GAT Quality Assurance and Improvement 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A team discovers that 80% of defects come from 20% of process steps. Which quality tool best illustrates this finding?
- Control chart
- Pareto chart (Correct answer)
- Scatter diagram
- Histogram
Correct answer: Pareto chart
A Pareto chart visualizes the 80/20 rule by ranking defect causes from most to least frequent.
Question 2: Which of the following best describes 'process capability'?
- The maximum output a process can produce per hour
- The ability of a process to meet specified tolerances consistently (Correct answer)
- The number of employees trained on a process
- The cost required to run a process continuously
Correct answer: The ability of a process to meet specified tolerances consistently
Process capability measures how well a process produces output within defined specification limits.
Question 3: A quality inspector uses random sampling to test products without destroying them. What sampling approach is this?
- 100% inspection
- Acceptance sampling (Correct answer)
- Process audit
- Corrective sampling
Correct answer: Acceptance sampling
Acceptance sampling tests a random subset of a batch to decide whether to accept or reject the entire lot.
Question 4: Which quality philosophy emphasizes that quality should be built into the product rather than inspected in?
- Philip Crosby
- Walter Shewhart
- Joseph Juran
- W. Edwards Deming (Correct answer)
Correct answer: W. Edwards Deming
Deming advocated building quality into processes from the start rather than relying on final inspection.
Question 5: What does a fishbone (Ishikawa) diagram primarily help teams identify?
- The frequency of defects over time
- Potential root causes of a quality problem (Correct answer)
- The relationship between two quality variables
- The control limits for a process
Correct answer: Potential root causes of a quality problem
A fishbone diagram organizes potential causes of a problem into categories to support root cause analysis.
Question 6: A manufacturer sets upper and lower specification limits at ±3 standard deviations from the mean. Approximately what percentage of output falls within these limits?
- 68%
- 95%
- 99.7% (Correct answer)
- 100%
Correct answer: 99.7%
In a normal distribution, ±3 standard deviations from the mean captures approximately 99.7% of all values.
Question 7: A control chart shows several consecutive data points trending steadily upward, all within control limits. What does this indicate?
- The process is in statistical control
- A non-random pattern suggesting a special cause (Correct answer)
- Normal random variation
- The process capability is high
Correct answer: A non-random pattern suggesting a special cause
A run of consecutive points trending in one direction is a non-random signal that warrants investigation, even within limits.
GAT Quality Assurance and Improvement 2
A team discovers that 80% of defects come from 20% of process steps.
Which quality tool best illustrates this finding?