Individual assignment
1. A work sampling study was performed during a 2-hour final exam to determine
the proportion of time that students spend using a calculator. There were 60
students taking the exam. A total of five observations were taken of each
student at random times during the 3 hours. Of the total observations taken,
80 of the observations found the students using their calculators. (a) Form a
90% confidence interval on the proportion of time students spend using their
calculators during an exam. (b) How many observations must be taken for the
analyst to be 95% confident that the estimate of proportion of time a student
uses a calculator is within ± 3% of the true proportion?
Individual assignment
2. The Chief Industrial Engineer in the production department wanted to know
what value of PFD allowance to use for a particular section of the shop. A work
sampling study was authorized. Only three activity categories were considered:
(1) production work, (2) personal time, rest breaks, and delays, and (3) other
activities. Over a 4-week period (40 hours/week), 100 observations were made
at random times. Each observation captured the category of activity of each of
22 production workers in the shop section of interest. Results indicated that
category 2 constituted 19% of the total observations. (a) Define the limits of a
95% confidence interval for activity 2. (b) If a total of 522 work units were
produced during the 4 weeks, and the 1540 observations in category 1 were all
devoted to producing these units, what was the average time spent on each
unit?
Individual assigment
3. A work sampling study was performed on 15 social workers in a county government office. The
social workers handle three types of cases: A, single parents; B, foster parents; and C, juvenile
delinquents. The purpose of the work sampling study was to determine estimates of the
average time per case for each case type. In addition to the three case types, two additional
activity categories were included in the study: D, traveling between cases; and E, other
(miscellaneous) activities. The study was carried out over a 5-week period (25 eight-hour days
or 200 working hours). Observations were taken at random times four times each day for 25
days, for a planned total of 1500 observations (4 × 25 × 15). Social workers were provided with
cell phones so they could be contacted if they were not in the office building. Because of
worker absences, 72 observations were omitted (18 worker-days of absences). The results of
the study are presented in the table below. (a) What is the mean time per case for each of the
three case types? (b) What is the average travel time spent on a case? (c) For the C type cases,
construct a 92.5% confidence interval about the mean case time.
