Statistical Quality Control

Quality Control Charts using

Excel

Learning Objectives

After this class the students should

be able to:

Distinguish between controlled and

uncontrolled variation
Distinguish between variables and attributes
Determine control limits for several types of
control charts
Use graphics to create statistical control charts
with Excel
Interpret control charts
Create a Pareto chart

Time management

The expected time to deliver this

module is 50 minutes. 30 minutes
are reserved for team practices
and exercises and 20 minutes for
lecture.

Statistical Quality
Control
(SCQ)
Process

Any activity or set of activities that takes

inputs and create a product. The process for
an industrial plant takes raw materials and
creates a finished product is an example.

Statistical Quality Control (SQC) or

statistical process control (SPC)

The analysis of processes for improving

quality.

Origins

1924 - Walter A. Shewhart

W. Edwards Deming,

Controlled Variation

There is Variation that you can never eliminate it

totally. There are bound to be many small,
unobservable, chance effects that influence the
outcome. this kind of variation is said to be "in
control," not because the process operator is able
to control the factors absolutely, but rather because
the variation is the result of normal disturbances,
called common causes, within the process.

This type of variation can be predicted. In other

words, given the limitations of the process, each of
these common causes is controlled to the greatest
extent possible.

Uncontrolled Variation

Variation that arise sporadically and for reasons

outside the normally functioning process,
induced by a special cause.

Special causes include differences between

machines, different skill or concentration levels
of workers, changes in atmospheric conditions,
and variation in the quality of inputs.

Unlike controlled variation, uncontrolled variation

can be reduced by eliminating its special cause.

Kind of Variation

Controlled

is native to the process, resulting

from normal factors called "common
causes

Uncontrolled

is the result of "special causes" and

need not be inherent in the process

Control Charts

As long as the points remain between the lower and upper

control limits, we assume that the observed variation is
controlled variation and that the process is in control

Control Chart

The process is out of control. Both the fourth and the twelfth
observations lie outside of the control limits, leading us to
believe that their values are the result of uncontrolled variation.

Control Chart

Even control charts in

which all points lie
between the control limits
might suggest that a
process is out of control.
In particular, the
existence of a pattern in
eight or more consecutive
points indicates a process
out of control, because an
obvious pattern violates
the assumption of
random variability.

Control Chart

The first eight

observations are
below the center
line, whereas the
second seven
observations all lie
above the center
line. Because of
prolonged periods
where values are
either small or
large, this process
is out of control.

Control Chart

Other suspicious patterns could appear in control

charts. Unfortunately, we cannot discuss them all
here.

Control chart makes it very easy for you to identify

visually points and processes that are out of
control without using complicated statistical tests.

This makes the control chart an ideal tool for the

shop floor, where quick and easy methods are
needed.

Chart and Hypothesis

testing

The idea underlying control charts is closely related to

confidence intervals and hypothesis testing. The
associated null hypothesis is that the process is in
control; you reject this null hypothesis if any point lies
outside the control limits or if any clear pattern appears
in the distribution of the process values.

Another insight from this analogy is that the possibility

of making errors exists, just as errors can occur in
standard hypothesis testing. Occasionally a point that
lies outside the control limits does not have any special
cause but occurs because of normal process variation.

Variable and Attribute

Charts

Categories of control charts:

those that monitor variables and
those that monitor attributes.

Variable charts display continuous measures, such as weight,

diameter, thickness, purity, and temperature. Its statistical
analysis focuses on the mean values of such measures.

Attribute charts differ from variable charts in that they

describe a feature of the process rather than a continuous
variable such as a weight or volume. Attributes can be either
discrete quantities, such as the number of defects in a sample,
or proportions, such as the percentage of defects per lot.

Using Subgroups

In order to compare process levels at various points in time, we

usually group individual observations together into subgroups.

The purpose of the subgroup is to create a set of observations in

which the process is relatively stable with controlled variation.

For example, if we were measuring the results of a

manufacturing process, we might create a subgroup consisting of
values from the same machine closely spaced in time.

A control chart might then answer the question "Do the averages
between the subgroups vary more than expected, given the
variation within the subgroups?"

The XChart

Each point in the x-chart displays the subgroup

average against the subgroup number: subgroup 2
occurring after subgroup 1 and before subgroup 3.

As an example, consider a clothing store in which the

owner monitors the length of time customers wait to
be served. He decides to calculate the average waittime in half-hour increments. The first half-hour (for
instance, customers who were served between 9
a.m. and 9:30 a.m.) forms the first subgroup, and the
owner records the average wait-time during this
interval. The second subgroup covers the time from
9:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m., and so forth.

The XChart

It is based on the standard normal

distribution.

The standard normal distribution underlies the

mean chart, because the Central Limit
Theorem states that the subgroup averages
approximately follow the normal distribution
even when the underlying observations are
not normally distributed.

