Statistical Quality

Control
Quality Definition
 Quality is defined as the “totality of features and
characteristics of a product or service that bears
on its ability to satisfy given needs.”
 Organizations recognize that to be competitive in
today’s global economy, they must strive for high
levels of quality.
 As a result, an increased emphasis falls on
methods for monitoring and maintaining quality.
Quality Assurance
 Quality assurance refers to the entire
system of policies, procedures, and
guidelines establish by an organization to
achieve and maintain quality.
 Quality assurance consists of two principal
functions:
 Quality engineering
 Quality control
 The objective of quality engineering is to
include quality in the design of the
products and processes and to identify
potential quality problems prior to
production.
 Quality control consists of making a series
of inspections and measurements to
determine whether quality standards are
being met.
 If quality standards are not being met ,
corrective and/ or preventive action can be
taken to achieve and maintain
conformance.
Statistical Process Control
 Despite high standards of quality in
manufacturing and production operations,
machine tools will invariably wear out,
vibrations will throw machines settings out
of adjustment, purchased materials will be
defective, and human operators will make
mistakes. Any or all of these factors can
result in poor quality output.
 Fortunately, procedures are available for
monitoring production output so that poor
quality can be detected early and the
production process can be adjusted or
corrected.
If the variation in the quality of the
production output is due to assignable
causes such as tools wearing out,
incorrect machine settings, poor quality
raw materials, or operator error, the
process should be adjusted or corrected
as soon as possible.
 Alternatively, if variation is due to
common causes – that is, temperature,
humidity and so on, which the
manufacturer cannot possibly control- the
process does not need to be adjusted.
 The main objective of the statistical
process control is to determine whether
variations in the output are due to
assignable causes or common causes.
Control Charts
 Control charts show a step by step
approach to statistical process control.
 Major Parts of Control Chart
Out of Control
Quality
Scale (Upper Control Limit)
UCL

3 sigma

(Central Line)
Value
Average

3 sigma
(Lower Control Limit)
LCL
Out of Control

1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Sample (Sub-group) Number
 x CHARTS: Control charts for Process Means

 In order to ascertain whether the process

is in control or out of control, x - charts are
connected.
 In regard to the process output, there is an
assumption of normality where µ and σ
are known, though in many situations this
assumption may not hold good.
 The construction of x - chart needs the
value of µ and σ and also a sample size
n.
 There are three lines in a x control chart.
 The center line, µx
 The upper Control Limit (UCL), µ x + 3σ
 The Lower Control Limit (LCL), µ − 3σ
x
Example
 A company is engaged in the manufacture of
battery cells in its plant. The process is said to
be under control if the mean life of battery cells
is 1,200 hrs with a standard deviation of 75 hrs.
 Considering these values to be the process
average and process dispersion.
 You are required to determine the 3 – sigma
control limits for - chart for samples of size 16.

x
Solution:
Given µ = 1200 hrs σ = 75 hrs and n = 16
UCL = µ + 3σ / n
= 1200 + 3(75/ 16 )
= 1256 .25
LCL = µ − 3σ / n
= 1200 − 3(75/ 16 )
= 1143 .75
x CHARTS: when µ and σare not known
3R
UCL = x +
d2 n
3R
LCL = x −
d2 n
Example
 A company manufactures tyres. A quality
control engineer is responsible to ensure
that the tyres turned out are fit for use up
to 40,000 km.
 He monitors the life of the output from the
production process.
 From each of the 10 batches of 900 tyres,
he has tested 5 tyres and recorded the
following data, with x and R measured in
thousands of km.
Batch 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

x 40.2 43.1 42.4 39.8 43.1 41.5 40.7 39.2 38.9

41.9
R
1.3 1.5 1.8 0.6 2.1 1.4 1.6 1.1 1.3 1.5

x=
∑ x 410 .8
= = 41 .08
k 10

R=
∑ R 14 .2
= = 1.42
k 10
CL = 41 .08
3R 3(1.42 )
UCL = x + = 41 .08 + = 41 .9
d2 n 2.326 × 5
3R 3(1.42 )
LCL = x − = 41 .08 + = 40 .26
d2 n 2.326 × 5
R-Charts: Control Charts for Process
Variability
 R-chart can be used to control the
variability of a process.
 To develop the R-chart, we need to think
of the range of a sample as a random
variable with its own mean and standard
deviation.
 3d 3 R  3d 3 
UCL = R + = R1 + 
d2  d2 
3d 3 R  3d 3 
UCL = R − = R1 − 
d2  d2 
It may be noted as these limits are also calculated as:

3d 3
UCL = RD4 , where D4 = 1 +
d2
3d 3
LCL = RD3 , where D3 = 1 −
d2
 We have to determine the UCL and LCL
by applying the formula:
 3d 3 
UCL = R1 + 
 d2 
 3(0.864) 
= 1.421 +  = 2.996 or 3 approx
 2.326 
 3d 3 
LCL = R1 − 
 d2 
 3(0.864) 
= 1.421 −  = −0.156 (to be taken as 0)
 2.326 