TOYS, Inc.

&

TIGER TOOLS, Inc.

A Case Study Report

Group – G1 (Batch- ‘B’)

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Aditi P Menon – 10002

Ebraheem - 10024

Mohan C – 10046

Ramya R – 10068

Soumya Sucharita - 10090

TOYS INC

PROFILE:

Name of the firm :

Product :

Toys Inc

Manufacture and sale of toys and board games

Positioning :

Age :

Reputation on quality and innovation

20 years

PROBLEMS AT HAND:

Decline in sales volume during the recent six months period. As a result fall in the profit

Failure of parts in working-model factories, farms and service stations.

CONSULTANT’S RECOMMENDATIONS:

Short Term Solution: The company could propose a trade-in program by which customers could replace malfunctioning models with new ones. The company could focus on rebuilding the trade-ins and selling them at discounted prices in the company’s retail outlet store, thereby making some revenues. Also, to address the quality of the moving parts, inspection should be made on that part of the process where the moving parts are involved. As the profit of the organisation is not so healthy, the organisation could use this strategy in short term. The cost and amount of inspection should be optimal.

Long Term Solution: There should be proper inspection of the finished goods during testing and before shipping. Acceptance sampling and process controls should be employed. In the long run more effort should be put in to improve the process capability, which when achieved would lead to less inspection, lower warranty cost, fewer complaints about the service and higher productivity. It can be achieved by simplifying process, standardising, error free designing, equipment upgrading and automation.

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TIGER TOOLS

INTRODUCTION:

Tiger Tools, a division of Drillmore Industries was about to launch a new product and hence this case deals with how to improve the process capability. Initially, 18 samples were taken subjected to 20 observations each and the process capability was calculated. Then the no of samples and observations was changed to 27 and 5 respectively and the process capability calculated.

CASE ANALYSIS :

Q.1 How did Jim conclude that the process was not capable based on this first set of samples?

Soln : A2 = 0.18 (from the table)

R’ = sum of the range of 18 samples / 18 = 0.872

n = no of observations= 20 (specification width = 1.44)

Std deviation = (0.18*0.872*sqrt (20)) / 3= 0.2339

Cp = process capability = 1.44 / (6*0.2339) = 1.026 <1.33

(assuming that the process is centred).

The process is not capable.

Q.2 Does the 2nd set of samples show anything that the 1st set didn’t? Explain what and why.

Soln : The 2nd set has more samples with fewer observations and hence we have less variability and lower range values. The range being low the standard deviation is also low which increases the process capability. Moreover, since the number of samples is more it approaches normal distribution, a requirement for Cp to be valid. Hence, we conclude that the process capability obtained from the 2nd set of samples is more accurate.

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0 5 10 15 20 25 3044.7

44.75

44.8

44.85

44.9

44.95

45

45.05

45.1

45.15

Mean

Mean

From the above graph, we observed lesser variability in the 2nd set of samples.

Q.3 Assuming that the problem can be found and corrected what impact do you think this would have on the capability of the process? Compute the potential process capability.

Soln : Since the problem could be corrected, the variation would decrease and hence the process capability would increase. The Cp will be greater than 1.33.

Q.4 If small samples can reveal something that the larger samples might not, why not just take the small sample in every situation?

Soln : Small samples may not be sufficient to represent the population as a whole. Though there may be some findings in small samples that large samples might not project, the larger sample is the proper representation of the entire behaviour/process. Hence, a large sample should be taken to arrive at more accurate result.

Learning :

After analysing both the cases, we got a better idea about the application of the concepts such as quality inspection, recall, trade – in process. Also, we got to know about the application of the statistical concepts and the importance of computing process capability index.

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