Statistical Process Control

An Old Story
abridged from ‘Right First Time’

• An entrepreneur knows of a business

opportunity of supplying plastic discs between
diameter 39.5 mm to 40.5 mm. Each disc costs
about Rs. 28 and the margin is Rs. 2
Injection Moulding
Injection Moulding
 An Old Story
abridged from ‘Right First Time’

• An entrepreneur knows of a business

opportunity of supplying plastic discs between
diameter 39.5 mm to 40.5 mm. Each disc costs
about Rs. 28 and the margin is Rs. 2
• As a matter of caution, he moulds a sample lot
of 32 discs, measures their diameter, finds all
are within the range, except one which is on the
fringe.
• Decides that now production can start
• Asking the production manager to be careful, he
produces first lot of 10,000 discs, sends to the
customer with an invoice of Rs. 300,000, hoping
for a profit of Rs. 20,000
 An Old Story
Continued ….

• Three days later, the discs are rejected, with a

note stating that they have more than 5%
defectives. (i.e. too small or too large discs)
• Determined not to give up, the entrepreneur
develops two gauges, puts a few spinsters to
sort out discs. They find 9300 good discs.
Go Gauge
No Go Gauge
40.5001
39.4999
 An Old Story
Continued ….

• Determined not to give up, the entrepreneur

develops two gauges, puts a few spinsters to
sort out discs. They find 9300 good discs.
• Finally sends 9300 discs.
• This whole business of inspection costs him 3
days & Rs. 21,000 considering the cost of
rejected discs & wages.
• The customer however accepts this lot and
places a trial order of 100,000 discs.
 An Old Story
Continued ….

• Determined not to loose money this time, he

cautions the production manager to be extra
careful
• A quality inspector is recruited to check the
diameter of sample discs every hour and report
if any defective is found.
• The moment a defective is found, the production
manager swings into action, adjusting a few
parameters to bring the deviation in control.
• After spending about 6 days & nearly Rs
28,00,00, the lot of 100,000 discs is sent with an
invoice for Rs. 30,00,000
 An Old Story
Continued ….

After 4 days,
…
…
…
…
A large parcel of 100,000 discs arrives in place of
a cheque for Rs. 30,00,000
 An Old Story
Continued ….

• What Went Wrong?

– Error 1 : Threw away data on process capability
– Error 2 : Inspection is not quality control
– Error 3 : Introduction of variability in the process
• 4 Questions for SPC
– Can we make it right? Process Capability
– Are we making it right? Process Control
– Have we made it right? Quality Assurance
– Can we make it better? Process Improvement
 Some Facts
• Any process, however well controlled,
produces an output with some variation
within.
• Most process variation follows a pattern
called normal distribution
• An important property of normal
distribution is that nearly 99.5% of output
is within Mean ± 3 * SD
• For a process to be suitable, this variation
should be smaller than specifications
 An Old Story
Continued ….

