SPC Implementation

SPC and Six Sigma promise great results. Tremendous improvements of quality and productivity and a big impact on the bottom line. These results are definitely possible but the number of failed implementations exceed the number of success stories. So what are the reasons a SPC implementation is not bringing the success promised.

• Organization of SPC
• SPC implementation 
• Selection of SPC software 

Organization of SPC

SPC is related to different departments in a company. In general production is responsible for keeping the processes in control and engineering is responsible for improving the capability of processes. Also the quality department is often involved. Management involvement is critical to set targets and drive the improvement process. Making SPC a success requires long term commitment. The joint responsibility of making the SPC implementation a success in combination with long term commitment make a successful SPC implementation a real challenge for any organization.

SPC Implementation

To implement SPC, expertise is required. During the implementation you need to address topics like Gage R&R, calibration, FMEA, control plans, process capability studies, out of control action plans, experimental design and statistics. You need to make decisions about the best way to build the data model for your processes. For example if you have a process with different products on one production line or parallel processes (multiple cavities or spindles), then you have to make decisions how to setup control charts, which give you the maximum result but are still efficient during data entry. During these implementation steps the knowledge also need to be transferred to the people applying SPC. In addition SPC should be integrated or combined with other improvement programs like TPM or Six Sigma.