Guidelines for implementation of statistical process control (SPC) — Part 1: Elements of SPC

Statistical process control (SPC) concerns the use of statistical techniques and/or statistical or stochastic control

algorithms to achieve one or more of the following objectives:

a) to increase knowledge about a process;

b) to steer a process to behave in the desired way;

c) to reduce variation of final-product parameters, or in other ways improve performance of a process.

These guidelines give the elements for implementing an SPC system to achieve these objectives. The common

economic objective of statistical process control is to increase good process outputs produced for a given amount

of resource inputs.

NOTE 1 SPC operates most efficiently by controlling variation of a process parameter or an in-process product parameter

that is correlated with a final-product parameter; and/or by increasing the process's robustness against this variation. A

supplier's final-product parameter may be a process parameter to the next downstream supplier's process.

NOTE 2 Although SPC is concerned with manufactured goods, it is also applicable to processes producing services or

transactions (for example, those involving data, communications, software, or movement of materials).

This