Foundational Concepts & Principles Flashcards
7 cards from real CPS practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Foundational Concepts & Principles flashcards as text
When a process is described as 'in a state of statistical control,' it means:
Answer: Only common cause variation is present and the process behaves predictably
A statistically controlled process exhibits only random (common cause) variation, making future behavior predictable within a range, though it may still produce nonconformances.
Which of the following scenarios represents a 'special cause' of variation?
Answer: A sudden spike in defect rate traced to a single miscalibrated gauge
Special (assignable) causes are specific, identifiable events — like equipment failure or a bad material lot — that are not part of the normal process system.
A process with high effectiveness but low efficiency would most likely be characterized by:
Answer: Meeting customer requirements but consuming excessive resources or time to do so
Such a process delivers the right outcome (effective) but wastes significant resources — time, materials, labor — to achieve it (inefficient).
The primary goal of process documentation is to:
Answer: Capture and communicate how the process works so it can be performed consistently, measured, and improved
Good process documentation enables consistent execution across people and time, provides the baseline for measurement, and supports disciplined improvement efforts.
In a process context, 'throughput' refers to:
Answer: The rate at which a process produces conforming outputs over a given time period
Throughput is the rate of output — typically units per hour or per day — and is directly constrained by the bottleneck or system constraint in the process.
Which of the following best defines 'non-value-added' (NVA) activity in a process?
Answer: An activity that consumes resources but does not transform the product or service in a way the customer values or requires
NVA activities — such as waiting, excessive transport, rework, and over-processing — consume cost and time without contributing to customer-valued transformation.
The relationship between process capability and process performance is best described as:
Answer: Capability (Cp/Cpk) measures potential based on short-term variation; performance (Pp/Ppk) reflects actual long-term variation including all sources
Capability indices use within-subgroup variation to estimate process potential, while performance indices use total long-term variation, typically yielding lower index values when drift or shifts occur.