Lee VanBibber - Management

Glad you’re here. We’ve received several warning flags from the production line that our chips are getting crushed. There may be something wrong with our packaging process. We haven’t come up with a solution in a timely fashion and would appreciate your help.

Talk to Charlie Gomez at Station 7 and take a look at the data to determine if they’re out of control or within the upper and lower bounds. Be sure to look at the r chart. You may want to speak with the vendor tech, too. He provides the bags and he might have some input.

Let me know either way because I intend to use this issue to teach my folks on the line how to read the SPC data for Station 7.

Stephen Williams - Maintenance

Well, now that you mention it, I’ve been meaning to calibrate the glue guns on seven.

Rajesh Sharma - Vendor

Well it could be many things. Nitrogen is used to fill the bag, but the nitrogen cylinder is either empty or it is full. If it is full, a gas will expand to fill its capacity. If empty, crushed chips.

I remember one company I delivered to was having troubles with a cardboard container. The aluminum bottom kept coming off. After much deliberation they discovered the glue dispenser was clogged on just one side of the machine at the packaging station.

You know Confucius said, “By nature men are nearly alike; by practice they get to be wider apart.”

Mike Watts - Inspection

Welcome to the line, I’m Mike Watts. I’ve been talking to the boss about the problem, but we haven’t been able to pinpoint it. My best guess is that it is due to sorting or packaging. Talk to those station leaders and see what data and opinions they can offer.

Greg Herman - Peeling

Potato peels don’t have anything to do with crushed chips. Best of luck.

Norma Olson - Slicing

Oh, hey there hon, we met this morning. I heard they were having problems with packaging but I don’t think I can help. Perhaps talk to station 6 and 7.

Bear Hannighan - Frying

Bear grumbles something inaudible, shakes his head and points to Charlie Gomez at packaging.

Rachelle Scott - Seasoning

Probably Charlie’s boys at packaging, certainly not us.

Sandra Deak - Sorting

Crushed chips could point to my sorting department, to packing, or something that occurs once the chips have left the facility.

Here at Sorting, we have to make sure the chips are even on the conveyor before they hit packaging. If they’re not, some bags could be over-filled and get crushed up pretty good before they hit the party bowl.

That said, I run a pretty tight ship here at Sorting and I just got finished running the numbers. We’re totally within bounds.

Charlie Gomez - Packaging

Ah, man! Crushed chips sounds like a problem with my department. I thought we were running smooth. We just got a new guy on the line and he may need some additional training. Here’s the recent data.

I reviewed it a few days back … or maybe it was Monday. Ah, man, this is gonna be my fault! We should have been paying more attention to the glue guns. Let’s dig up the latest data sets and see how they compare to our 99% coverage threshold.