Operations Management: Sustainability and Supply Chain Management, Twelfth Edition

Statistical Process Control (SPC)

In this supplement, we address statistical process control—the same techniques used at BetzDearborn, at Arnold Palmer Hospital, at GE, and at Southwest Airlines to achieve quality standards. Statistical process control (SPC) is the application of statistical techniques to ensure that processes meet standards. All processes are subject to a certain degree of variability. While studying process data in the 1920s, Walter Shewhart of Bell Laboratories made the distinction between the common (natural) and special (assignable) causes of variation. He developed a simple but powerful tool to separate the two—the control chart.

Statistical process control (SPC)

A process used to monitor standards by taking measurements ...