Case Study One:

Read the case study below and answer the questions that follow. Questions "a" to "e" are based on the case study.

When an electronics manufacturing company, Chase Advanced Technologies, won a major contract to provide electronic components for gambling 'fruit machines', the future looked bright and profitable. But rather than ensure the future, the contract brought problems for the company. Poor pass rates for the components made, and a need for high levels of reworking, meant that the profitability of the contract was being threatened. At one point things were so bad that internal 'pass rates' for work fell to 38 per cent. There were clearly major performance gaps - gaps between what was desired and expected and what was being achieved.

Requirements

a) What aspects would be of concern to you to guarantee quality in the company's production of computer components?

b) How different are the determinants of service quality from determinants of product quality?

c) Draw the Ishikawa diagram to show the most probable factors that could account for poor pass rates of the components at Chase Advanced Technologies?

d) How would you tell if the errors in rejecting the computer components arise from type 1 error and not type 2 error?

e) Apply Edward Deming's principles to resolve the problems at Chase Advanced Technologies.