Process Improvement Plan

Heather Cornett

Assignment: Process Improvement Plan

June 23, 2009

OPS 571

University of Phoenix

Statistical process control is defined as, “techniques for testing a random sample of output from a process to determine whether the process is producing items within a prescribed range” (Chase, Jacobs & Aquilano 2006). In week one there was a flow chart created for the process of doing laundry and in week three after collecting further data that flow chart was updated. Using the most recent information from the laundry flow chart this paper will discuss the control limits including the calculations and data used to determine them as well as the effect of any seasonal factors using the process performance data collected each week. There will also be a discussion of the confidence intervals and their usefulness on the number of data points.

The mission at this point will be to lessen the time it currently takes to process a full load of clothes. My mission will be to decrease the time it takes to do each load of laundry by ten minutes, or by thirty minutes when doing three loads. I aim to improve the process of doing laundry within three weeks of the last observation. Of course it will definitely be impossible to lessen the actual time it takes machine to process a load, so right now the purpose is to concentrate on decreasing the amount of time spent during the process of folding, sorting, and putting the clothes away.

During these steps of the ten-step process, my husband and I collected data twice in a week period. On Saturday and Sunday we took turns doing three loads of laundry each, ignoring any attempt to control the experiment. With each study accounted for the amount of time it took to finish a load of laundry. Please see the data graph below for a visual representation.

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The estimated normal for the to process a load of laundry is right around 80 minutes; this includes 50 minutes for drying and 30 minutes for the washing....