Control Charts

ENGINEERING ANALYSIS

Topic Outline

Basics of Control Charts Control Charts Application Selection Control Charts for Attributes Control Charts for Variables Control Chart Patterns Analysis of Results

Special Case Study : Statistical Process Control

Software Application

Aim Objective

Be able to explain how control charts relate to assigned dimension and tolerance State what value you get from control charts Be able to name several ways that control charts indicate that a process is out of control Provide an overview of control chart applications for common healthcare data. We assume: User has a basic understanding of process variation User has knowledge of simple statistics (i.e. measures of central tendency). This lecture should help the user select the appropriate type of chart and understand the common rules of interpretation.

What are Control Charts

Control charts are particularly useful for monitoring quality and giving early warnings that a process may be going Out of Control and on its way to producing defective parts. A graphical display of data over time that can differentiate common cause variation from special cause variation In the late 1920s, Walter Shewhart, a statistician at the AT&T Bell Laboratories, developed the control chart and its associated rules of interpretation. The control chart is a graph used to study how a process changes over time. Data are plotted in time order. A control chart always has a central line for the average, an upper line for the upper control limit (UCL) and a lower line for the lower control limit (LCL). These lines are determined from historical data. By comparing current data to these lines, you can draw conclusions about whether the process variation is consistent (in control) or is unpredictable (out of control, affected by special causes of variation). Control charts for variable data are used in pairs. The top chart monitors the average, or the centering of the distribution of data from the process. The bottom chart monitors the range, or the width of the distribution. If data were shots in target practice, the average is where the shots are clustering, and the range is how tightly they are clustered. Control charts for attribute data are used singly

Purpose of Control Charts

Process has a tendency to go out of control Process is particularly harmful and costly if it goes out of control Examples

at the beginning of a process because it is a waste of time and money to begin production process with bad supplies before a costly or irreversible point, after which product is difficult to rework or correct before and after assembly or painting operations that might cover defects before the outgoing final product or service is delivered

Fields of Application

Hospitals

timeliness and quickness of care, staff responses to requests, accuracy of lab tests, cleanliness, courtesy, accuracy of paperwork, speed of admittance and checkouts waiting time to check out, frequency of out-of-stock items, quality of food items, cleanliness, customer complaints, checkout register errors flight delays, lost luggage and luggage handling, waiting time at ticket counters and check-in, agent and flight attendant courtesy, accurate flight information, passenger cabin cleanliness and maintenance

Grocery Stores

Airlines

Fields of Application

Fast-Food Restaurants

waiting time for service, customer complaints, cleanliness, food quality, order accuracy, employee courtesy order accuracy, operator knowledge and courtesy, packaging, delivery time, phone order waiting time billing accuracy, timeliness of claims processing, agent availability and response time

Catalogue-Order Companies

Insurance Companies

Advantage of using Control Chart

Improve productivity Make defects visible Determine what process adjustments need to be made Determine if process is in or out of control Possible Goals when using Control Charts in your Company:

Line reengineering

Increased Employee motivation

Continually improve of your process Increased profits Zero defects

Basic Conceptions What is a control chart?

The control chart is a graph used to study how a process changes over time. Data are plotted in time order. A control chart always has a central line for the average, an upper line for the upper control limit and a lower line for the lower control limit. Lines are determined from historical data. By comparing current data to these lines, you can draw conclusions about whether the process variation is consistent (in control) or is unpredictable (out of control, affected by special causes of variation).

Basic Concept
When to use a control chart?

Controlling ongoing processes by finding and correcting problems as they occur. Predicting the expected range of outcomes from a process. Determining whether a process is stable (in statistical control). Analyzing patterns of process variation from special causes (nonroutine events) or common causes (built into the process). Determining whether the quality improvement project should aim to prevent specific problems or to make fundamental changes to the process.

Basic Concept
Control Chart Basic Procedure

Choose the appropriate control chart for the data. Determine the appropriate time period for collecting and plotting data. Collect data, construct the chart and analyze the data. Look for out-of-control signals on the control chart. When one is identified, mark it on the chart and investigate the cause. Document how you investigated, what you learned, the cause and how it was corrected. Continue to plot data as they are generated. As each new data point is plotted, check for new out-of-control signals.

Basic Concept

Basic components of control charts

A centerline, usually the mathematical average of all the samples plotted; Lower and upper control limits defining the constraints of common cause variations; Performance data plotted over time.

Basic Concept
General
UCL

model for a control chart

= + k CL = LCL = k
where is the mean of the variable, and is the standard deviation of the variable. UCL=upper control limit; LCL = lower control limit; CL = center line. where k is the distance of the control limits from the center line, expressed in terms of standard deviation units. When k is set to 3, we speak of 3-sigma control charts. Historically, k = 3 has become an accepted standard in industry.

Types of the control charts

Variables control charts Variable data are measured on a continuous scale. For example: time, weight, distance or temperature can be measured in fractions or decimals. Applied to data with continuous distribution Attributes control charts Attribute data are counted and cannot have fractions or decimals. Attribute data arise when you are determining only the presence or absence of something: success or failure, accept or reject, correct or not correct. For example, a report can have four errors or five errors, but it cannot have four and a half errors. Applied to data following discrete distribution

Variables control charts

X-bar

chart) X-bar and s chart moving averagemoving range chart (also called MAMR chart) target charts (also called difference charts, deviation charts and nominal charts) CUSUM (cumulative sum chart) EWMA (exponentially weighted moving average chart) multivariate chart

and R chart (also called averages and range

Attributes control charts

p chart (proportion chart) np chart c chart (count chart) u chart