Business operations 2390 | Management homework help

I need help with the following assignment for a Business Operations class. The book we are using is Collier/Evans OM 4

Lesson 4 Written Assignment
 
1.  Provide some specific examples of quality costs in a fast-food operation or in the operation of your college or university.  Classify the costs into the four major categories described in the chapter.
 
2. Prepare a run chart for the occurrences of defective computer monitors based on the following data, which an analyst obtained from the process for making the monitors.  Workers are given a 15-minute break at 10:15 am and 3:15 pm, and a one-hour lunch break at noon.  What can you conclude?
 
Interval	 	 	Interval	 	 	Interval	 
Start Time	Defects	 	Start Time	Defects	 	Start Time	Defects
8:00	5	 	10:45	0	 	2:15	0
8:15	2	 	11:00	1	 	2:30	1
8:30	1	 	11:15	0	 	2:45	0
8:45	0	 	11:30	1	 	3:00	2
9:00	1	 	11:45	2	 	3:30	3
9:15	0	 	1:00	6	 	3:45	1
9:30	4	 	1:15	3	 	4:00	0
9:45	1	 	1:30	2	 	4:15	1
10:00	2	 	1:45	0	 	4:30	2
10:30	3	 	2:00	1	 	4:45	3
 
3. An air-conditioning repair department manager has compiled data on the primary reason for forty residential service calls for the previous week, as shown in the table.  Using the data in the table below, make a check sheet for the problems types and then construct a Pareto Chart for residential customers.
 
Job #	Problem	 	Job #	Problem	 	Job #	Problem
401	Failed	 	415	Update Service	 	428	Warm
402	Odor	 	416	Warm	 	429	Failed
403	Update Service	 	417	Warm	 	430	Noisy
404	Noisy	 	418	Noisy	 	431	Noisy
405	Warm	 	419	Update Service	 	432	Warm
406	Noisy	 	420	Failed	 	433	Odor
407	Failed	 	421	Noisy	 	434	Update Service
408	Update Service	 	422	Warm	 	435	Noisy
409	Warm	 	423	Failed	 	436	Warm
410	Noisy	 	424	Update Service	 	437	Update Service
411	Noisy	 	425	Failed	 	438	Odor
412	Noisy	 	426	Odor	 	439	Failed
413	Warm	 	427	Warm	 	440	Noisy
414	Update Service	 	 	 	 	 	 
 
4.  Which of the seven QC tools would be most useful in addressing each of the following situations?  Explain your reasoning.  (You may decide more than one tool is useful.)
a. A copy machine suffers frequent paper jams and users are often confused as to how to fix the problem.
b. The publication team for an engineering department wants to improve the accuracy of its user documentation but is unsure of why documents are not error-free.
c. A bank needs to determine how many teller positions, drive-through stations, and ATM machines it needs for a new branch bank in a certain busy location.  Its information includes the average numbers and types of customers served by other similar facilities, as well as demographic information to suggest the level of customer traffic in the new facility.
d. A contracting agency wants to investigate why they had so many changes in their contracts.  They believe that the number of changes may be related to the dollar value of the original contract of the days between the request for proposal and the contract award.
e. A travel agency is interested in gaining a better understanding of how call volume varies by time of year in order to adjust staffing schedules.
 
 
5.  Develop a "personal quality checklist" on which you tally non-conformances in your personal life (such as being late for work school, not completing homework on time, not getting enough exercise, and so on.)  What type of chart would you use to monitor your performance?
 
 
6.  Computer upgrades have a nominal time of 30 minutes.  Five sets of samples of five observations each have been taken, and the results are listed below.  Using the factors in Appendix B, page 417, determine upper and lower control limits for mean and range charts, and decide if the process is in control.
 
Samples	 	 	 	 
1	2	3	4	5
30.5	29.2	29.2	28.7	30.5
28.8	28.9	29.6	29.6	29.6
29.8	30.3	30.4	29.8	30.4
30.4	28.6	30.3	29.4	30.8
29.6	29.9	30.6	31.2	28.9
30.9	29.5	30.5	30.1	31
 
 
7.  A medical facility does MRIs for sports injuries.  Occasionally, a test yields inconclusive results and must be repeated.  Using the sample data below and a sample size of 100, determine the upper and lower control limits.  Is the process in control?
 
Samples	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Number of retests	4	1	0	6	3	1	10	0	4	3	1	3
 
 
8.  An emergency room at a hospital wanted to understand and better control the waiting time for patients.  To do this they constructed ?x and R-charts by sampling the waiting times of the first five patients admitted to the ER at the beginning of each shift (7 a.m., 3 p.m., and 11 p.m.).  What do you think of this approach?  Will it provide the information the hospital administrators seek?  How might the sampling process be improved, and what would you recommend?
 
