Exam 18: Optimizing and Controlling Processes Through Statistical Process Control

At the heart of SPC is the realization that all processes have a natural, or built-in, variation. Processes may also be affected by special causes of variation. The objective of SPC is to separate special-cause variation from the natural variation.

Upper and lower control limits may be derived from logged process data, or from tolerance specifications.

Before a process can qualify for SPC, it must be free of special-cause variation.

Variation in any amount is considered a negative for quality.

The rationale for western manufacturers to embrace SPC is:

When a process is "in control" what percent of its output will be within the ±3? limits?

The minimum management involvement relative to SPC training involves:

The first step in the SPC execution phase is:

The most common inhibitor of SPC is:

For a process under SPC, it is important to frequently tweak its parameters in order to keep the process within the upper and lower control limits.