Question

improving a process means ______ by finding the causes of variation and eliminating them.

reducing the process average
maintaining the process average
reducing process variation
maintaining process variation

Explanation:

To determine the correct answer, we analyze the concept of process improvement. The question states that improving a process involves finding the causes of variation and eliminating them.

• "Reducing the process average" is incorrect because process improvement isn't about reducing the average (the target value might be appropriate).
• "Maintaining the process average" is not about improvement through variation elimination.
• "Reducing process variation" makes sense because eliminating causes of variation would decrease how much the process output varies.
• "Maintaining process variation" is the opposite of improvement, as we want to reduce unwanted variation.

Answer:

C. reducing process variation