Case Study 2: Mortgage Approval Time Study

Due Week 8 and worth 190 points

Read the following case study:

A major financial services company wishes to better understand its mortgage approval process. In particular, the company is interested in learning about the effects of credit history (good versus fair), the size of the mortgage (<$500,000 versus >$500,000), and the region of the United States (western versus eastern) on the amount of time it takes to get a mortgage approved. The database of mortgages approved in the last year is accessed, and a random sample of five approved mortgages is selected for each of the eight combinations of the three variables. The data are shown in the table

Mortgage Approval Time Study

Credit HistoryMortgage SizeRegionApproval Times (Days)

Good<$500,000Western5950646247

Fair<$500,000Western8158696574

Good>$500,000Western3852586065

Fair>$500,000Western146159133143129

Good<$500,000Eastern2826384121

Fair<$500,000Eastern4253405064

Good>$500,000Eastern4931494238

Fair>$500,000Eastern106115126118138

First, conduct an analysis using the following steps:

1. Use the data shown in the table to conduct a design of experiment (DOE) in Microsoft Excel in order determine the nature and magnitude of the effects of the three variables on mortgage approval times. What are the key drivers of this process?
2. Determine the graphical display tool (e.g., Interaction Effects Chart, Scatter Chart, etc.) that you would use to present the results of the DOE that you conducted in Question 1. Provide a rationale for your response.
3. Assess the data sampling method. Our sample contained only five mortgages per combination. Under what circumstances would it have been appropriate to select a larger sample? Is a sample of five mortgages adequate to access the relative magnitudes of the effects of the variables? What sample size would you recommend? What could you learn from a larger sample size? (Hint: Look back at chapter 2, 3, 5, and 6 for discussion of sampling.)
4. Provide other variable responses that might be of interest to measure and study. (Hint: If you were getting a mortgage or a loan, what are the two and most important measures of the process you would have to go through?)
5. Propose one overall recommendation to the financial services company, based on the DOE, that could help reduce mortgage approval times.
6. Usehttp://research.strayer.eduto identify at least two (2) quality references to support your discussion. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.