Everyone who has faced a production problem with a need to solve the problem by using production data can relate to the notion of a brain teaser. The brain teasers presented here are based on real-world situations that are encountered by workers in manufacturing environments. The brain teasers have three parts: (1) the situation, (2) available data or other supporting information and (3) questions that various workers want answered for continual improvement. Recommended solutions follow in the next issue and on the Web at Quality Online.
Situation
As part of a Six Sigma initiative, Felix and his team have been focusing on parts used in assemblies. Customers have complained and have sent some of these parts back. The team analyzed data from the process using a new gage and discovered that the length was predictable but did not meet specifications. To make certain that the new gage was good enough for measuring this process, Felix set up a measurement study. Unfortunately, Felix did not obtain at least two measured values for each operator on each part. Consequently, he could not get an estimate of the measurement process' standard deviation. Without this estimate, Felix could not answer the questions posed in the June brain teaser about the measurement process.