Statistical Process Control

and Quality Management

Chapter 19

McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2012 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Learning Objectives
LO1 Explain the purpose of quality control in production and service
operations.
LO2 Discuss the two causes of process variation.
LO3 Use a Pareto chart to identify sources of variation.
LO4 Construct and interpret a fishbone diagram.
LO5 Compare an attribute versus a variable measure of quality.
LO6 Compute upper and lower control limits for mean and range
charts.
LO7 Compare in-control and out-of-control quality control charts.
LO8 Construct and interpret percent defective and a c-bar charts.
LO9 Explain the process of acceptance sampling.
LO10 Describe an operating characteristic curve for a sampling
plan.

19-2
 LO2 Discuss the two causes of
process variation.

Control Charts, Six-Sigma and Variation

Statistical Quality Control emphasizes in-process control with the objective of controlling the quality of a
manufacturing process or service operation using sampling techniques.
 Statistical sampling techniques are used to aid in the manufacturing of a product to specifications rather than
attempt to inspect quality into the product after it is manufactured.
 Control Charts are useful for monitoring a process.

SIX SIGMA
 Six Sigma is a typical program designed to improve quality and performance throughout the company.
 It combines methodology, tools, software, and education to deliver a completely integrated approach to waste
elimination and process capability improvement.
 The approach requires defining the process function; identifying, collecting, and analyzing data; creating and
consolidating information into useful knowledge; and the communication and application of such knowledge to
reduce variation.
 Six Sigma gets its name from the normal distribution. The term sigma means standard deviation, and “plus or minus”
three standard deviations gives a total range of six standard deviations.
 So Six Sigma means having no more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities in any process, product, or service.

CAUSES OF VARIATION
All parts produced by a manufacturing process contain variation. The two sources of variation are:
Chance Variation is random in nature and cannot be entirely eliminated unless there is a major change in the
techniques, technologies, methods, equipment, or materials used in the process.
Assignable Variation is nonrandom in nature and can be reduced or eliminated by investigating the problem and
finding the cause.

19-3
 LO3 Use a Pareto chart to
identify sources of variation.
Diagnostic Charts
There are a variety of
diagnostic techniques
available to investigate
quality problems.

Two of the more

prominent of these
techniques are Pareto
charts and fishbone
diagrams.

19-4
 LO3
EXAMPLE

Pareto Charts The city manager of Grove City, Utah, is concerned

with water usage in single family homes. To
investigate, she selects a sample of 100 homes and
determines the typical daily water usage for various
purposes. The sample results are as follows.
 Pareto analysis is a technique for
tallying the number and type of
defects that happen within a product
or service.
 The chart is named after a
nineteenth-century Italian scientist,
Vilfredo Pareto. He noted that most
of the “activity” in a process is
caused by relatively few of the
“factors.”
 Pareto’s concept, often called the
80–20 rule, is that 80 percent of the
activity is caused by 20 percent of
the factors. By concentrating on 20
percent of the factors, managers
can attack 80 percent of the
problem.

19-5
 LO4 Construct and interpret a
fishbone diagram.

Fishbone Diagrams
Another diagnostic chart is a cause-and-effect
diagram or a fishbone diagram. It is called a
cause-and-effect diagram to emphasize the
relationship between an effect and a set of
possible causes that produce the particular
effect.

This diagram is useful to help organize ideas

and to identify relationships. It is a tool that
encourages open brainstorming for ideas. By
identifying these relationships we can
determine factors that are the cause of
variability in our process.

19-6
 LO6 Compute upper and lower control
limits for mean and range charts.

Mean and Range Chart for Variables

CONTROL CHARTS
 The
__ _______
purpose __
of quality-control
_______ _______ charts
______
is to portray
__ __ _______
graphically
___________
when an assignable
____ __ cause
__________
enters _____
the
______ ___system
production __________
so that______
it can be
__identified
____ __ and
___ corrected.
__ __________ ___ _________
 This
___ is
__accomplished
____________ by__
periodically
____________
selecting
_________
a random_ sample
______ from
______
the ____
current
___production.
_______ __________

A____
mean__or___
the_x-bar
___ _____
chart is
__designed
________ to__
control
_______
variables
_________
such as
____
weight,
__ ______
length, etc.
______
The ___
upper __
control
_____limit
_______
(UCL) and_____
the lower___
control
___limit
_____(LCL)
_______
are obtained
_____ from___
the________
equation: ____ ___ ________
UCL  X  A2 R and LCL  X  A2 R

A_____
range_____
chart shows
_____ ___
the variation
_________ in the
__ ___
sample
______
ranges.
______
UCL  D4 R and LCL  D3 R

Where:
n is the sample size
X is the mean of the sample means
R is the mean of the ranges
D3 and D4 values are found in Appendix B.8

19-7
 LO6
Mean Chart for Variables - Example

Statistical Software, Inc., offers a toll-free number

where customers can call with problems involving
the use of their products from 7 A.M. until 11 P.M.
daily. It is impossible to have every call answered
immediately by a technical representative, but it is
important customers do not wait too long for a
person to come on the line. Customers become
upset when they hear the message “Your call is
important to us. The next available representative
will be with you shortly” too many times. To
understand its process, Statistical Software
decides to develop a control chart describing the
total time from when a call is received until the
representative answers the call and resolves the
issue raised by the caller. Yesterday, for the 16
hours of operation, five calls were sampled each
hour. This information is on the table, in minutes,
until the issue was resolved.
Based on this information, develop a control chart
for the mean duration of the call. Does there
appear to be a trend in the calling times? Is there
any period in which it appears that customers wait
longer than others?

