Case 8.

1
1.

Receiving Party: Out of the office,

absent, not at desk

Customer: Lengthy conversations, not

aware of who they should contact

Reasons for
Delays

System: Call volume and

timing

Operator: Absence, cannot find

alternate person, Lack of knowledge

2.

Reasons Callers Had To Wait

Number of Occurances

12

12

10

10

0
Description

The Pareto chart allows us to see all of the data together and gives us which reasons effect
wait time the most. This makes it easy to see what we can adjust that will have the biggest impact on
wait time.
3. For only having one operator, which was the biggest issue with wait time. I would have
made sure that there is always two operators available to answer the phone. For receiving party not
present, and no one present in the section, I would create a voicemail system that would allow the
customers to leave a message for the wanted party or section. For customers that are unsure who they
want to contact and to limit lengthy conversations each operator would have to be trainer more
extensively on how to handle these customer scenarios.
4. a)

REASON

NUMBER OF
OCCURANCES

One Operator

172

Receiving Party Not Present

73

No One Present in Section

61

Unsure Who to Contact

19

5
6

Lengthy Conversation
Other Reasons

16
10

One Operator 15 25%

Receiving Party Not Present 17- 29%
No One Present in Section 20 34%
Unsure Who to Contact 4 - 7%
Length Conversation 2 3%
Other Reasons 1 2%
Total 59

Reasons Callers Had to Wait NEW

120

100

80

Number of Occurances

60

40

20

0
No One Present in Section
Description

Number of Occurances
Cumulative Percent

5+6.
The improvements can be easily seen as we look at the new pareto diagram. It gives us the
ability to see all the new data together so we are able to comparable the new data to the old. In order to
improve the system even further, we should have two operators on the job at all time; we can
incorporate this by having lunches taken on alternating shifts. Additionally to counter the issue of
having no operator present, workers must leave a message every time they are absent form their desks
so that callers can understand why their calls are not answered.

Case 8.2
Part A
Immediate
Management
Changes
1. 20% pay cut for
senior officials.
2. Lowered
threshold for
effecting recalls.

Product
Design/Engineering
1. Managing director
to oversee safetyrelated issues.
2. Hired 1,000
engineers to spot
check quality.
3. Improved
perception
of quality e.g.
reduce vibration in
steering wheel.

Quality Management
1. TAQIC Toyota
Advanced Quality
Information Center.
Global computer
data base to track
vehicle repairs and
track customer
complaints.

Manufacturing
1. No major changes
other than an
increased awareness
for the workers.

2. SMART Swift
Market Analysis
Response Teams.
Rapid response
teams
to determine causes
of
accidents beyond
US
and Japan to China
and Europe.

1.

2.It appears that Toyota has spent a significant amount of money to improve quality.
Hiring the 1,000 engineers in product design, and appointing a director to oversee safetyrelated issues are significant steps. Clearly, Toyota sees this as very much a product
design issue and not related to manufacturing or build quality. Also, the implementation
of TAQIC and SMART are intended to speed the time that information related to quality

problem become apparent. These are fairly expensive moves and Toyota is investing in
infrastructure to solve their quality problems.
There is nothing in the case to indicate that their problems are related to cost cutting
initiatives, but they need to be careful that they dont do things related to this initiative
that impacts the safety of their cars. Their problems at this point seem to be largely the
consumers perception of Toyota quality due to the recalls and lawsuits since no defects
have actually been found in the cars.
Many things can be done to improve the safety associated with how the cars are used such
as consumer awareness of the floor mat issues and the programming of the throttle control
computer.
3. Here are some thoughts, but many other ideas are possible. It was very important that Toyota
focus on two aspects of its operations, the design of the cars, and its response to issues as they
arise. First, relative to design, anything that can be done to make the cars more foolproof should
be pursued. For example, the brake and accelerator pedal system should be designed so that they
cannot be hung up by items lying on the floor. These types of changes should be driven by the
information they learn through their TAQIC and SMART initiatives.
A lot of Toyota problems now are image and consumer perception. Toyota will need to
aggressively advertise the changes it makes to its vehicles relative to safety improvements. They
need to develop a strategy that directly addresses the improvement in their image relative to safety.
Part B
1. The average thickness in the sample is 1.9625 and the standard deviation is .209624. The
probability that the thickness is greater than 2.4 is Z = (2.4 1.9625)/.209624 = 2.087068 1 NORMSDIST(2.087068) = .018441 fraction defective, so 1.8441 percent of the washers are
expected to have a thickness greater than 2.4.
2. The upper limit is given in "1". The lower limit is 1.4 so Z = (1.4 1.9625)/.209624 = -2.68337.
NORMSDIST(-2.68337) = .003644 fraction defective, so .3644 percent of the washers are
expected to have a thickness lower than 1.4. The total expected fraction defective would be .
018441 + .003644 = .022085 or about 2.2085 percent of the washers would be expected to be out
of tolerance
3.

UTL X X LTL
.5625 .4375
,
,
min
min .8944, .6957 0.6957
3
3
.6289 .6289

C pk min

MOS 3330 Assignment 6

Chapter 8 Case 8.1 and 8.2

Tuesday, March 1st, 2016

Professor Rodrigues

David Corrie
Ferdinando DOria
Teng Feng
Hayden Sawyer
Daniel Vanin