Institute of Rural Management Anand

Production and Operations Management

Experimental learning exercise:01 Statistical Process Control with a Coin Catapult
Exercise A: Control Charts for Variables
Materials 1 ruler 1 pen or pencil 1 coin (a quarter will do nicely) 1 yardstick An exercise worksheet Access to a calculator Tasks Divide into teams of four. one person holds the yardstick and observes the action, one person adjusts the catapult and launches the coin, one person observes the maximum height for each trial, and one person records the results. Practice To catapult the coin, put a pen or pencil under the 6-in. mark of the ruler. Put the coin over the 11-in. mark. Press both ends of the ruler down as far as they will go. Let the end that holds the coin snap up, catapulting the coin into the air. The person holding the yardstick should place the stick so that it is adjacent to, but does not interfere with, the trajectory of the coin. To observe the maximum height reached by the coin, the observer should stand back with his or her eye at about the same level as the top of the coins trajectory. Practice until each person is comfortable with his or her role. The person operating the catapult should be sure that the pen or pencil fulcrum has not moved between shots and that the launch is done as consistently as possible. Step 1: Gather data. Take four samples of five observations (launches) each. Record the maximum height reached by the coin in the first data table on the worksheet. When you have finished, determine the mean and range for each sample, and compute the mean of the means ( X ) and the mean of the ranges ( R ).

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Step 2: Develop an R-chart. Using the data gathered and the appropriate D3 and D4 values, compute the upper and lower three-sigma control limits for the range. Enter these values and plot the range for each of the four samples on the range chart on the worksheet. Be sure to indicate an appropriate scale for range on the y-axis. Step 3: Develop an X -chart. Now, using the data gathered and the appropriate. value for A2, compute the upper and lower three-sigma control limits for the sample means. Enter these values and plot the mean for each of the four samples on the X -chart on the worksheet. Again, indicate an appropriate scale for the y-axis. Step 4: Observe the process. Once a control chart has been established for a process, it is used to monitor the process and to identify when it is not running normally. Collect two more samples of five trials each, as you did to collect the first set of data. Plot the range and the sample mean on the charts you constructed on the worksheet each time you collect a sample. What have you observed that affects the process? Does the chart indicate that the process is operating the way it did when you first collected data? Step 5: Observe a changed process. Now change something (for instance, move the pencil out to the 8-in. mark). Collect data for samples 7 and 8. Plot the range and the sample mean on the charts you constructed on the worksheet as you complete each sample. Can you detect a change in the process from your control chart? If the process has changed, how sure are you that this change is real and not just due to the particular sample you chose?

Exercise B: Control Charts for Attributes

Materials 1 ruler 1 pen or pencil 1 coin (a quarter will do nicely) 1 paper or plastic cup (with a 4-in. mouth) An exercise worksheet Access to a calculator Tasks Divide into teams of four. one person adjusts the catapult and launches the coin, one person observes the results and fetches the coin, and one person records the results. One person coordinate the entire tasks.

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Practice The object is to flip a coin into a cup using a ruler. To catapult the coin, put a pen or pencil under the 6-in. mark of the ruler. Put a coin over the 11-in. mark and let its weight hold that end of the ruler on the tabletop. Strike the raised end of the ruler with your hand to flip the coin into the air. Position a cup at the place where the coin lands so that on the next flip, the coin will land inside. You will have to practice several times until you find out how hard to hit the ruler and the best position for the cup. Be sure that the pen or pencil fulcrum has not moved between shots and that the launch is done as consistently as possible. Step 1: Gather data. Try to catapult the coin into the cup 10 times for each sample. Record each trial in the data table on the worksheet as a hit (H) when the coin lands inside or a miss (M) when it does not. The proportion of misses will be the number of misses divided by the sample size, n, in this case 10. A miss is a defect, so the proportion of misses is the proportion defective, p. Step 2: Develop a p-chart. Compute the upper and lower three-sigma control limits for the average fraction defective. Plot these values and the mean for each of the four samples on the p-chart on the worksheet. Step 3: Observe the process. Once a chart has been established for a process, it is used to monitor the process and to identify abnormal behavior. Exchange tasks so that someone else is catapulting the coin. After several practice launches, take four more samples of 10. Plot the proportion defective for this persons output. Is the process still in control? If it is not, how sure are you that it is out of control? Can you determine the control limits for a 95 percent confidence level? With these limits, was your revised process still in control? The level of confidence determines the z critical value. 99% 2.58 95% 1.96 90% 1.645 Source: The basis for Exercise A was written by J. Christopher Sandvig, Western Washington University, as a variation of the Catapulting Coins exercise from Games and Exercises for Operations Management by Janelle Heinke and Larry Meile (Prentice Hall, 1995). Given these foundations, Larry Meile of Boston College wrote Exercise A. He also wrote Exercise B as a new extension.

