UNIVERSITY OF MALTA

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
B.ENG.(HONS.) IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Year IV SEMESTER II
JUNE 2012 SESSION OF EXAMINATIONS

MFE3207 Quality Management and Control

31st May 2012

9.15-11.15 hours

Stationary: Control Chart for Variable Data

Use of Calculators Allowed
List of Equations

This paper contains FOUR questions. You are to attempt THREE questions.

1. Statistical Process Control (SPC) is an important aspect of quality management and control.
(a)

What is meant by the term control in Statistical Process Control?

(5 marks)

(b)

What is the difference between SPC for variables and SPC for attributes?
(4 marks)

(c)

Explain the difference between special and common causes of variation. Give
examples in your explanation.
(6 marks)

(d)

Why is variation in processes important in quality management and control?

(5 marks)

(e)

How can variation be provided for in the design of products?

(5 marks)

(f)

Why is the use of sampling important when inspecting large quantities of material?
Use diagrams, and give examples where appropriate.
(8 marks)

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2. The ISO9001:2008 standard for Quality Management Systems is of increasing importance to

the food and drink industry. A food manufacturing company is looking towards implementing
a quality management system. As the quality engineer responsible for business processes in
this company you are being asked to investigate the details of ISO9001:2008.
(a)

What advantages would be brought to this food manufacturing company by achieving

ISO9001:2008 certification?
(5 marks)

(b)

Describe in detail the management responsibilities in setting up and maintaining a

Quality Management System.
(10 marks)

(c)

What clause of the Quality Management System would the data collection process be
a part of? Give reasons for your answer.
(5 marks)

(d)

This company is also carrying out a Cost of Quality exercise. Manufacturing costs per
year are 500,000. Prevention, Appraisal and Failure costs are listed in Table 1. The
costs of implementing the Quality Management System are of 15,000. Run a
comparative Cost of Quality analysis of this data, before and after introducing the
Quality Management System. Comment on the results.
(13 marks)
Table 1 - Prevention, Appraisal and Failure costs
Prevention
Appraisal
Failure

5,000
75,000
5,000

3. A Bio-Medical manufacturing company is a supplier to some of the industrys leading

companies. This company is having problems with maintaining the high production rates at
the same quality levels. The management team are considering the implementation of Quality
Circles on the shop floor to solve this problem.
(a)

What is the principle philosophy behind Quality Circles and why in your opinion
have the management team made the decision of introducing this quality method?
(6 marks)

(b)

List the New Quality Tools and describe in detail how each of these tools would
help the Quality Circles to achieve their goals?
(14 marks)

(c)

What does the Kaizen philosophy promote and how?

(7 marks)

(d)

Describe two methodologies that can help the company to further implement the
Kaizen philosophy.
(6 marks)

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4.

A supplier and manufacturer of stainless steel components has been receiving many
complaints and returns from its customers due to defective products. For this reason the
company has decided to monitor the situation by carrying out Statistical Process Control
(SPC) at the end of the production line. Table 2 shows the SPC Data collected during an 8
hour shift. The specification for this product dimension is 15.5mm1.5mm
Table 2 SPC Data
Time
8.00
8.30
9.00
9.30
10.00
10.30
11.00
11.30
12.00
12.30
13.00
13.30
14.00
14.30
15.00
15.30
16.00

1
15.20
15.40
15.30
14.90
14.90
15.00
14.90
15.70
15.50
15.40
14.60
15.40
14.50
15.50
15.10
16.40
16.40

2
15.60
15.20
15.00
15.40
15.20
14.60
14.90
15.30
15.20
15.00
15.00
15.50
15.30
15.00
14.80
16.80
16.80

3
15.50
15.40
14.80
15.50
14.70
14.60
15.50
14.90
14.90
14.80
15.70
15.00
14.90
14.60
15.30
17.20
17.20

(a)

Describe the steps that should be followed by the process engineers to collect the data
required.
(10 marks)

(b)

What benefits does the use of SPC bring to the company?

(5 marks)

(c)

What type of SPC chart should be used for this study?

(3 marks)

(d)

Plot the relevant SPC Charts using the graph paper provided.
(10 marks)

(e)

Analyse the data and SPC chart plotted, and state your observations.
(5 marks)

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