to improve quality for which of the following reasons?

It disregards the causes of poor quality.

It excludes quality circles.

Inspectors do not understand quality improvement techniques.

It requires extensive personnel.

Answer 20

It disregards the causes of poor quality. When a product is inspected at the end of the production process, inspectors do not have a window into the possible causes of defects occurring back in the process. Continuous inspection during the production process does not require more personnel, only trained operators, and it includes quality circles.