Case—Process Control and Design of Experiments/ANOVA
Prakash Mirchandani - pmirchan@katz.pitt.edu
Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, 358 Mervis Hall, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260
Abstract
Process control and design of experiments are two important concepts that business students must learn, as a proper usage of these techniques can have a significant impact on a firm's bottom line. Moreover, these ideas can be successfully used in a variety of application contexts: Process control applications range from the manufacturing of automobiles to the management of call centers, whereas design of experiments is used for process, product, and policy design. This set of two cases discusses operational improvement initiatives using these methods at a fictitious semiconductor manufacturing company that is being pressured by one of its major customers to improve quality. The first of the two cases covers process control charts, process capability, and a trade-off analysis between product quality improvement and new equipment leasing costs. The second case covers design of experiments and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Both cases require hands-on analysis and can be used in both undergraduate and graduate business programs.
Key words
process control charts; process capability indices; six sigma; design of experiments (DOE); interaction and main effects
History
Received: June 2009; accepted November 2009.
Download the PDFs
Teaching Note (visit the Case Teaching Notes and Other Restricted Materials page to download this PDF)
| Supplement Files | |
 MotoTech (DOE) Data.xls - Password-protected content.
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| MotoTech (PCI) Data.xls - Password-protected content.
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Citation Information
Mirchandani, P. 2010. Case Article—The MotoTech Manufacturing Company: Process Control and Improvement. INFORMS Trans. Ed. 10(2) 79-84. Available online at http://ite.pubs.informs.org/.
DOI: 10.1287/ited.1090.0041