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! Statisti©a - Pro©ess Contre - For The Pro©ess - Ndustr - Es
! Statisti©a - Pro©ess Contre - For The Pro©ess - Ndustr - Es
!
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Statisti©a| Pro©ess Contre|
for t h e P r o © e s s | n d u s t r | e s
John A. Shaw
Statistical quality control (SQC) Statistical methods are not new (statistical process quality con-
and statistical process control to the chemical process industries trol).
(SPC) have been used in the dis- or to chemical engineering. Many The name statistical process
crete parts manufacturing indus- statistical applications are in- control ofte__~causes the incorrect
tended for use in analyzing, exper- inference that SPC is a control al-
tries as a tool for improving the
~mality of manufactured items. imental data.O) Digital filtering gorithm, or that it can be used to
,Statistical methods are now being techniques, used to remove noise provide feedback to the process.
used in the chemical and petro- from process measurements, have SPC is a stalistics-based analysis
leum industries for quality im- been studied and applied for over method that is used to analyze
provement. twenty years. process data and, it is hoped, as-
Certain concepts of SQC and SPC For SPC to be used in the pro- sist the process or control engi-
are applicable to certain pro- cess industries, its basic founda- neer in making improvements to
tion, the assumptions on which it the process.
cesses, but they are not univer-
is based, and its need should be SPC is not synonymous with
sally applicable to all processes.
fully examined in the framework quality control. It does not mea-
Successful application o f the
of the needs and characteristics of sure quality directly. Instead, it is
tools requires an understanding of
the proces,~ :-~d,s~es. a.-, analytical tool that indicates
the methods and the limitations.
the Likelihood that there is some
This paper explains the concepts correctable condition that is caus-
of statistical quality control and ing undesirable variation in prod-
examines its use in batch and con- Deflnigon
uct quality and that corrective
tinuous processes. Statistical process control (or action may reduce this variation.
statistical quality control) is a sta- SPC methods comprise a vari-
~s.ffcal method for analyzing cer- ety of analysis tools, including
INTRODUCTION
tain product characteristics to cause and effect diagrams, Pareto
Statistical process control, a determine the likel|hood that im- charts, and control charts. This
technique whose advocates e×- provements can be made in the paper will concentrate on control
pect will improve the quality of process to reduce variability and charts because of the ability of
products in all industries, was de- achieve higher quality.(2, 3) some dis~buted control systems
veloped in the "discrete parts" While often the terms "statisti- used in the process indus~es to
manufacturing industry. Its use is cal quality control" (SQC) and produce such charts.
being examined in the chemical "statistical process control" (SPC)
and petroleum industries. Distrib- are used interchangeably, many in gaSiC Theory
uted control manufacturers are in- the fidd define them differently.
cluding SPC capability in control SQC refers to the gathering of The basic theory of SPC is that
systems designed for the process data for analysis at a later time, there will inevitably be variations
industries. Its succe~ is unques- while SPC refers to on-line data of a product from one sample to
tioned in the manufacturing in- gathering and h-m'nediate analy- another that are due to inherent
dustries, but ~,,qii its promise be sis.(4) Some practitioi~ers avoid (or "built-in") variations in the
met in the chemical process indus- the distinction altogether by refer- process. Variations other than
tries? ring to these methods as SPQC these inherent variations are clue
to "assignable causes," which can term must be due to "assignable tion than toward the outside (see
be corrected. A statistical analysis causes." (5, 6) Figure 1).
of quality measurement should The idea is to reduce product
reveal any assigv_.ab!e cause vaff.a- variability rather than strive solely
Shewhart ControlCharts
tion. If there are no assignable for conformance to specifications
cause variations and the only vari- that all the product will be as Shewhart suggested plotting
ations are inherent, the process is close to aim as possible. (7) the data on a chart to show varia-
said to be "in statistical control." tion above and below a mean.
