Statistical process control: Difference between revisions

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If the production process, its inputs, or its environment (for example, the machine on the line) change, the distribution of the data will change. For example, as the cams and pulleys of the machinery wear, the cereal filling machine may put more than the specified amount of cereal into each box. Although this might benefit the customer, from the manufacturer's point of view it is wasteful, and increases the cost of production. If the manufacturer finds the change and its source in a timely manner, the change can be corrected (for example, the cams and pulleys replaced).
 
From a Statistical Process Control perspective, if the weight of each cereal box varies randomly, some higher and some lower, always within an acceptable range, then the process is considered stable. If the cams and pulleys of the machinery start to wear out, the weights of the cereal box might not be random. The degraded functionality of the cams and pulleys may lead to a non-random linear pattern of increasing cereal box weights. We call this common cause variation. If, however, all the cereal boxes suddenly weighed much more than average because of an unexpected malfunction of the cams and pulleys, this would be considered a special cause variation.
 
==Application==