Global Cell Phones (GCP) has developed a cell phone that can be used anywhere in the world (even countries like Japan that have a relatively unique cell phone system). GCP has been receiving complaints about the phone. For the past two years, GCP has been test marketing the phones and gathering nonfinancial information related to actual and perceived aspects of the phone’s quality. The company expects (given the lack of competition in this market) that increasing the quality of the phone will result in higher sales and, thereby, higher profits.Quality data for 2016 and 2017 include the following:

1. For each year, 2016 and 2017, calculate the following:

a. Percentage of defective units shipped

b. Customer complaints as a percentage of units shipped

c. Percentage of units reworked during production

d. Manufacturing cycle time as a percentage of total time from order to delivery 

2. Referring to the information computed in requirement 1, explain whether GCP’s quality and timeliness have improved.
3. Why would manufacturing cycle time have increased while customer-response time decreased? 

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2016 2017 Cell phones produced and shipped 3,000 15,000 Number of defective units shipped Number of customer complaints 150 600 225 375 Units reworked before shipping 180 1,050 Manufacturing cycle time 15 days 16 days Average customer-response time 30 days 28 days