Otherwise, it is "out of statistical This, of course, is very similar to a
control" and should be corrected. trend recording very familiar to
SPC is based on samples of the BASIC SPC CALCULATIONS AND anyone in the chemical process
product and the data resulting CHARTS control business. However,
from the measurement of these Shewhart suggested drawing lim-
samples. Charts are made from Normal Distribufion'"'Bell-shaped its (upper and lower control lim-
the data to assist in the analysis. curve" its, UCL a n d LCL) at three
Key to the operation of the SPC One very key concept to SPC is standard deviations above and
calculations and charts is the that of "normal distribution." A below the mean. When the pro-
p~'emise that the chance or inher- key theorem of statistics is that cess crosses either limit it is con-
ent variations will affect every samples of the product will follow sidered "out of statistical control."
measurement and will be stable the standard bell-shaped normal This chart is not very sensitive to
over time. Variations that are distribution curve; that is, more of small variations, so it is common
greater than the short term varia- the samples will be close to the to use various "run" tests in addi-
tions or appear only over a longer center of the range of the distribu- tion to the limits.
X.R Charts Process capability asks the ques- Sometimes there is no way to
tion, "Based on the spread in the obtain a rationalsubgroup that re-
The Shewhart control chart is measurements, will the process be flects all the inherent variation.
more commonly known as an X (X capable of staying within specifi- Here the subgrouping is omitted,
bar) chart often combined with an cations almost all the time?" and each measurement is plotted
R chart. To build the X chart, the By basing the standard devia- on a chart of hqdividuals. The con-
product is periodically sampled tion on the average range of the trol limits are determined by the
with several (typically four or subgroups (R) rather than on the variation between one measure-
five) individual m e a s u r e m e n t s ment and the next.
distribution of all the measure-
taken. This set of measm ements is
ments, we will base the capability
known as a "subgroup." The in- index on the inherent variability.
dividual samples areaveraged to This supposes that the subgroup
produce the number X (or average variability represents the inherent USE OF SPC DATA
X). The individual samples are variability and the overall vari-
also compared to determine their So how do the charts and num-
ability includes assignable causes.
range, or R. The control chart is bers improve the q,,ali~_. . of the
plotted as a b o v e except that, product, reduce rerun material,
rather than using theindividual Example and make our processes better?
samples, the average X is plotted. They don't. What they do is pro-
Shown in Figure 2a are data vide information about the pro-
The upper and lower control lim-
taken from a hypothetical contin-
its are de,ermined using the range cess that can be used in the
uous chemical process. The mea- process analysis to determine
of the individual samples in a sub-
surements of density are made by ways to improve the process. The
group. The upper and lower con- an on-line analyzer everX 10 min-
trol limits are derived from X % 3 charts and data tell us when the
utes. To construct the X-R chart
standard deviations of the sub- variability is due to assignable,
we will take 4 consecutive mea- perhaps correctable, causes. They
group. The exact calculations are surements every hoar. We then
shown in Figure 2b. also provide clues such as when
average the four measurements in the variability has changed. For
An important concept is that each hourly subgroup and plot
the variation of individual mea- example, ff the process is out of
the average on the X chart. We statistical control only during one
surements within a subgroup is plot the range of each subgroup
due to chance causes only. In a shift and the time changes with
on the R chart. Next we must de- shift rotation, we may want to
typical chemical process, this vari- termine the upper and lower con-
ation would be considered mea- look at the procedures used by
trol limits ushag the calculations those operators.
surement or instrument noise. shown in Figure 2b. Horizontal
Longer term variations from one lines are drawn (Figure 2c) to indi-
subgroup to another that are sig- cate the UCL and LCL on the X
SPC lntegraOon into ControlSystem
nificantly larger (more than 3 chart and the UCL on the R chart. Modem digital distributed con-
standard deviations) than the We can then see that at several trol systems have the capability of
variations within the subgroup points X exceeds the upper con- measuring the process parameters
are probably due to assignable trol limit, h~dicating that the pro- at designated rates, storing the
causes. cess is out of statistical control. measurements, and processing
The X and R charts show that them. One addition that can be
the process is "not in statistical made _toa control syste~ is to pro-
control" when the X value falls D
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time period less than (sampled ever, other, more minor, compo- Batch Processes
faster than) the holdup time in the nents come from impurities in
SPC has been used for batch
relevant parts of the process. This raw materials, contaminants from
chemical processes.(13) Certain
removes the statistical indepen- the materials of construction, etc.,
considerations must be made.
dence of the samples. The result is and cannot be controlled directly.
