Methods for Problem Solving

Answered

Use a Cause and Effect Diagram to Identify Potential Causes of Various Problems

Provide a short answer to each of the following questions.

1.Use a cause and effect diagram to develop a list of potential causes for each of the following:

a.Failure to earn an A on an examination.

b.You consistently arrive late for class or work.

c.You consistently slice when hitting a golf ball with your driver.

d.Your table lamp fails to light when you turn the switch on.

2.Prepare a flow chart for getting to work or school in the morning. Discuss areas for improvement revealed by the flow chart.

3.You have collected the following data from customer comment cards at your restaurant. Construct a Pareto diagram to show which of the problems should be investigated first. Show the cumulative frequency line on your diagram.

Comment Frequency

Dirty dishes 11

Dirty silverware 18

Inattentive service 98

Cold food 23

Wrong order 5

Overpriced 35

Long wait 4

4.Use the following data to construct a scatter diagram. Does there appear to be a relationship between hours of overtime and number of rejects? Discuss.

Hours of Overtime Number of Rejects

127 33

90 25

95 23

160 40

10 9

80 19

27 14

103 28

48 1

65 31

5.Your boss has asked you to evaluate the reject percentage for the past year on one of the production lines. Use the following data to construct a run chart. Does there appear to be a pattern in the change in reject rate over the year?

Month Reject %

January 3.7

February 3.3

March 3.1

April 3.5

May 3.3

June 2.7

July 3.0

August 2.3

September 2.5

October 2.2

November 1.6