1. Operations Management Dr. Ron Lembke
Candy Capability
Operations Management
Dr. Ron Lembke

2. Tolerance Limits for food?
Underfilling who would notice?
Overfilling – would anyone care?

3. Packaged Goods What are the Tolerance Levels?
What we have to do to measure capability?
What are the sources of variability?

4. Production Process Mix % Wrong wt. Wrong wt. Candy irregularity
Make Candy
Make Candy
Make Candy
Mix
Package
Put in big bags
Make Candy
Mix %
Wrong wt.
Wrong wt.
Make Candy
Make Candy
Candy irregularity

5. Weighing Package and all candies
Before placing candy on scale, press “ON/TARE” button
Wait for 0.00 to appear
If it doesn’t say “g”, press Cal/Mode button a few times
Write weight down on form

6. Candy colors Write Name on form Write weight on form
Write Package # on form
Count # of each color and write on form
Count total # of candies and write on form
(Advanced only): Eat candies
Turn in forms and complete wrappers

7. Your Job Write down package # Optional:
Weigh package and candies, all together, in grams and ounces
Write down weights on form
Optional:
Open package, count total # candies
Count # of each color
Write down
Eat candies
Turn in form and empty complete wrappers for weighing

8. Grams or Ounces?

9. Peanut Candy Weights
Avg. 2.18, stdv 0.242, c.v. = 0.111

10. Plain Candy Weights
Avg 0.858, StDev 0.035, C.V

11. Mini Candy Weights
Avg 0.288, StDev 0.020, C.V

12. Peanut Color Mix website Brown 17.7% 20% Yellow 8.2% 20% Red 9.5% 20%
Blue 15.4% 20%
Orange 26.4% 10%
Green 22.7% 10%

13. Plain Color Mix Class website Brown 12.1% 30% Yellow 14.7% 20%
Red 11.4% 20%
Blue 19.5% 10%
Orange 21.2% 10%
Green 21.2% 10%

14. So who cares? Dept. of Commerce
National Institutes of Standards & Technology
NIST Handbook 133
Fair Packaging and Labeling Act

15. NIST Fines
Don’t get caught
It’s embarassing
You’ll look dumb

16. How Many Servings? 264.8g /36g = 7.35 servings

17. Not for Retail Sale Why Not? Ingredients Nutritional information
Peanut/allergy information
Need room for cute pics
Process variability?

18. Acceptable?

19. Sampling Plans for Category A

20. Package Weight “Not Labeled for Individual Retail Sale”
If individual is 18g
MAV is 10% = 1.8g
Nothing can be below 18g – 1.8g = 16.2g

21. Too Much Variability
10.9% of sample below 16.2g! Avg= 17.57, stdev 1.42

22. Suppose they wanted to Stated weight = 18g, MAV = 16.2g
Suppose want 99.7% chance nothing below MAV
Set the average to be 3σ above MAV
σ = 1.42g, so set Avg = *1.42 = 20.46
You pay for 18g, they give you 20.46g!
13.7% Free! They have to give away 1/7th of the candy!
Clearly, they aren’t going to do this!

23. Summary Many reasons M&M’s “Not for Individual Sale”
Process variability seems to be an important one, if not the major one
Process variability is a very important consideration for companies.
BTW, one bag was 223.6g < 264.8