1

The theme of SPC is the Process: Everything we do in any

type of organization is a process, which:

Requires UNDERSTANDING

has VARIATION

must be properly CONTROLLED

has a CAPABILITY

needs IMPROVEMENT

2
Control: What & Why

To maintain desired conditions in a system by adjusting the values of

some physical parameters for:

Suppressing the effect of external disturbances

Ensuring the stability of the process

Optimization of performance

3
Taken from Presentation: How to Streamline, Integrate and Synergize Project Management and
Six Sigma Techniques for Optimal Results, by Candace G. Medina, CGM Associates, LLC, 2006 4
 5

Taken from Six Sigma Certification Training Program Course Material

SPC is not really about statistics or control, it is about

competitiveness. Organizations, whatever their nature, compete on

three issues:

Quality

Delivery

price

6
What is quality?

The word ‘quality’ is often used to signify ‘excellence’ of a product or

service. In some manufacturing companies, quality may be used to

indicate that a product conforms to certain physical characteristics

set down with a particularly ‘tight’ specification. But in general:

Quality is defined simply as meeting the requirements of the

customer.

7
Taken from Statistical Process Control, 5th Ed by John S. Oakland 8
Some basic SPC tools are: process flowcharting (what is done);

check sheets/tally charts (how often it is done); histograms (pictures

of variation); graphs (pictures of variation with time); Pareto analysis

(prioritizing); cause and effect analysis (what causes the problems);

scatter diagrams (exploring relationships); control charts (monitoring

variation over time). An understanding of the tools and how to use

them requires no prior knowledge of statistics.

9
Taken from Six Sigma for Dummies , by Craig Gygi At All, Wiley Publishers, 2005 10
 11

Taken from Six Sigma Certification Training Program Course Material

 12

Taken from Six Sigma Certification Training Program Course Material

 Histogram

Purpose
A histogram is used to graphically summarize and display the
distribution of a process data set.

Taken from Six Sigma Certification Training Program Course Material

What questions does it answer?

- What is the systems most common response?
- What distribution (center, variation & shape) does the data have?
- Does the data look symmetric or is it skewed to the left or right?
- Does the data contain outliers?

13
 Pareto Chart: (80:20 rule)

It’s a vertical bar chart that relates non-
numerical or qualitative categories to their
respective frequency or cost.

It charts the causes in descending order
of frequency or cost from left to right.

A Pareto chart is used to graphically
summarize and display the relative
importance of the differences between
groups of data.

14
 Land Owners In Pakistan
120

100

80

60

40

20

0
Private
Armed Forces / Business
Feudals Industrial Employed Labour
Government Tycoons
Sector
Series2 55 25 9 6 4 1
Series1 55 80 89 95 99 100 15
 Cause & Effect Diagram

Measurements Material Personnel

Safety
Related
Incidents

Environment Methods Machines

16

Taken from Six Sigma Certification Training Program Course Material

Taken from Six Sigma for Dummies , by Craig Gygi At All, Wiley Publishers, 2005 17
And of course:
Taken from Statistical Process
Control, 5th Ed by John S. Oakland
1. Bar Charts
2. Graphs 18
Control charts are simply run charts or plot of data in real time.

This plot enables us to see wood rather than tree which is not the

case in most of the other data recording and measuring methods.

19
Taken from Statistical Process Control, 5th Ed by John S. Oakland 20
21
This is
rather
like a set
of traffic
lights
which
signal:
‘stop’,
‘caution’
or ‘go’.

22

Taken from Statistical Process Control, 5th Ed by John S. Oakland

The control chart has 3 zones and the action required depends on the

zone in which the results fall. The possibilities are:

1 Carry on (stable zone – common causes of variation only).

2 Be careful and seek more information, since the process may be

showing special causes of variation (warning zone).

3 Take action, investigate or, where appropriate, adjust the process

(action zone – special causes of variation present).

23
Questions to be asked

1 ‘Is the process stable, or in-control?’ In other words, are there

present any special causes of variation, or is the process variability

due to common causes only?

2 ‘What is the extent of the process variability?’ or what is the

natural capability of the process when only common causes of

variation are present?

