Statistical Quality Control

Quality Control Charts using Excel II

 Learning Objectives
 After this class the students should
be able to:
 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.
The Range Chart
If a is known, the control limits are:
LCL  D1
Center line  d 2
UCL  D2
If a is known, the control limits are:
LCL  D3 R
UCL  D4 R
d 2 , D1 , D2 , D3 and D4 are the correction See QC
factors from the table QC correction Control Correction
and R is the average subgroup range Control
 The Range Chart
12.00
Out control limits

10.62

10.00

8.00

6.00

4.00

3.25

2.00

0.00 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
 Analysis
 Each point on the range chart represents the
range within each subgroup.

 The average subgroup range is 3.25, with the

control limits going from 0 to 10.62. According to
the range chart shown, only the 27th observation
has an out-of-control value.
 The special cause should be identified if possible.
However, in discussing the problem with the
operator, sometimes you might not be able to
determine a special cause.
 The C-Chart
 Both the X-chart and the range chart measure the values
of a particular variable. Now let's look at an attribute
chart that measures an attribute of the process. A C-
chart displays control limits for the counts attribute.

c is the average number of

counts in each subgroup. If the LCL  c  3 c
LCL is less than zero, by
convention it will set to equal UCL  c  3 c
zero, because a negative count
is impossible.
 C-Chart: Factory Accidents
 Team exercise:
 The Accident data worksheet in Teaching.XLS
workbook contains the number of accidents
that occurred each month during a period of a
few years at a -production site.
 Using StatPlus, Create control charts of the
number of accidents per month to determine
whether the process is in control.(15 minutes)
 P-Chart
 P-chart is closely related to the C-chart. It
depicts the proportion of items with a particular
attribute, such as defects.
 The P-chart is often used to analyze the
proportion of defects in each subgroup.

p( 1  p )
LCL  p  3
n
p( 1  p )
LCL  p  3
n
 P-Chart
 Let p = average proportion of the sample that is
defective.
 The distribution of the proportions can be
approximated by the normal distribution,
provided that nxp and n(1 - p) are both at least
5.
 If p is very close to 0 or 1, a very large subgroup
size might be required for the approximation to
be legitimate.
 P-Chart: Steel rod defects
 Team exercise:
 A manufacturer of steel rods regularly tests whether
the rods will withstand 50% more pressure than the
company claims them to be capable of withstanding. A
rod that fails this test is defective. Twenty samples of
200 rods each were obtained over a period of time,
and the number and fraction of defects were recorded
in the Steel Rod Data worksheet in Teaching .XLS
workbook.
 Using StaPlus, Create control P-charts and analyze it.
(15 minutes)
 P-Chart: Steel rod defects
 The lower control limit is 0.01069, or a defect
percentage of about 1%. The upper control limit
is 0.11281, or about 11%. The average defect
percentage is 0.06175, about 6%. The control
chart clearly demonstrates that no point is
anywhere near the three-s limits.
Control chart for individual observations

 Sometimes it's not possible to group your

data into subgroups.
 This could occur when each measurement
represents a single batch in a process or
when the measurements are widely spaced in
time.
 With a subgroup size of 1, it's not possible to
calculate subgroup ranges. This makes many
of the regular formulas impractical to apply.
 Control chart for individual observations

 The method is to create a "subgroup" consisting of each

consecutive observation and then calculate the moving
average of the data. The subgroup variation is determined
by the variation from one observation to another, and that
variation will be used to determine the control limits for
the variation between subgroups. The limits are:

Here x is the sample average of R

all of the observations, R is the LCL  x  3 
d2
average range of consecutive
values in the data set, and d2 is R
the control limit factor from the LCL  x  3 
QC Correction factors, 1.128. d2
 Range chart for individual observations

 We can also create a moving range chart

of the moving range values; that is, the
range between consecutive values. The
limits are:
LCL  D3 R
LCL  D4 R
The tensile strength
63.778

61.778 61.718

59.778 Upw ard trend may indicate a

process that is not in control
57.778

55.778
55.18

53.778

51.778

49.778
48.642
47.778

45.778

43.778
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
 Analysis
 The chart shown gives the values of the individual observations (not
the moving averages) plotted alongside the upper and lower control
limits.

 No values fall outside the control limits, which would lead us to

conclude that the process is in control. However, the last eight
observations were all either above or near the center line, which
might indicate a process going out of control toward the end of the
process. This is something that should be investigated further.
Moving Range I-chart
9.000

8.000 8.031

7.000

6.000
Trend in the moving range
indicates a process not in
5.000
control

4.000

3.000
2.458
2.000

1.000

0.000 0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
 Analysis
 The chart shows additional indications of
a process that is not in control. The last
seven values all fall below the center line,
and there appears to be a generally
downward trend to the ranges from the
sixth observation on. We would conclude
that there is sufficient evidence to
warrant further investigation and analysis.
Pareto Chart
 Pareto chart create a bar chart of the
causes of the problem in order from
most to least frequent so that you can
focus attention on the most important
elements or combination of elements .
 Baby powder example
 Part of the process of company that manufactures baby
powder involves a machine called a filler, which pours the
powder into bottles to a specified limit.
 The quantity of powder placed in the bottle varies
because of uncontrolled variation, but the final weight of
the bottle filled with powder cannot be less than 368.6
grams.
 Any bottle weighing less than this amount is rejected and
must be refilled manually (at a considerable cost in terms
of time and labor). Bottles are filled from a filler that has
24 valve heads so that 24 bottles can be filled at one
time.
 Data
Exercise
 Sometimes a head is clogged with powder, and this causes
the bottles being filled on that head to receive less than the
minimum amount of powder. To gauge whether the machine
is operating within limits, random samples of 24 bottles
(one from each head) are selected at about 1-minute
intervals over the nighttime shift at the factory.

 The teams are examine the data and determine which part
of the filler is most responsible for defective fills (20
minutes). The worksheet Powder in workbook
Teaching.XLS contains the data. Use Pareto Chart.
Reference
 “Data Analysis with Excel”. Berk &
Carey, Duxbury, 2000, chapter 12, p.
489-503