First is the use of rational sub-
what is known as "correlated" (or Sometimes product quality
groups and the number of sam-
auto correlated) data. Conven- characte_,Ss.fics are measured by a~t
ples. If the batch is a well-mixed
tional control charts do not apply analyzer on a very long sample.
liquid, the only difference be-
to correlated data. The analyzer may exhibit random
Another difference between
m o s t typical m a n u f a c t u r i n g
plants and most chemical process
plants is the degree of feedback In certain situations, key product quality variables
control. In most chemical plants cannot be directly controlled.
the key product variables are mea-
sured and, using the PID control error, so each measurement can- tween s~mples of the same batch
algorithms, fed back to control the not, by itself, be taken as an indi- is measurement error. We may, of
process. The control algorithms cation of the quality. SPC course, wish to make several mea-
work to move the controlled vari- calculations may serve as a filter surements of the same batch for
able to a set point. Thus, the con- to "see t h r o u g h " the r a n d o m accuracy, but if we base the con-
cept of controlling to an "aim" has noise. trol lirr'.its on these measurements,
always been the standard practice the control limits will be so dose
in the process Industries. to the mean (assuming little varia-
Fiat Sheet Industries tion in the measurements) that
any variation from one batch to
Areas of ProbableAppflcation The "fiat sheet" industries in- another will be outside the control
dude paper, plastics, and other in- limits and the process will be con-
In certain situations, key prod- dustries that produce fiat sheets of sidered to be out of statistical con-
uct quality variables cannot be di- material through the extrusion of trol.
rectly controlled. Typical among the material. The material usually
these are certain batch processes Another concern for batch SPC
moves from a machine at a very is statistical significance. With one
where the product continues to high speed, and certain character-
change even after the last control true measurement per batch, we
istics are determined by scanning must have a significant number of
action has been taken ~nd there the material at a much slower
are no more opportunities to cor- batches before the SPC results can
speed. Because the holdup in the be reliable. Estimates about the
rect for error (the "end point con- machine is very low, this scanning
trol" problem). The situation also number of samples differ. How-
amounts to sampling of the char- ever, we cannot have confidence
arises when the key quality vari- acteristics.
able cannot be measured on line in the analysis of SPC data after
for feedback control but is instead These flat sheet industries, only five batches. If analysis of the
measured every several hours in a from a statistical and sampling batch control is necessary after
quality control laboratory. point of view, are very similar to only a few batches, some other
Another type of quality-related the discrete parts manufacturing method will be needed.
variables that are not controlled industries. SPC, in the classical
with the standard PID control sense and as used in manufactur-
ing,, should apply directly. Considem~ons in SPC Appffcatlons
loops are such secondary vari-
ables as small amounts of impuri- Other areas of the chemical One basic tenet of statistical
ties in a product. A typical process industries may be similar. quality control also may limit :ts
chemical process may have as its These would be processes where application in many processes: the
last unit operation a distillation there is very little holdup or back- assumption that short-term varia-
column to separate the product mixing in the process, where there tions that affect measurements
from some other chemical. The are product characteristics that within a subgroup or ~,~. . . . . . .
