Quality Control Introductory Overview- General Purpose
In all production processes, we need to monitor the extent to which our products meet specifications. In the most general terms, there are two "enemies" of product quality: 1) deviations from target specifications, and 2) excessive variability around target specifications. During the earlier stages of developing the production process, designed experiments are often used to optimize these two quality characteristics (see Experimental Design); the methods provided in Quality Control are on-line or in-process quality control procedures to monitor an on-going production process. For detailed descriptions of these charts and extensive annotated examples, see Buffa (1972), Duncan (1974) Grant and Leavenworth (1980), Juran (1962), Juran and Gryna (1970), Montgomery (1996), Shirland (1993), or Vaughn (1974). Two excellent introductory texts with a "how-to" approach are Hart & Hart (1989) and Pyzdek (1989); two German language texts on this subject are Rinne and Mittag (1995) and Mittag (1993).
For links to more detailed Quality Control overviews, see Quality Control Charts Overviews.
See also, Statistica Enterprise and Technology of the Statistica Quality Control Charts Module (Technical Note). For details on how to customize alarms and other critical chart events, see The Architecture of the Quality Control Charts Module and Quality Control Events.