Thunder Bay has been producing computer chips with an average life of 480 hours and a standard deviation (s) of 24 hours. The customer specifications are 400 (lower specification limit) to 600 (upper specification limit).
a) Thunder Bay has the opportunity to obtain a large order from XYZ Computers if it can produce the computer chips with specification limits of 400 to 600 hours. If the minimum acceptable process capability is 1.20, can Thunder Bay meet the customer’s specification requirements at this time? If it cannot, explain if it is due to a drifting of the mean or too much variability. Explain.
b) Suppose that Thunder Bay is producing computer chips with a mean of 520 hours and it cannot change this. What is the maximum value of the standard deviation so that Thunder Bay can meet the customer requirements at a process capability index of 1.0?