Statistical Process Control: Reducing and Controlling Variation for Better Quality

Inspection never builds quality into a product or service. In fact the reason why an organization inspects is because it is not confident about its quality in the first place. And the reason why companies nowadays produce defects or defectives is not because of design and standards conformance per se. It is rather because of the problem in being consistent about conforming; thus, the main enemy in building and sustaining quality is inconsistency or what is better known as variation.

Statistical process control thru its main tool-control charting, is a powerful way of seeing and identifying unwanted and undesirable variations that might have been built or might have crept unnoticed into our processes and products so that these can be addressed appropriately. Applied correctly, it can become a definitive guide in the work floor as to when to tinker with the process or to just leave it running as it is. Taken to its full capability, it can proactively spot or pinpoint when a non-conforming product will be produced or when the defect rate is about to get worse thus shifting the quality practice from appraisal to being preventive. It can also be used to show and communicate the historical and current quality performance for a product or service with respect to the specified tolerances thus showing the capability of the process in delivering what is required by the customer.

This two-day learning session will familiarize the participants with the fundamentals and principles of control charting. It will introduce them to the different types of control charts depending on the type of quality characteristic being monitored as well as the number of samples that can be economically gathered given a process set-up. Additionally it will tackle some types of advanced control chart that are very useful because many of the existing operations are set-up in such a manner that only this types of chart can handle- an example is batch processing.  It will inform participants of the proper application on control charting and application pitfalls to watch out for and be wary about. The learning session will consists of experimental simulations, exercises and discussions serving as a channel for participants to learn and practice the concepts and the tools.

HOW TO RESERVE A SLOT OR FOR FURTHTER QUESTIONS
Due to the limited slots and for better preparation and planning, reserving a seat for the training and learning session will be required. You can email [email protected] should you want to reserve a slot. Simlarly you can email to the same address should you have other questions and clarifications about the training.

• Aspects of Quality
• The Costs of Quality
• Variation Principles
• Common Cause vs Special Cause Variation
• Measuring Variation: Review of Basic Statistics
• SPC Software Introduction
• Quality Terms: Non-conforming vs Non-conformities

• Statistical Foundations: The Normal Distribution Curve
• Control Limits and Specification Limits
• Types of Control Charts
• Control Charts and Other Quality Tools
• Sampling Size and Frequency
• Rational Subgrouping
• Interpreting Control Charts
• Special Run Rules
• Exercise: Determining Proper Subgroups

Day 1 PM Session

• Individual Control Charts: X and mR Charts
• Constructing X and mR Charts
• Time-Weighted Charts (Moving Average, EWMA and Cusum Charts)

• Workshop: Activity for X and mR Chart Construction and Use

Day 2 AM Session

• X-bar and R Chart
• X-bar and S Chart
• Control Charting for Batch Production: X-mR-R Charts
• Workshop: Setting Up X-bar and R Charts

• p- chart
• np-chart
• p-chart for variable sample sizes
• Workshop: Setting Up and Using p-Charts

Day 2 PM Session

• c-chart
• u-chart

• Strategic Management of Quality
• Choosing the Proper Control Chart
• Pros and Cons: Variable vs Attribute Control Charts

• Accuracy versus Precision
• Short-Run vs Long-Run Variaiton
• Capability Indices: Cp and Cpk
• Capability Measure and Process Non-Conformance
• Workshop: Process Capability Computation and Interpretation

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Business Leaders, Quality Managers, Quality Analyst, Quality Assurance Personnel, Process Owners, Production Managers and Supervisors and others who are responsible for monitoring and improving processes and products. Participants will have to bring their own laptops for the SPC software. Installation instructions for the trial version of the software will be provided as this will be used throughout the learning session duration.

Bryan Gobaco

Bryan has trained various companies on Statistical Process Control. These companies are in the field of consumer goods and personal care, agri-business, specialty chemicals, plastics and packaging, electronics, food ingredients to name some. He is also the resident trainer of the Philippine Trade Training Center on the use and application of Statistical Process Control for the last 10 years. He is Black Belt on Six Sigma and is also currently a faculty at the Department of Industrial Engineering at the Gokongwei College of Engineering of De La Salle University Manila where he also earned his bachelor in science and masters in science degree in Industrial Engineering.