Quality Tools:

There are 6 problems listed below. Identify the most appropriate quality tool to attack each of these and state why that tool is the most suitable for that problem.

1. A copy machine suffers from frequent paper jams and users are often confused how to fix the problem.
2. The publication team for an engineering firm wants to improve the accuracy of its user documentation but doesnt know why the documents arent error-free.
3. A rental car agency is getting numerous complaints about the length of time it is taking for customers to obtain a vehicle. They need to get a better handle on the factors that relate to the wait time.
4. A kitchen in a restaurant always seems to be getting orders mixed up and plated incorrectly.
5. A local zoo wants to understand where its visitors come from in order to better target marketing efforts.
6. A travel agency is interested in gaining a better understanding of how call volume varies by time of year in order to adjust staffing schedules.

Six Sigma:

1. The Six Sigma philosophy seeks to develop technical leadership through Belt training, then use it in team-based projects designed to improve processes. To what extent are these two concepts technical experts vs team experts at odds?

2. Six sigma seeks to improve processes by reducing and/or eliminating variation. Describe how the reduction and/or elimination of variation can benefit an organization.

Earned Value:

Earned value management is commonly used to measure project cost and schedule performance. It is important that Project Managers understand how to calculate and graph earned value, planned value, and actual cost.

Scenario:

The Enlightened Lamp Shade Company has to fill a large order of lamp shades in time for the parade of homes. They started 5 months ago and are in their final and 6^thmonth of production.

They have been keeping track of their schedule and cost performance each month. It is now time to calculate and graph the performance for month 5 using the following data:

• Project duration: 6 months
• Lamp shades to be produced: 6000
• Sell price of lamp shades: $50 each
• Number of shades produced in month 5: 900
• Actual cost to produce a lamp shade: $45

The earned value, planned value, and actual cost of the project over the last 4 months of the project are:

Month 1

Month 2

Month 3

Month 4

Month 5

Earned Value

40000

45000

50000

45000

?

Planned Value

50000

50000

50000

50000

?

Actual Cost

36000

42000

40000

45000

?

1. Calculate the following for month 5 of this project:

1. Earned value
2. Planned value
3. Actual cost
4. Cost variance
5. Cost performance index
6. Schedule variance
7. Schedule performance index

2. Create a graph that represents the earned, planned value and actual cost based the calculations from question 1 and the information on months 1 through 4 provided in the table.