Statistical Process Control - SPC

Duration – 1 day

Overview

Uncertainty lies all around us and affects everything we do, making it impossible to predict with 100% accuracy what will occur in the future. The role of statistical methods is to bring some order to this apparent chaos and hopefully begin to control our processes better. With SPC we can reliably assess the performance of any process, monitor it statistically and take steps to control it better.

Key Outcomes

Delegates will leave the programme understanding the basic principles of statistical methods and how they apply to process control. They must also know how to implement a suitable sampling and measuring system and then how to construct and monitor appropriate control charts. Delegates will experience a range of data presentation methods and will be given opportunities to perform the measurements, calculations and data presentation themselves – please bring a calculator!

Content

• the role of SPC in assessing and improving processes
• essential quality issues and how SPC can support them
• overview of data presentation and problem solving techniques, (including flowcharting, check sheets, histograms, Pareto charts, fishbone & scatter diagrams)
• overview of the concept of the Run Chart & Control Chart
• common and special causes of variation and their relevance to SPC
• the drawback of traditional ‘goal posting’ methods of measurement compared to statistical methods
• the concept of key characteristics and loss function
• basic statistical concepts and what they tell us - including range, mean, standard deviation
• populations and samples, (including how & when to sample)
• the concept of a distribution and what it tells us
• constructing and interpreting Control Charts for variables
• measuring the capability of a process - C p and C pk
• how to implement a philosophy of continuous improvement?