24
This approach may be applied to both variables

and attribute data, and provides a systematic

methodology for process examination, control and

investigation.

25
Taken from Statistical Process Control, 5th Ed by John S. Oakland 26
Taken from Statistical Process Control, 5th Ed by John S. Oakland 27
Taken from Statistical Process Control, 5th Ed by John S. Oakland 28
The run chart becomes a control chart if decision lines are added

and this and helps to distinguish between:

 common cause variation – inherent in the process

 special cause variation – due to real changes.

Good organizations do not blame people but examine processes

to identify the causes of variation.

29
Some variation is just natural and cannot be eliminated. The
natural forces of nature naturally work to mix up
things for us because human created processes are
nature manipulation. For example heads and tails variation
in coin toss is natural. If the mail man arrival is 11:30 am
daily. But he comes (5 days of week) at 11:30:21, 11:29:45,
11:31:00, 11:30:10 and 11:29:59 am. This is perfectly
natural. But he some day comes at 12:30 pm or 10:30 it is
special cause variation. It may be due to schedule change or
flat tire.

We can act to reduce common cause variation but cannot

eliminate it but we can eliminate special cause variation.

Effort spent on identifying common and special cause

variation certainly repays later.

30
 Long Term Variation (Shift)

Taken from Six Sigma for Dummies , by Craig Gygi At All, Wiley Publishers, 2005 31
 Short Term Variation

Taken from Six Sigma for Dummies , by Craig Gygi At All, Wiley Publishers, 2005 32
 33

Taken from Six Sigma for Dummies , by Craig Gygi At All, Wiley Publishers, 2005
34
About Sampling:

You typically can't check every single member of the target

population. There is no time or money to do that. The best you can

do is select a sample (a subset of individuals from the population)

and get the information. Because this sample of individuals is your

only link to the entire target population, you want that sample to be

really good.

35
A good sample represents the target population. The sample

doesn't systematically favor certain groups within the target

population, and it doesn't systematically exclude certain group,

either. That is get a sampling frame and select a sample from it.

The sample is to be randomly selected from the target population.

Randomly means that every member of the target population has

an equal chance of being included in the sample. In other words,

the process you use for selecting your sample can't be biased. Also,

sampling should be appropriate and well timed.

36
"Less good information is better than more bad information, but

more good information is better."

If you have a large sample size, and the sample is representative of

the target population (meaning randomly selected), you can count

on that information to be pretty accurate. How accurate depends on

the sample size, but the bigger the sample size, the more accurate

the information will be. Selecting a smaller initial sample and

following up later is better than selecting a bigger sample. It is

known to reduce bias.

37
A quick and dirty formula to calculate the accuracy of a survey is to

divide by the square root of the sample size. For example, a survey

of 1,000 (randomly selected) people is accurate to within, 1/(sq

root of 1000) which is 0.032 or 3.2%. This percentage is called the

margin of error.

38
 Normal Distribution Curve

Taken from Statistical Process Control, 5th Ed by John S. Oakland 39

The Central Limit Theorem

If we draw samples of size n from a population with a mean µ and a

SD, then as n increases in size, distribution of sample means

approaches a normal distribution with a mean µ and standard error

so even if individual values are not normally distributed, distribution

of means will tend to have a normal distribution. Larger the sample

size, the greater will be this tendency. Also, Grand or Process Mean

will be very good estimate of true mean of the population µ.

40
Taken from Statistical Process Control, 5th Ed by John S. Oakland 41
 42

Taken from Statistical Process Control, 5th Ed by John S. Oakland

Taken from Statistical Process Control, 5th Ed by John S. Oakland 43
Steps in assessing process stability

1Select a series of random samples of size n (greater than 4 but less

than 12) to give a total number of individual results between 50 and

100.

2 Measure the variable x for each individual item.

3 Calculate X (sample mean) & R( sample range) for each sample.

4 Calculate the Process Mean X – the average value of X and the Mean

Range R – the average value of R

44
5 Plot all the values of X and R and examine the charts for any

possible miscalculations.

