Scenario Analysis: Computer Chips

Description

Knowledge of statistics is important foundational knowledge for analyzing data. Equally important is what you can do with that information. An overarching goal of this course is to consider how statistics informs decision making, or data-based decision making. Throughout this course, you will be asked to make decisions and then to consider the impact of those choices. Whether in stock trading, in car sales, or on the production floor, the decisions you make as a business professional should be directly influenced by the data available to you. Careful analysis is the key to data-based decision making.

A manufacturer of computer chips has a computer hardware company as its largest customer. The computer hardware company requires all of its chips to meet specifications of 1.2 cm. The vice-president of manufacturing, concerned about a possible loss of sales, assigns his production manager the task of ensuring that chips are produced to meet the specification of 1.2 cm.

Based on the production run from last month, a 95% confidence interval was computed for the mean length of a computer chip resulting in:
95% confidence interval: (0.9 cm, 1.1 cm)

1. What are the elements that the production manager should consider in determining his company’s ability to produce chips that meet specifications?
2. Do the chips produced meet the desired specifications?
3. What reasons should the production manager provide to the vice-president to justify that the production team is meeting specifications?
4. How will this decision impact the chip manufacturer’s sales and net profit?

Your analysis of the scenario must be submitted as a 1- to 2-page Microsoft Word document with double spacing and 12-point Times New Roman font.