Statistical Process Control Techniques

An Overview

What is Statistical Process Control (SPC)?

Statistical process control (SPC) is a systematic decision making tool which uses statistical-based techniques to monitor and control a process to advance the quality or uniformity of the output of a process – usually a manufacturing process. It is commonly used in industry to measure the productivity or to measure, track and improve the ongoing performance of a process or determine if the process is in control or not.

The significance of SPC Software is that by monitoring the process and bringing the process under statistical control to identify and take action on special causes of variation. SPC is supportive to maximize the overall profit by improving product quality, improving productivity, streamlining process, improving customer service, etc.

What are steps involved in using Statistical Process Control (SPC)?

Plan: First identify the root cause of the problem and take corrective action to that problem. A corrective action is an immediate action as soon as the problem is identified.
Experiment / Research: When problem occurs SPC software helps to analyze and empowers you to make better engineering decisions easily and quickly throughout the product development life cycle.
Analyze: With the help of digitalized test data have a complete view of the manufacturing metrics and try to spell out all of the possible issues and send the data to R&D thereby improving product quality and customer satisfaction.
Act: If the result is successful then work on additional improvements. If the result is not yet successful then the look for other ways to change the process.

Specifically About Control Charts

Process control charts are just about simple-looking connected-point charts. The points are plotted on an x/y axis, with the x-axis usually representing time. The plotted points are usually averages of subgroups and they can also be individual measurements. SPC control charts exactly show the merits and demerits points of each process in a graphic format. Control charts help to identify the difference in a measurement during the time period that the process is observed.

More importantly, the chart will show you how the process is performing and how the process capabilities are affected by changes to the process. Also, they help to identify bottlenecks, waiting times, and other sources of delays within the process. Finally, SPC has advantages over other methods of quality control such as “inspection” because it helps to maintain the consistency of a process, which will result in a consistency in the quality as well.

Control charting helps distinguish between common cause variations that are always present and special cause variations that are out of statistical control. Statistical Process Control technique steps include detection, study, prioritization, illumination and then charting. Before using quality control software, it’s critical to collect proper data for analysis. You should first consider that quality is a sequence of continuous improvement. These control charting procedures are greatly assisted by SPC software like IntraStage.

Ready to give IntraStage a spin? IntraStage offers industry’s leading real-time SPC software for better and faster engineering decisions. It automates data collection and analysis on the manufacturing plant floor, allowing you to prevent defects before they occur. Start saving time, money and systematically improve quality and efficiency.