Mfg-A6 — Quality Planning, Control and Assurance
Basic concepts: planning, measurement, control, and improvement of quality. Economics of quality. Strategic planning of quality. Total quality management. Quality function organization. Motivation for quality. Statistical tools: tests, regression analysis, design and analysis of planned experiments, Taguchi methods, control charts for variables and attributes, capability analysis, acceptance sampling: single, multiple, sequential, MIL STD105 E, MIL STD 414, elements of reliability. Quality assurance: ISO/QS 9000, suppliers, audits, quality manual, certification.
Subject outline
Mfg-A6 Quality Planning, Control and Assurance is a Manufacturing Engineering technical exam (PEO National Examination 08-Mfg-A6) on planning quality into a product and then proving it: quality and its costs and the quality systems — ISO 9000, TQM and certification — the seven basic SPC tools, the variables charts (X̄–R and X̄–S), attribute charts (p, np, c, u and the demerit chart), Type I and Type II errors with the OC curve, ARL and chart design, CUSUM and EWMA, process capability and the three kinds of limits, design for quality through QFD and the Taguchi methods, design of experiments with factorials, blocking and fractions, and acceptance sampling with MIL-STD-105E.
The paper is 3 hours and closed book; the rubric permits one of two approved calculators, the Casio or the Sharp. Candidates may bring one aid sheet, 8½″ × 11″, written on both sides, and the statistical tables are attached to the paper — the cumulative normal table, the Appendix VI control-chart constants and the MIL-STD-105E code-letter and master tables come with every sitting, and the paper adds whichever of the F table or the normal probability paper its own question 5 needs, so none of them has to be memorised. Answer any five of the six questions: any five constitute a complete paper, only the first five as they appear in the answer book are marked, and all questions are of equal value at 20 marks.
The question papers are headed 17-Ind-A5 — the Industrial Engineering listing of the same examination. Same paper, same syllabus, two faculty codes.
What this course gives you
Worked solutions — all twelve questions from December 2018 and December 2019, solved in full. This subject has no published solutions and no published study notes at all: every solution, note, practice question and printable card here was written from scratch, and because there is nothing to check against, every number has been independently recomputed in a separate program — the control-chart limits, the ARL and sample-size work, the ANOVA, the fractional factorial and the MIL-STD-105E risks — with the working shown in full so you can audit it yourself. One finding is worth carrying into the exam hall: December 2018 Q2(c) cannot be answered as it is printed. An ARL of at least 100 against a 0.25σ drift caps the sample size at n ≤ 7, while a β of at most 0.30 against a 1.2σ shift demands n ≥ 9, so no sample size satisfies both. The solution works the contradiction out, gives three defensible ways to answer it, and shows the smallest design that does work — k = 3.15 with n = 10. Study notes — eleven condensed topics: how this paper works; quality and its costs and the quality systems; the seven basic SPC tools; the variables control charts, X̄–R and X̄–S; Type I and Type II errors with the OC curve, ARL and chart design; attribute charts; CUSUM and EWMA; process capability and the three kinds of limits; design for quality; design of experiments; and acceptance sampling — each pointing back at the exam questions it answers. Practice & case studies — ten multiple-choice questions and five longer problems, one of them a supplier-audit case study, with worked answers for every one. Formula sheet — two pages of chart limits, ARL, capability, design of experiments and sampling. This is a closed-book exam that allows one 8½″ × 11″ aid sheet written on both sides, and this sheet is that aid sheet. Printable resources — ten cards, including a "which chart do I use?" decision table and the step-by-step MIL-STD-105E procedure, plus four blank exam stationery templates. Practice papers — two unmarked question papers for a timed run: December 2019 and May 2019. May 2019 is a third sitting of this subject and ships as a paper only; the two sittings solved in full are the Decembers.
Throughout, 112 figures were drawn for this pack — 48 in the solutions and 64 in the notes — so the control charts, OC curves, capability pictures, effect plots and sampling curves are shown rather than described.