Utilizing a practical “how-to” approach, this text shows students how to apply the principles of SPC to the making of business decisions and better quality products.  It integrates examples that use Microsoft Excel functions and Minitab.

Well-written, practical content

• Gives students a valuable resource in which topics translate into many service industry applications. 

Four opening chapters on charts–Examines why control charts work, how to set them up, update and interpret what they are saying, and how to assess the capability of a process being charted.

• Gives decision makers some ideas about what kinds of variables they can track or control. 

Light focus on probability.

• Enables students to understand how infrequently out-of-control signals may be expected to occur when a process is in control–and why they will occur much more frequently when it is not. 

An entire chapter devoted to thinking quality–Chapter 6.

• Familiarizes students with the management philosophies of Deming, and the thinking of other quality visionaries such as Juran and Ishikawa.

An overview of total quality management and of the Six Sigma movement.

• Introduces students to problem solving tools such as Pareto charts, cause-and-effect diagrams, scatter diagrams, flowcharts, and methods a group can use when it cannot reach consensus on choosing one option from among three or more. 

Useful introduction to statistics.

• Helps students with no previous exposure to fundamental statistical ideas or to statistical measures.

1. Statistical Preliminaries for Control Charts.

2. Charting Sample Means and Variation.

3. Signals and Measures Used in Assessing Control and Quality.

4. Other Control Charts.

5. Probability.

6. Topics in Quality.

Bibliography.

Appendices.

Answers to Odd-Numbered Problems.

Index.

Quality  [NETEFFECT SERIES]   (Engineering Technology & Industrial Management)

The American Statistician (volume 62, number 2, page 183)

Designed for a practitioner with no exposure to fundamental statistical ideas, this book describes the core concepts and implementation strategies for statistical process control (SPC).

Restricting itself to the very core of SPC, and doing a thorough treatment of these concepts and charts, the book will be a good starting point for practitioners.

A small number of exercises are included in each chapter to help the reader reproduce the results demonstrated and practice the concepts.

Overall, the book will be a comfortable read for those new to statistical idea and statistical process control but will need to be supplemented with other materials once the reader has gained an understanding of the basics.

                                                                                                                                                                                        Christine M. Anderson-Cook

                                                                                                                                                                                   Los Alamos National Laboratory

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