Introduction
Quality control via the use of statistical methods is a very large area of study in its own right and is central to success in modern industry with its emphasis on reducing costs while at the same time improving quality. In recent times, the Japanese have been extremely successful at applying statistical methods to industrial quality control and have gained a significant advantage over many of their competitors. One need only think of the reputations enjoyed by Japanese motor, camera, TV, video, DVD and general electronics manufacturers to realize just how successful they have become. It is because of the global nature of modern industrial competition that quality control, or more precisely, statistical quality control has become an area of central importance to engineers. Manufacturing a product that the public wants to buy is no longer good enough. The product must be of sufficiently high quality and sufficiently competitive price-wise that it is preferred to its competitors. Without statistical quality control methods it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to either attain or maintain a truly competitive position.
Prerequisites
- be able to calculate means and standard deviations from given data sets
- be able to estimate population means and standard deviations from samples
Learning Outcomes
- state what is meant by the term statistical quality control.
- explain why different types of control charts are necessary.
- construct and interpret a small variety of control charts, in particular those based on means and ranges.
- describe in outline the relationship between hypothesis testing and statistical quality control.