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EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING: STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL WITH A COIN CATAPULT *

A. Overview/Purpose This exercise gives the students some hands-on experience in creating and using SPC charts. Students will operate a process, collect data, develop a process control chart, and then use the chart to monitor the process and detect any change that may occur. Maximum efficiency is obtained by conducting this exercise after the students have read the chapter material. Their experiences in the exercise help give a context to the topics as they are covered in class. Preparation Time Required Once the materials have been assembled, it should take about a half hour to read these notes and experiment with the catapult yourself. Because the materials are reusable, subsequent setup time should be negligible. Reproducible worksheets are included in this teaching note (Exhibits TN.1 and TN.2). Each students group should receive a copy of each Exhibit prior to beginning the experiment. The students should read through the exercise instructions as they complete each step. Exercise Time Required If a 90-minute period is available, the students can complete both Exercise A (SPC for variables) and Exercise B (SPC for attributes). The combined exercise can be completed in about a half hour with the remaining time for debriefing and discussion. When the students have completed the experiments, each group shares its results. This approach takes from 40 to 50 minutes. Conducting the Exercise The tasks are defined in the students instructions. Briefly review the sequence of steps they will follow. This exercise needs a large, solid, flat surface; a students armchair will not do. Many have chosen to work on the floor. (You may want to suggest that they dress appropriately if this is a possibility.) Remind them about where the A 2 and D3 and D4 values can be found in the book (or, alternatively, project a table of values using an overhead projector). Then turn them loose. The activity for each exercise will be completed in about 15 minutes. Although separate tasks are assigned to each team member, the development of the charts (Steps 2 and 3 in Exercise A, Step 2 in Exercise B) is best done by all team members together. Also note that the size of the team is somewhat flexible. Debriefing/Discussion Questions are interspersed throughout the instructions that direct the discussion. Ask the partcipants what they discovered. One topic will be the cause of variation in the process (assignable cause), especially for catapulting the coins into the cup. Some students will come up with methods for releasing the catapult (other than with their finger) that will

B.

C.

D.

E.

This case was prepared by Dr. Larry Meile, Boston College, as a basis for classroom discussion.

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greatly reduce process variability. Take advantage of this to bring into the discussion the concept of robust process design. Ask them how many samples need to be taken to detect a change (if a change is present). This will lead into an analysis of the data patterns that reveal a change in the process, even if a point is not outside one of the control limits. Bring up the topic of monitoring the process as it occurs, rather than after the fact. Point out how control would be lost if the data were collected throughout the day and analyzed only at the end. You may want to discuss the concept of sampling the output. This exercise is somewhat artificial because units of output were not produced, from which a random sample was drawn. In Exercise B, you may find a wide range of abilities exhibited when students try to flip the coin into a cup. Some students will be able to land the coin in the cup so consistently that no errors show up in the 10-trial samples. Others will struggle to get it in even half the time. Use this variation to drive a discussion of when it is appropriate to use SPC and what the percent of defects has on the charts control limits. This also leads well into a discussion of sample size. In Exercise B, for example, the sample size may have to be increased to find, on the average, at least two defects per sample. Another concept to explore with this experiment is a confidence interval and the effect of altering the number of standard deviations used to establish the UCL and LCL. Many other topics can arise from these exercises as well. The more times you run this exercise, the more topics you will find to explore. This exercise can also be easily extended to show the use of the standard deviation method for determining control limits for variable sampling.

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EXHIBIT TN.1 EXERCISE A Sample Number 1 2 3 4

Coin Catapult Worksheet Data Table Observation 3

Sample Mean x

Sample Range R

x
UCLR D4 R LCLR D3 R

R-chart UCLR R LCL R

4 5 Sample

x -chart

UCLx x A2 R

LCLx x A2 R

UCLx x LCLx

4 5 Sample

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EXHIBIT TN.1 (Cont.)

Coin Catapult Worksheet Data Table (for additional observations) Observation 3 Sample Mean 4 5 Sample Range R

Sample Number 5 6 7 8 EXHIBIT TN.2 Sample Number 1 2 3 4

Exercise B Data Table Observation 4 5 6 7

10

Misses

misses n First, calculate the average fraction defective, p . total defects p p total observations Next, calculate the standard deviation of the distribution of p . Remember that n represents the sample size (in this case 10), not the number of samples or the total number of observations. p1 p p p n Now determine the confidence level for the UCL and LCL. This is the number of standard deviations required for a two-tailed confidence interval. Frequently a 3-sigma value is used to obtain a 99% confidence interval, although other intervals can be used as well. For this example use 3 sigmas (z = 3). Finally, using the values determined above, develop the UCL and LCL. p
p-chart UCLp p LCL p UCLp p z p LCLp p z p

4 5 Sample

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