6 Calculate the values for the action and warning lines for the

mean and range charts

7 Draw the limits on the mean and range charts.

8 Examine charts again – is the process in statistical control?

45
 46

Taken from Statistical Process Control, 5th Ed by John S. Oakland

Charts for individuals or run charts

The individuals or run chart is often used with one-at-a-time data

and the individual values, not means of samples, are plotted. The

centerline is usually placed at: the centre of the specification, or

the mean of past performance, or some other, suitable – perhaps

target value. The action lines (UAL and LAL) or control limits (UCL

and LCL) are placed 3 standard deviations from the centerline.

Warning lines (upper and lower) may be placed at two standard

deviations from the centerline.

47
When plotting the individual results on the i-chart, the rules for

out of control situations are:

1. any points outside the 3 limits;

2. two out of three successive points outside the 2 limits;

3. eight points in a run on one side of the mean.

Owing to the relative insensitivity of i-charts, horizontal lines at

±1 either side of the mean are usually drawn, and action taken if

four out of five points plot outside these limits.

48
Taken from Statistical Process Control, 5th Ed by John S. Oakland 49
The zone control chart

The so-called ‘zone control chart’ is simply an adaptation of

the individuals chart, or the mean chart. In addition to the

action and warning lines, two lines are placed at one

standard error from the mean. Each point is given a score of

1, 2, 4 or 8, depending on which band it falls into. It is

concluded that the process has changed if the cumulative

score exceeds 7. The cumulative score is reset to zero

whenever the plot crosses the centerline.

50
Taken from Statistical Process Control, 5th Ed by John S. Oakland 51
Pre-control

52

Taken from Statistical Process Control, 5th Ed by John S. Oakland

Going Practical

53
Taken from Statistical Methods for Industrial Process Control by David Drain, CRC Press 54
Taken from Modern Control Engineering, 2003, Lecture Notes 55
Taken from Modern Control Engineering, 2003, Lecture Notes 56
Taken from Modern Control Engineering, 2003, Lecture Notes 57
58
59
Taken from Statistical Methods for Industrial Process Control by David Drain, CRC Press 60
Taken from Statistical Methods for Industrial Process Control by David Drain, CRC Press 61
All following figures, tables and
graphs are based on Practical
industrial data. Either reproduced
or copied as such from industrial
presentations.

62
 Natural gas Pressure
588

586

584

582
Pressure in psig

580

578

576

574

572

570

568
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

63
64
% oxygen in furnace flue gases

65
Fuel Gas Flow in KSCFH to two cells of furnace

66
 Pressure Variability Limits
TAG Norm UPPER LOWE UPPER LIMIT CONTROL LOWER LIMIT CONTROL
al LIMIT R PHILOSPHY PHILOSPHY
LIMIT

PRC-101 505# 595# 490% On low load or other plant tripping to control To control load
battery limit press. According to load

PRC-102 589# 650/650 550 To avoid design limits of vessel D-2503 A/B

PRC-103 479# 488/490 - To avoid design limit of vessel D-2510

PRC-104 459# 460/465 - To avoid design limit of vessel D-2513

PRC-131 418# 420/430 - To avoid damage of internals of C-2519

PRC-132 On high pressure P-2503 may trip on O/L Anti surge of K-2502 may open
amps.

PRC-319 94# 100# 60# May damage burners, coil temp increase May burners Extinguish.

PRC-306 240# 250# 160# May pop PSV - 929 Process air reduce.
KGT rpm may decrease
Six Sigma and (continued)

Case Study – 3

Reduction in efficiency of Thermo-

Thermo-compressor

Before PI

Thermo-compressor would have been sent to workshop for its opening for
Thermo-
internals’ inspection. Activity would have taken a minimum of two
days, resulting in low-
low-pressure steam venting.

After PI

Motive steam flow trends from PI showed that the drop in efficiency
happened over a period of two months, contributed by scaling on the
motive steam path. This was confirmed by boroscopy. Thermo-
Thermo-compressor
was back in service after four hours of downtime required for cleaning.

“Right analysis leads to right decisions”

69
SPC is a set of tools for managing processes, and

determining and monitoring the quality of the outputs of an

organization. It is also a strategy for reducing variation in

products, deliveries, processes, materials, attitudes and

equipment. The question which needs to be asked

continually is ‘Could we do the job better?’

70
71