Re: two factories, different profile, how to compare?

On 19 Sep 2006 18:24:24 -0700, peter.anderson.1969@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

fellow experts,

lets say I have 2 factories. One in China, the other in Taiwan. Both
are identical, containing the same machines, same brand, manufacture
the same item. All factors are same except their age are different.
This is because the factory in china started operation in 2005 while
that in Taiwan started way in 1995.

As you know machines do breakdown, lets assume that there are 10
machines in each factories.

China - 10 machines, all are 1 years old
Taiwan - 10 machines, all are 10 years old

So now I want to compare the 2006 performance of both factories in
terms of their breakdown trends. plotting their cumulative failure
function, i found out that the curve belonging to Taiwan is much
steeper than China. Meaning the rate of failure is much higher in
Taiwan.

My engineers in Taiwan protest saying that the machines in taiwan are
much older, therefore my way of comparing is not fair.

What in you opinion should I compare, such that everyone is satisfied
that it is a fair comparison?

For starters -
Show the whole ten-year curve for Taiwan. Is there any
reason that "2006" should affect the performance of the
machines, or is it age alone?

That gives a one-sided look, because "corporate experience"
or machine upgrades, etc., should only improve the chance
of the new factory to look better. If both looked fine in year
one, then perhaps everything looks fine.

If the failure rates are the same, or if China looks worse,
that should satisfy Taiwan. And raise some questions.
Is anything else different?

--
Rich Ulrich, wpilib@xxxxxxxx
http://www.pitt.edu/~wpilib/index.html
.

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