Quality Engineering Associate – Pre interview questions
Quality Engineering Associate – Pre interview questions
Waste Conversion LTD is a company that treats organic waste using worms to form organic fertilizer and an insect based animal feed. In this simplified process, different types of organic waste (cabbages, bananas, tomatoes, manure…etc) are delivered to the factory using trucks. As a pre-processing step, an industrial waste mixer is used to mix the waste at different predetermined compositions to form several recipe batches. These waste recipe batches are A, B, C and E.
Depending on the production plan, a predetermined number of beds (with unique identifiers) are loaded with the batches of waste at different recipes. Typically, one bed is loaded with one mixed waste batch that weighs 1500 kilograms. Thereafter, young/small worms at either of two loading densities (17.8 kg or 32 kg) are added to the beds and left to feed on the waste for a specified amount of days. After the days have passed, the grown/adult worms are harvested from the beds and weighed – from which growth factors are calculated. The remaining waste/compost is routed to the next processing step.
Please use the data sheet provided (excel workbook) labeled “Quality Engineering Team Interview Questions - Excel” to answer the questions below.
1. Please review the database (excel workbook) provided and do the following: a. Using measures of central tendencies, develop a dashboard on MS Excel or
Google Sheets showing both weekly and monthly production performance at loading densities of 17.8 kgs and 32 kgs with regard to: (1) Growth factors and (2) Feed yields. In this analysis, clearly distinguish between production beds with a cycle time below 17 days and those with cycle times above 18 days.
b. Improve on the above by developing a control chart displaying daily production performance with regard to growth factors for beds with cycle times below 11 days at loading densities of 17.8 kgs. Include upper and lower control limits to the plots.
2. Typically, waste mixed with the recipe A composition is used owing to higher historical yields. However, during the production period (Jan to October 2018), it was noted that the worm growth factor varied significantly when recipes B, C and E were used at different loading densities (17.8 kg and 32 kg). As the quality engineering associate, please use analysis of variance or other known statistical methods to answer the following pending questions (using the data in the spreadsheet):
a. Is it best to use recipe A for all beds at any loading density? b. In the event that recipe A is not available, what recipes (between B, C and E) do
you recommend using and at what loading density? Please give these in descending order based on growth factors.
Please note that the data is not clean i.e. there are outliers as well as missing data points. All definitions have been provided in the data sheet (excel workbook)
Please provide your answers/responses in the MS Excel with referenced calculations/analyses where necessary. If successful, note that you will be required to interpret your responses in detail.
3. A supervisor was walking into a processing area, he noticed a small pool of water on the floor. He called the crew lead and instructed him to have the floor mopped/dried. After 5 minutes the crew lead noticed that the pool of water was building up again.With the help of other operators they noticed that there was a steam pipe that was leaking. Using one of the root cause analysis tools, briefly illustrate on an excel sheet/google sheet how you would conduct the root cause analysis.
4. From question 2 above, identify the corrective and preventive actions that the supervisor should have taken.
5. Biomass briquettes is one of the products produced at Sanergy used as a source of fuel/energy. The briquette manufacturing process uses different recipes that involve mixing two or more waste substances (Feedstocks). During the manufacturing process, we have 2 feedstocks,A and B that have to be mixed at a ratio of 60:40. The mixed feedstocks need to be dried to achieve a moisture content of between 5% to 10%. Additionally, the mixed feedstock should be free of physical contaminants like plastic papers, metallic and glass pieces e.t.c. With this in mind, develop a monitoring record sheet to be used to ensure we produce quality briquettes (use random values)
6. A Quality Associate is tasked with the responsibility of coming up with and implementing a new sampling procedure for the GIGO checks. Before implementation of the sampling procedure, the Quality Associate will need to have a discussion with all stakeholders about his/her plans and incorporate their recommendations and suggestions into those plans.
The Quality Associate will also need to test out the new sampling method and make any changes/improvements from insights gathered from the test. The next step will be to create a draft standard operating procedure for the method and have it approved by all the relevant stakeholders.
Upon approval he/she will need to put in place work instructions for the procedures and train the team on the new method.Afterwards, he/she will need to track the process for a period of time before full handover of the new method to the team.
i. Prepare a project plan outlining the steps to take th.is idea from the ideation stage to
implementation of updated specifications in the factory. Build a schedule for this project with a Gantt view, and list out your assumptions where you have made them.
ii. How can you accelerate your project timeline?
iii. What risks or costs does that introduce?
iv. How could you manage those risks?