6 Benefits of Using Statistical Process Control (SPC)

Statistical process control is a method that uses statistical approach to achieve the monitoring and controlling of manufacturing processes, particularly. This will ensure the processes under monitor are able to achieve their full potential and produce the highest rate of conforming products. Real-time statistical process control means instance or near instantaneous data acquisition from measuring equipment or tools to give input to the statistical process control system software. The data can be immediately plotted onto the control charts and tested toward the control limits that are set for the charts. Real time statistical process control software system will provide immediate data update from the shop floor. It gives the operation crews the alert of "out of control" incidence when the upper or lower control limit for the control chart has been violated. The alert can also be triggered by various kind of rules such as trending towards out of control situation, so that immediate action can be taken from the operation crews before it is too late. When statistical process control system is implemented properly, there are tremendous benefits that can be achieved. In this article, 6 benefits are highlighted and these benefits are very crucial to improve the competitiveness and profitability of an organization. The 6 benefits of implementing real time statistical process control software are: The company can achieve a very fast return on investment from the software. Usually this can be achieved in less than a year depending on the processes and the results can be justified by data. Real time statistical process control system is highly acceptable by customers owing to the reliability of data and faster feedback. This is definitely going to improve the customer satisfaction. It will help the operation team to respond to the problem quickly during situations of "out of control", thus it will reduce waste, scrap and rework in the manufacturing processes. It will eliminate human error in the data entry step, as compared to the conventional method that the data is entered by operators. This system will improve the product and process quality tremendously by closely monitoring the performance of the process. Real time statistical process control software enables audit-ability across the processes. This will enables the company to cost effectively meet ISO, TS, FDA and USDA requirements. A real time statistical process control system will have a reporting tool to summarize the data and present it according to the user's requirements. The reports can be used by the process engineer to identify the root cause of process deviation. Proper actions can be taken by the process owner for a short-term and also long-term remedies. Other than this, the data also can be used to calculate the process capability. Once the process is stable and under control, the process capability can be measured to understand how good is the capability of the machine and other process. Continuous process improvement can be carried out by the process department to strive for higher process capability rating. Real-time statistical process control system can help to prevent problems and save the companies millions of dollars that otherwise would have been paid for lost in scrap, rework, warranty, litigation, and market share decline.