control loops on the column will cannot be continuously measured jacent measurements are inherent
measure (using an analyzer or a but must be sampled, and where and not correctable, while long-
tray temperature) and maintain those characteristics cannot be term variations reflect assignable
the proper proportion of the major easily controlled by standard pro- cause, that is, variations due to
constituents of the product. How- cess control techniques. some operational or process prob-
lem that can be corrected.(14,15) his particular process and if SPC engineer or control engineer to
This assumption is reflected in the provides knowledge about the correct the variation if it is harm-
fact that the control limits, based process not more easily obtainable ful. These methods will include
on the subgroup variation, are ap- through other methods. It is also digital filtering, correlation analy-
plied to the average measurement incumbent upon the user to make sis techniques, and other methods
over a longer time frame. use of knowledge gained through that will use statistics and other
Many continuous processes ex- SPC to improve his or her process mathematical methods.
hibit short-term variation in the operation. The goal should be to develop
m e a s u r e m e n t due to measure- teclmiques that willallow the pro-
ment error or noise, with actual cess engineer to analyze the per-
process changes dampened out by formance of the process in order
mixing within vessels in the pro- OTHERSTATISTICAL to improve product quality and
cess. There will be longer term TECHNIQUES process efficiency.
variations due to small oscilla- Statistical analysis of data
tions in the process, changes in taken from the process may help
feed stock, or process upsets, to locate the cause of the variation.
which may be insignificant when COHCLUSIOH
Some variations (measurement
compared to the product specifi- noise, for example) are random, Statistical process control has
cations but are many times larger and can be identified by test for served as an important tool in the
than the short-term variations. randomness. discrete parts manufacturing in-
Conversely, there may be situa- One such method is serial (or dustries to improve product qual-
tions, such as many batch pro- auto) correlation, in which each ity, r e d u c e variability, and
cesses, where short-term sample is correlated with the pre- decrease cost. It is being adopted
variations between adjacent vious sample. A random noise ex- by many companies in the chemi-
batches are very significant in hibits very little correlation. A cal process industries, in part due
terms of product specifications, r a n d o m noise t h a t has been to pressure from their customers.
but because the variations are damped by passing through the In some areas within the chemical
short-term and continue over a process exhibits much greater cor- industry, SPC has proven to be a
longer period of time they are not relation. This test may be able to useful and successful tool. Its ap-
reflected in the control chart. determine if var~atmn results from plicability must be examined in all
Conventional control chart the- measurement noise that occurs in areas of the chemical industry, ap-
ory requires that three assump- the transmitter from the fluctua- plication by application. Two pri-
tions be met: (1) the process mean tions that occur in the process. mary considerations should
'.'s constant, (2) the process stan- Standard SPC con[rol charts govern its ~cc_eptance for each in-
dard deviaf.m is constant, and (3) are often used to detect trends that dividual application: the ability of
measurements are independent of are not otherwise apparent be- SPC to produce meaningful re-
one another (un. ~rrelated). If any cause the variation is less than the sults, and the need for SPC as
of these is not true, then a conven- noise. In this application, the SPC compared to other statistical and
tional (ShewharO control chart chart is really being used as a type non statistical tools.
probably will I,,i -~roduce reliable of digital filter.
results. The first and third as-
sumptions are particularly rele- REFERENCES
vant to the continuous process 1. Himmelblau, David M.,
ADDfflOHALIHVESTIGATIOH
industries. The mean, (that is, the Process Analysis by Statisti-
average of any group of consecu- HEEDS
cal Methods, Wiley, 1970.
tive measurements), often will Rather than simply adopting 2. Western Electric Company,
vary over a longer period. Also, the SPC techniques of the manu- Inc., ,Statistical Quality Con-
continuous process variables tend facturing industries, the chemical
to exhibit a large degree of corre-
trol Handbook, D e l m a r
process industries should choose Printing Company, Char-
lation. statistical techniques tailored to lore, North Carolina, 1956,
This is not to say that SPC is not their processes. p. 3.
applicable to the chemical process Methods are available that w'll
analyze process variations to lo- 3. Grant, E. L., and Leaven-
industries but to emp~hasize that it
cate the cause of the variation. w o r t h , R. S., Statistical
is not urdver-~aUy applicable; it is
up to the process engineer to de- Knowledge of the cause of the Quality Control, McGraw-
termine how it can be applied to variation will assist the process Hill, 1980, p. 3.