Several years ago, Roberson Robotics outsourced component BF-365, a key component of many of its products. At the time, CFO Sam Summers concluded that outsourcing was the correct decision, but she decided to revisit that decision after overhearing some conversations on the factory floor and in the cafeteria. Based on these conversations, she has gathered information about the materials quantity variance for the part, as well as on-time delivery information of the part from the supplier and on-time delivery of the finished products to customers. Roberson Robotics uses a just-in-time inventory system, so it receives multiple shipments of BF-365 each day. Summers has asked you to examine the data and provide insights about the continued desirability of outsourcing component BF-365. Required:
a. Prepare a scatterplot of late deliveries from the supplier and a scatterplot of missed customer delivery dates. What do you learn from these graphs?
b. Calculate the percentage of late deliveries from the supplier and the percentage of missed customer delivery dates.
c. Calculate the proportion of unfavorable materials quantity variances. How has the proportion of favorable to unfavorable variances changed over time? What do you infer about the quality of the outsourced component BF-365?
d. What other information would you like to examine before providing your insights about the outsourcing decision to Summers?