• What Should have been done

• Use the data of 32 discs to determine the Mean
and SD of the process
– For a sufficiently large sample (at least 20), Sample
Mean = Population Mean. Sample SD = Population
SD / √(sample size)
– Generally Population Mean ± 3* Population SD
covers nearly 99.5% of population
• Determine if process is capable to meet
specifications
• Use Process Control Charts
 Types of Control Charts
• Control Charts for Variables
– Mean X and R Chart
• Control Charts for Attributes
– Control Chart for fraction defectives
• p Chart & np chart
– Control Chart for non-conformities
• c Chart
• u chart
• demerit system
• Cumsum & Moving Average Charts
 General Procedure for Use of
Control Charts
• Determine Process Capability
• Determine Sample Size
• Determine Center-Line and Upper and
Lower Control Limits
• Take Periodic Sample and Plot the results
on the chart
 Control Charts for Variables
• Mean X & R chart
– How to plot Mean X Chart
– How to plot R chart
– Interpretation
Mean X Chart R Chart
LCL  x  A2 * R LCL  D3 * R
CL  x CL  R
ULC  x  A2 * R UCL  D4 * R
 Control Charts for Variables
• Mean X & R chart
– How to plot Mean X Chart
– How to plot R chart
– Interpretation
Mean X Chart R Chart
LCL  x  3 * SD ( pop ) / n LCL  D1* SD( pop )
CL  x CL  d 2 * SD( pop )
ULC  x  3 * SD ( pop ) / n UCL  D 2 * SD( pop )
 Table for Mean X & R Charts
n A2 D3 D4 d2 D1 D2
2 1.880 0.000 3.267 1.128 0 3.69
3 1.023 0.000 2.574 1.693 0 4.36
4 0.729 0.000 2.282 2.059 0 4.7
5 0.577 0.000 2.115 2.326 0 4.92
6 0.483 0.000 2.004 2.534 0 5.08
7 0.419 0.076 1.924 2.704 0.2 5.2
8 0.373 0.136 1.864 2.847 0.39 5.31
9 0.337 0.184 1.816 2.970 0.55 5.39
10 0.308 0.223 1.777 3.078 0.69 5.47
 How to create
Mean X and R Chart
• Note the Mean µ, and Mean R of the sample
used for determining process capability.
Generally σ is used in place of Mean R if
sample size is more than 20
• Select appropriate sample size, normally 4-
10
• Calculate CL, LCL and UCL for Mean X and
R chart
• For every sample, calculate mean X and R
and plot on chart
 How to create
Mean X and R Chart
• Note the Mean µ - 50.2 gm, and Mean R –
1.8 gm of the sample used for determining
process capability. Select appropriate
sample size, say 6
• LCL, CL and UCL for Mean X chart are
49.33, 50.2 & 51.07 and for R chart, they
are 0, 1.8 & 3.6.
• For every sample, calculate mean X and R
and plot on chart
 Mean X Chart

24.32

23.32

22.32

21.32 Mean X

20.32 CL

19.32 LCL

18.32 UCL

17.32

16.32

15.32
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Sample No
 R Chart

12

10

8
CL

UCL
6
LCL

4 Range

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
 Interpretation of charts
• Cyclic Pattern
• Mixture- Two or more overlapping
distributions
• A Shift (5 or more consecutive readings on
one side of mean)
• Trend
 Mean X Chart - CYCLIC

24.32

23.32

22.32

Mean X
21.32

20.32 CL

19.32 LCL

18.32 UCL

17.32

16.32

15.32
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Sample No
 R Chart - Mixture

12

10

8
CL

UCL
6

LCL

4 Range

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
 Mean X Chart - Shift

24.32

23.32

22.32

Mean X
21.32

20.32 CL

19.32 LCL

18.32 UCL

17.32

16.32

15.32
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Sample No
 Mean X Chart - Trend

24.32

23.32

22.32

Mean X
21.32

20.32 CL

19.32 LCL

18.32 UCL

17.32

16.32

15.32
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Sample No
 Type I & Type II errors
• Type I error
– False alarm when process is in control
– Risk of committing this error is denoted by α
• Type II error
– No alarm when process has gone out of
control
– Risk of committing this error is denoted by β
 Acceptance Sampling
• A method to evaluate quality post-production.
Used extensively to check in-coming quality
• From a lot of N pieces, a sample of n pieces is
drawn & inspected. The lot is rejected if more
than a defectives are found in the lot.
• When using this method, there are 2 risks, viz.
Producers risk – α and Consumer’s risk – β
• For a given sampling Plan, the OC curve shows
the risks
 Typical OC Curve
Producer’s
OC Curve for (100,5) Sampling Plan Risk

100.0%
90.0%
80.0%
70.0%
60.0%
50.0%
Plan
Pa 40.0%
Ideal
30.0%
20.0%
Consumer’s
10.0% Risk
0.0%

Actual Defective % in lot

 Process Capability
• Estimate SD of process from average range
• Calculate PCR as
USL  LSL
6 * SD
• If PCR > 1, process is capable to meet
requirements.
• For stable process, both CPK(LCL) and CPK(UCL)
must be greater than 1
• Say requirements are 40±0.5, Mean is 40.1 and SD
is .15. PCR>1, but CP (LCL & UCL) both not
greater than 1. Mean needs to be adjusted between
39.95 and 40.05