150.60 102
X  9.413 R  6.375
16 16
19-8
 LO6
Mean Chart for Variables - Example

UCL  X  A2 R
 9.413  (.577 )( 6.375 )
 13.091

LCL  X  A2 R
 9.413  (.577)(6.375)
 5.735
19-9
 LO6

Range Chart - Example

EXAMPLE
The length of time customers of
Statistical Software, Inc., waited from the
time their call was answered until a
technical representative answered their
question or solved their problem is
recorded in Table 19–1.
Develop a control chart for the range.
Does it appear that there is any time
when there is too much variation in the
operation?

UCL  D4 R
 2.115(6.375)
 13.483 102
R  6.375
16

LCL  D3 R
 0(6.375)
0

19-10
 LO7 Compare in-control and out-of-
control quality control charts.
Process In-Control?

NO. Mean is OK but not range

YES. Both mean and range charts are in control

NO. Range is OK but not Mean

19-11
 LO8 Construct and interpret percent
defective and c-bar charts.
Attribute Control Chart – The p-Chart
EXAMPLE
Jersey Glass Company, Inc., produces small hand mirrors.
The
__ _______
percent _________
defective chart
_____
is __
also Jersey Glass runs a day and evening shift each weekday. Each
____ ______
called a p-chart_ _or
_____
the p-bar
__ ___ day, the quality assurance department (QA) monitors the quality
_ ___ _____
chart. It graphically
_ ___________
shows the of the mirrors twice during the day shift and twice during the
_____ ___ of
proportion __________
the production
__ ___
that evening shift. After each four-hour period, QA selects and
__________
is not acceptable.
____ __ ___ carefully inspects a random sample of 50 mirrors. Each mirror is
__________ classified as either acceptable or unacceptable. Finally QA
counts the number of mirrors in the sample that do not conform
The proportion of defectives is found to quality specifications. List below is the result of these checks
__ __________
by: __ __________ __ over the last 10 business days.
_____ __ Construct a percent defective chart for this process. What are
the upper and lower control limits? Interpret the results. Does it
appear the process is out of control during the period?
Total Number of Defectives
p
Number of samples

The UCL and LCL are computed as

__ the
___mean ___ ________
percent __ ___
defective plus
____ _______ _________ ____
or minus 3 times the standard
__ _____
error of the _____ ___ ________
percents:
_____ __ ___ ________
p (1  p )
UCL and LCL  p  3
n

19-12
 LO8

Computing the Control Limits

19-13
 LO8

Attribute Control Chart : The c-Chart

The c-chart or the c-bar chart is

designed to control the number of
defects per unit.
The UCL and LCL are found by:

UCL and LCL  c  3 c

EXAMPLE
The publisher of the Oak Harbor Daily
Telegraph is concerned about the number of
misspelled words in the daily newspaper. It
does not print a paper on Saturday or
Sunday. In an effort to control the problem
and promote the need for correct spelling, a
control chart will be used. The number of
misspelled words found in the final edition of
the paper for the last 10 days is: 37
5, 6, 3, 0, 4, 5, 1, 2, 7, and 4. c  3.7
10
Determine the appropriate control limits andUCL and LCL  3.7  3 3.7
interpret the chart. Were there any days
during the period that the number of UCL  3.7  5.77  9.47
misspelled words was out of control? LCL  3.7  5.77  2.07  0

19-14
 LO9 Explain the process of acceptance sampling.

Acceptance Sampling
Acceptance sampling is a method of determining whether an incoming lot of a product meets specified standards.
 It is based on random sampling techniques.
 A random sample of n units is obtained from the entire lot.
 c is the maximum number of defective units that may be found in the sample for the lot to still be considered
acceptable.

Accept shipment or reject shipment? The usual procedure is to screen the quality of incoming parts by using a
statistical sampling plan.

According to this plan, a sample of n units is randomly selected from the lots of N units (the population). This is called
acceptance sampling. The inspection will determine the number of defects in the sample. This number is compared
with a predetermined number called the critical number or the acceptance number. The acceptance number is
usually designated c.
 If the number of defects in the sample of size n is less than or equal to c, the lot is accepted.
 If the number of defects exceeds c, the lot is rejected and returned to the supplier, or perhaps submitted to 100
percent inspection.

Type II Error

Type I Error

19-15