Questions and concerns regarding essay submissions

Masterfoods Quality Control Assessment

Masterfoods in a retail food processing plant that relies on a combination of machinery and human operation of said machinery in order to individually package, encase and prepare foodstuffs for distribution. The system's efficiency and expediency are the top determinants of the quality of operations. Therefore, it is incumbent upon me as the quality control manager to ensure that both efficiency and expediency are reflected in the output of foodstuffs. The quality control test report below is a demonstration of how this process is undergone.

Project Part 1: Sampling Method

Part 1 provides a sampling method intended to serve as a basic representation of the process of quality control and color proportion analysis. Here, three 1.69oz bags of M&Ms are employed and counted to deliver some basic representative figures. Particularly, there are an average of 56.3 candies per bag, with a decided consistency in the count of each bag. By contrast, color proportions in the three bags are highly inconsistent.

Project Part 2: Method, Analysis, Results

Part 2 provides an expanded analysis with some of the figures accounted for in the first sampling expanded to include a 104 bag quality control test sample. Here, the number of candies in a bag and the number of each color represented by each bag are outlined for the entire test sample. The figures found here will serve as the bases for calculations made in subsequent tests, including the basic finding that in the sampled bags, there was an average of 11.7 blue candies, 11.3 orange candies, 11.0 green candies, 7.7 yellow candies, 7.3 red candies and 7.2 brown candies.

Project Part 3: Method, Analysis, Results

Part 3 tests the veracity of the claims that there are an average of 54 candies per bag and that there are an average of 24% blue candies in each bag. In order to confirm or refute this claim, the table here determines that 104 bags and the corresponding number of total candies and candies by individual color will require assessment in order to obtain a 95% confidence interval.

Project Part 4: Method, Analysis, Results

The Part 4 test would produce a failure by the terms of quality control, particularly with respect to the distribution of color in a standard 54 count bag of M&M candies. Based on extensive consumer testing, Masterfoods has determined the ideal proportion of individual M&M colors in the standard bag and requires that quality control demonstrate a compliance with this proportion with a significance level of .05 The quality control test requires that a bag be no further from the ideal proportion than a standard deviation of 1.5. Therefore, within these parameters, it is expected that there should be 24% blue candies, 20% orange candies, 16% green candies, 14% yellow candies, 13% red candies and 13% brown candies.

In the process of testing, it was shown that in 104 bags used to conduct sampling analysis, the proportion of candies was off-mark in a way that was statistically significant. While orange candies amounted to 20%, Yellow to 14%, Red to 13% and Brown to 13%, the counts on Blue and Green appeared to be incorrect. At 20% and 19% respectively, Blue candies deviated from the expected count by -5.49698 whereas Green candies deviated from the expected count by 7.424594. In Part 4 of our Quality Control testing, we encountered statistically significant errors that cause the tested batch to fail and to therefore be rejected.

Project Part 5: Method, Analysis, Results

Because Red and Brown candies are expected to amount to roughly 13% of each bag, one dimension of quality control is denoted in their equality to one another. Part 5 finds that in the 104 bags tested, and with 5851 candies accounted for in total among the tested bags, there were 761 red candies and 748 brown candies. The difference between the two is statistically insignificant, with red candies amounting to .130063 of the bag and brown candies amounting to .127841. Not only are these numbers in extremely close proximity to one another, but both are rounded to equal exactly 13% of the bag. This denotes a successful quality control test.

Quality Control:

Among the possible explanations for the failure of the batch evaluated in Part 4 is an error on the part of machinery. Particularly, the sorting mechanisms which are designed to maintain a count of the M&M's produced and distributed to bags may require some external maintenance. Because a great deal of the process is automated, machines do require regular maintenance and attention. As is demonstrated here, even a slight failure in the area of calibration can result in entire batches of below-standard product output.

Another explanation is that the failure was precipitated by human error. Conceivably, misuse of the machinery or an absence of concentrated oversight as the machine operates may have contributed to the missed count. Here, the methods of improved training or greater managerial oversight on the production floor may contribute significantly to improved results on the part of the personnel that must conduct and operate sorting and packaging machinery.