QUALITY CONTROL

Quality Control
 Is a process that evaluates output
relative to a standard and takes
corrective action when output doesn’t
meet standards.
Quality Control vs Quality Assurance

Quality control efforts that occur during

production are referred to as statistical
process control.

Quality assurance that relies primarily on

inspection of lots (batches) of previously
produced items is referred to as acceptance
sampling.
Inspection
 Is an appraisal activity that compares goods or
services to a standard. Inspection can occur at
three points:

1. Before production- to make sure that inputs are acceptable.

2. During production- to make sure that the conversion of
inputs to outputs is proceeding in an acceptable manner.
3. After production- to make a final verification of
conformance.
 Inputs Transformation Outputs

Acceptance Process Acceptance

sampling control sampling

Figure 1. Acceptance sampling and process control

STATISTICAL PROCESS CONTROL

Quality control is concerned with the quality of

conformance of a process. Does the output of a
process conform to the intent of design?

Toward that end, managers use statistical

process control to evaluate the output of a process
to determine if its statistically acceptable.

An important tool in SPC is the control chart.

Variations and Controls

All processes that provide a good or a service

exhibit a certain amount of natural variation in
their output.

Random Variation is the natural variation in the

output of a process, created by countless minor
factors.
Assignable Variation is a variation whose cause can
be identified.
Control Charts: The Voice of the Process

 Control chart- a time ordered plot of sample statistics,

used to distinguish random and non-random variability.

 Control Limits- the dividing lines between the random

and non-random deviations from the mean of the
distribution.

 Type I error- concluding a process is not in control

when it actually is.

 Type II error- concluding a process is in control when it

actually it is not.
Control Charts for Variables
Mean and range charts are used to monitor
variables.
Control charts for means monitor the
central tendency of a process, and range
charts monitor the dispersion of a process.
Mean charts

UCL=
Range charts
Control Charts for Attributes

 p-chart- used to monitor the proportion of

defective items in a process.

 c-chart- used to monitor the number of

defects per unit
(formula of p and c chart)
Process Capability
The inherent variability of process output
relative to the variation allowed by the design
specification.

Control limits and process variability is directly

related to each other. Control limits are based on
sampling variability , and sampling variability is a
function of process variability.
Specifications or tolerances are established by
engineering design or customer requirements. They
indicate a range of values in which individual units of
output must fall in order to be acceptable.

Control limits are statistical limits that reflect the

extent to which sample statistics such as mean and
ranges can vary due to randomness alone.

Process variability reflects the natural or inherent

variability in a process. It is measured in terms of the
process-standard deviation.
Capability Analysis
Capability analysis is the determination of
whether the variability inherent in the output of a
process that is in control falls within the
acceptable range of variability allowed by the
design specifications for the process output. If it
is within the specifications, the process is said to
be ‘capable’. If its not, the manager must decide
how to correct the situation.
Cp
To express the capability of a machine or
process, some companies use the ratio of the
specification width to the process capability.

Process capability , Cp= specification width

process width
= upper spec. – lower spec.
6ơ
Cpk
If a process is not centered, a slightly different
measure is used to compute its capability. It is
computed by finding the difference between each
specification limits and the mean, identifying the
smaller difference, and dividing that difference by
three standard deviation of the process. Thus, Cpk
is equal to the smaller of

=upper spec. – process mean

3ơ
=process mean – lower spec.
3ơ
REFERENCE/S USED
Operations Management, 9th edition