The XChart

The applicability of the normal distribution allows

the control limits to be calculated very easily when
the standard deviation of the process is known.
99.74% of the observations in a normal distribution
fall within 3 standard deviations of the mean (u). In
SPC, this means that points that fall more than 3
standard deviations from the mean occur only
0.26% of the time. Because this probability is so
small, points outside the control limits are assumed
to be the result of uncontrolled special causes.

Control Limits when is

known

LCL

LCL

3
n
3
n

Standard deviation
n number of number of
observations in the subgroup
mean

Calculating Control
Limits
LCL X

LCL X

3
n
3
n

Standard deviation
n number of number of
observations in the subgroup
X mean of all of the subgroup averages

Go to Worksheet

The XChartExample
Semester Score 1
Score 2
Score 3 Score 4
Score 5
1
97
89
80
81
82
2
74
100
94
65
86
3
85
100
88
62
65
4
100
91
77
67
71
5
83
92
88
79
75
6
72
79
85
100
78
7
80
83
93
88
96
8
80
100
100
79
84
9
87
70
84
96
83
10
75
77
84
75
85
11
55
95
89
100
100
12
75
73
100
72
78
13
75
100
89
66
100
14
69
88
100
84
84
15
100
84
95
80
92
16
91
100
99
77
79
17
92
90
93
87
90
18
82
80
80
79
76
19
54
89
97
84
71
20
83
66
69
100
82

The XChartExample
To create a control chart of the teacher's scores:
1.

Click StatPlus > QC Charts > XBar Chart.

2.

Click the Subgroups in rows across columns option button.

3.

4.

1.

Click the Data Values button and select the range names
Score -1 through Score 5. Click OK.
Click the Sigma Known checkbox and type 5 in the
accompanying text box.
Click the Output button and send the control chart to a new
chart

Scores Control Chart

94.716

90.878
89.716

84.716

84.17

Values
are in
control

79.716

77.462

74.716

69.716
0

10

15

20

25

Analysis

No mean score falls outside the

control limits. The lower control limit is
77.462, the mean subgroup average is
84.17, and the upper control limit is
90.878. There is no evident trend to
the data or nonrandom pattern.
Then, there is no reason to believe
the teaching process is out of control.

Analysis

But, there is no evidence that this

professor's performance was better or
worse in one semester than in another.
The raw scores from the last three
semesters are misleading. A student might
claim that using a historical value for also
misleading, because a smaller value for
could lead one to conclude that the scores
were not in control after all.

Analysis

One corollary to the preceding

analysis should be stated: Because
even a single professor experiences
wide fluctuations in student
evaluations over time, apparent
differences among various faculty
members can also be deceptive. You
should use all such statistics with
caution.

Control Limits when

unknown

is

In many instances, the value of is not known. The

normal distribution does not strictly apply for analysis
when is unknown. In this case we will use tdistribution instead standard normal distribution.

Because SPC is often implemented on the shop floor by

workers who have had little or no formal statistical
training (and might not have ready access to Excel), the
method for estimating a is simplified and the normal
approximation is used to construct the control chart.

The difference is that when a is unknown, the control

limits are estimated using the average range of
observations within a subgroup as the measure of the
variability of the process.

Control Limits when

unknown

is

The control limits are

LCL X A2 R
UCL X A1 R

R represents the average of the subgroup

ranges, and X is the average of the subgroup
averages. Ai is a correction factor that is used in
quality-control charts. There are many
correction factors for different types of control
charts.

QC Correction Factors

A2

d2

Dl

D2

D3

D4

2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

1.88
1.023
0.729
0.577
0.483
0.419
0.373
0.337
0.308
0.285
0.266
0.249

1.128
1.693
2.059
2.326
2.534
2.704
2.847
2.970
3.078
3.173
3.258
3.336

0
0
0
0
0
0.204
0.388
0.547
0.687
0.811
0.922
1.025

3.686
4.358
4.698
4.918
5.078
5.204
5.306
5.393
5.469
5.535
5.594
5.647

0
0
0
0
0
0.076
0.136
0.184
0.223
0.256
0.284
0.308

3.268
2.574
2.282
2.114
2.004
1.924
1.864
1.816
1.777
1.744
1.717
1.692

Source: Adapted from "1950 ASTM Manual on Quality Control of Materials,"

American Society for Testing and Materials, in J. M. Juran, ed., Quality
Control Handbook (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974), Appendix II, p. 39.

The XChart: A CoatingProcess

Using the data from a manufacturing firm that

sprays one of its metal products with a special
coating to prevent corrosion, create an X-chart
and analysis the results.
The company has just begun to implement
SPC. consequently, is unknown. (20
minutes)
Click here to see data

Reference

Data Analysis with Excel. Berk &

Carey, Duxbury, 2000, chapter 12,
p. 475-488