Holiday Candy Company, which recently developed a strategic plan based on total quality management, wants its candy canes to have the highest quality of color, texture, shape, and taste possible. To ensure that quality standards are met, management has chosen many quality performance measures, including the number of rejected candy canes. Working with Luisa Ortes, the production supervisor, management has decided that no more than 50 candy canes should be rejected each day.

Using data on rejections in Week 1, Luisa Ortes prepared the following summary and graph:

Too little sugar (ingredients), were not circular (shaping), or were undercooked (cooking time). The number of rejects in each category appears below.

Reasons for
Week 1 Rejects
Ingredients ........ 40
Shaping ........195
Cooking time ...... 67
Total ..........302
The following week, Ortes reviewed the recipe with the cooks. She trained them to measure ingredients more precisely, to shape the candy more carefully, and to time the cooking process more accurately. Then, in Week 3, she gathered the following information on the actual number of rejected candy canes and reasons for the rejects:

Required
1. Analyze the activity in Week 3 by preparing a table showing each day’s maximum number of rejected candy canes allowed, actual number of rejected candy canes, and variance under (over) the maximum number allowed. In addition, prepare a graph comparing the maximum and actual numbers for each day of Week 3.
2. Analyze how the reasons for rejecting candy canes changed from Week 1 to Week 3 by preparing a table showing the number of times each reason occurred each week. In addition, prepare a graph comparing the reasons for rejects each week.
3. Manager Insight: How successful was Ortes in increasing the quality of Holiday’s candy canes? What recommendations, if any, would you make about monitoring candy cane production in thefuture?

Maximum Number Actual Number Variance Under (Over) Allowed Maximum (10) (13) of Rejected Candy Canes Allowed 50 50 50 50 50 250 50 of Rejected Candy Canes Week I Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Total for the week Daily average 63 59 62 302 60.4 (12) (52) ANALYSIS OF REJECTED CANDY CANES WEEK 1 70 50 30 20 0 Monday uesday Wednday Thursday Maximum Number of Rejected Candy Canes Aliowed Actual Number of Rejected Candy Canes Actual Number of Rejects Reasons for Rejects Week 3 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Total Week 3 Ingredients Shaping Cooking time Total 8 30 100 I9