 
9.  Evaluate a good or bad experience you might have had with an appointment from both the customer (you) and organization's perspective. What factors do you think led to this experience?  Refer to chapter 14)
 
 
10.  A hospital emergency room needs the following numbers of nurses:
 
Day	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat	Sun
Minimum Number of Nurses	6	4	5	7	12	10	9
 
Each nurse should work full-time, five days per week and have two consecutive days off (i.e., work five off two).  How many regular employees are required and what is a good schedule?
You may wish to use the spreadsheet in Staff Scheduling file.
 
 
11.  A small consulting group of a computer systems department has seven projects to complete.  How should the projects be scheduled?  The time in days and project deadlines are provided below.  Determine the average processing time and average tardiness for each sequencing approach:  First come, first served (FCFS), shortest processing time (SPT), and earliest due date (EDD).  You may wish to use the spreadsheet in FCFS SPT EDD file.
 
Project	Time	Deadline
A	10	31
B	17	25
C	12	36
D	7	11
E	3	17
F	18	42
G	6	52
H	20	46
 
12.  A process to make XYZ Company products requires that the product goes through two work centers.  The production planner is working to schedule several jobs through the two work centers to have the shortest total throughput time.  Job times are in minutes.  You may wish to use spreadsheet in Johnsons Rule file.
Given the information below. 
a. Develop the job sequence that minimizes the idle time in the two work centers.
b. Prepare a chart of activities and determine each one's idle time.
 
Job	A	B	C	D	E	F
Center 1	14	12	20	14	6	7
Center 2	5	8	13	9	11	10
 
 
13.  Construct (draw) a project network for the activities listed below. Do not attempt to perform any further analysis.  Refer to chapter 18.
 
Activity	Immediate Predecessor
A	--
B	--
C	A, B
D	B
E	C, D
F	D
G	E, F
H	F
 
 
 
14.  Chapter 18, Problem and Activity # 2, OM4, page 409.  Answer items a, b, and c only.
 
Activity	Task	Immediate Predecessors	Estimated Normal Time (weeks)
A	Select wedding date	None	1
B	Select wedding location	None	4
C	Prepare guest list
Who is attending?	A, B	3
D	Select entertainment	A	4
E	Choose catering	A, C	3
F	Wedding day	D, E	0
 
A.  Draw the network diagram for this project.
B.  What is (are) the critical path(s)?
C.  What is the project completion time?
 
Lesson 4 Activities
1.  Quality Dimensions
This activity will require students to review one or more sources to determine several dimensions of quality (two are included in the lesson materials).  Then, using these dimensions, compare two products or services along the dimensions.  The products should be reasonably comparable in price.  So if you are comparing automobiles, try to compare models that may be trying to reach the same set of customers.  For example, Toyota Camry and Honda Accord or Toyota Highlander and Chevrolet Traverse, might be more appropriate than a Nissan Altima and a Bentley.  Service quality may also be selected and would involve comparing two service offerings.  There is a web site listed below for service quality.
 
David Garvin's article "Competing on the Eight Dimensions of Quality" in November 1987 issue of Harvard Business Review.
 
Chris Akins.  "8 Dimensions of Quality" at
http://lssacademy.com/2008/05/28/8-dimensions-of-quality/
 
A quick look at the definitions of eight dimensions of quality:
http://inasia.biz/tutorials/quality_dimensions.pdf
 
A service quality dimension list SERVQUAL may be reviewed at these web sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SERVQUAL
http://www.12manage.com/methods_zeithaml_servqual.html
 
 
2.  Gantt Chart.  A Gantt chart is a relative simple and effective tool for scheduling and managing projects.  It offers an opportunity for a quick visual review of the production plan or project.  For this assignment select a "project" from the list and develop a Gantt chart for completing the plan or project.  Remember the plan should include both the tasks and the times. Your chart should have at least ten tasks.  Gantt Charts are discussed in chapter 14, pages 319-321 and chapter 18, pages 398-400.
1.  Graduation from your undergraduate (or graduate) program.  Do not select this option if you are graduating this Fall 2014 or Spring 2015.  Be sure you include classes and administrative items that you must complete (example, applying for graduation, graduation checks, getting ready for the graduation ceremony, etc.).
2.  Building your dream home or some similar project.  Do not be overly concerned with every minute detail, but include major components of the project.
3.  Taking a one-month, cross-country vacation to various Historic and National Parks in the United States.
4.  Others may be approved by the instructor.