Process and Measurement System Capability Analysis

Process capability is the uniformity of the process.

Variability is a measure of the uniformity of output.
Assume that a process involves a quality characteristic that follows a
normal distribution with mean , and standard deviation, . The
upper and lower natural tolerance limits of the process are
UNTL = + 3
LNTL = - 3

Natural tolerance limits are defined as follows:

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Techniques used in process capability analysis
Histograms or probability plots
Control Charts
Designed Experiments

Histogram
The histogram along with the sample mean and sample standard
deviation provides information about process capability.
Example 7.1. Data for 100 units shown in Table 7-1.

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Sample mean: x 264.06

Sample standard deviation: S 32.02

Estimated process capability: x 3S 264.06 3(32.02) 264 96

Process Capability Ratios C p

USL LSL
Cp
6
where LSL and USL are the lower and upper specification limits,
respectively.

The estimate of C p is given by

USL LSL
C p
6

Where the estimate can be calculated using the sample standard

R
deviation, S, or d . For the data in Example 5-1, we have:
2

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 25

R i
8.1302
R i 1
0.32521
25 25

R 0.32521
0.1398
d2 2.326

For this example problem, assume that the specs are 1.5 0.50 , so
USL=2.0 and LSL =1.0. The estimate of C p is

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 USL LSL
C p
6
2.00 1.00 1
Cp 1.192
6(0.1398) 0.8388

The percentage of the specification band used by the process is

1
P( )100%
Cp

1
For this example, P ( )100% 83.89%
1.192
The one-sided specifications are defined by:

USL
C pu
3
LSL
C pl
3
Example 7.2

For x 264 and S 32 , if the lower specs limit is 200, then:

LSL 264 200 64
C pl 0.67
3 3(32) 96
To calculate the percentage of the products not meeting the spec, use:
LSL 200 264 64
Z 2 . The estimated fallout is 2.28%
32 32
assuming normal distribution.

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These quantities, C p C pu and C pl have very critical assumptions:

The quality characteristic has a normal distribution.

The process is in statistical control
In the case of two-sided specifications, the process mean is
centered between the lower and upper specification limits.

Recommended capability ratios for different processes

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Process Capability Ratio for an Off-Center Process
C p does not take into account where the process mean is located
relative to the specifications.
A process capability ratio that does take into account centering is Cpk
defined as
C pk min(C pu , C pl )

More about Process Centering

Cpk should not be used alone as an measure of process centering. It

may be used together with Cp

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 Cpk depends inversely on and becomes large as approaches

zero. (That is, a large value of Cpk does not necessarily reveal
anything about the location of the mean in the interval (LSL, USL)
An improved capability ratio to measure process centering is Cpm.
USL LSL
C pm
6
where is the square root of the expected squared deviation:
2 2 ( T )2
from the target T :
1
T (USL LSL )
2
Cpm can be rewritten as:

USL LSL USL LSL Cp T

C pm with
6 2 ( T )2 T 2 1 2
6 1 ( )

To estimate Cpm, we can use:

C p Tx
C pm with V
1V 2 S

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Example. Two processes shown in Figure 8-11.

For process A, since it is centered at the target value of T = 50, we have:

Cp 1 .0
C pm 1 .0
1 2 1 0

For process B, we have:

T B 50 57.5
3
B 2 .5

Cp 2 .0
C pm 0.63
1 2
1 ( 3) 2

It is also difficult to tell which one is better by just looking at these 2

numbers.

Testing Hypotheses about PCRs

Demonstrate that the process Cp meets certain target value, Cp0 .

Use hypotheses testing as:

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Null hypothesis H 0 : Cp Cp0 (process is not capable)

Alternative hypothesis H1 : Cp Cp0 (process is capable)

Table 8-4 provides sample sizes and critical values for rejecting
H 0 : Cp Cp0

Cp (High) process capability to accept with prob. 1

It means that we do not accept the process with probability of

although its capability is higher than Cp (High)
Cp (Low) process capability to reject with prob. 1

It means that we do not reject the process with probability while its
capability is not higher than Cp (Low)
Example 8-6. For a supplier to demonstrate that his process capability
exceeds 1.33.
H 0 : C p 1.33

H1 : C p 1.33

We want to have 90% probability to reject the process if process

capability is below 1.33 or Cp (Low)=1.33. Also we want to have 90%
probability to accept the process if the process capability exceeds
Cp (High) =1.66. That is, we have =0.10.

We can use the information in Table 8-4 to decide the value of C p , the
estimated process capability ratio. We first calculate that:

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 C p ( High ) 1.66
1.25
C p ( Low ) 1.33

From Table 8-4, we find that the sample size should be 70. Then we use
the second column to find that
C
1.10
C p ( Low )

or the estimated critical C is:

C C p ( Low ) 1.10 1.33 1.10 1.46

So the process must have a C p 1.46

The supplier must take a sample of n = 70 parts, and the sample process
capability ratio must exceed 1.46.

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Process Capability Analysis Using a Control Chart
The process is in statistical control.
An in-control process may not be capable.
PCRs can be calculated using the process mean and process
standard deviation estimates.

Example. Table 7-5. The same data for Example 7.2. LSL=200

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For the R chart, Center Line: R 77.3
UCL = D4 R ( 2.1145)( 77.3) 163 .49 , LCL = D3 R (0)( 77.3) 0

For x chart, Center Line: x 264 .06

UCL = x A2 R 264 .06 (0.577 )(77.3) 308 .66 , LCL = 219 .46
The control charts show that the process was in control at the time these
samples were taken. However, since x 264 .06 , and the estimated
R 77.3
process standard deviation is: 33.23 , the one sided
d 2 2.326

lower process capability ratio is:

LSL 264 .06 200
C pl 0.64
3 3(33.23)
The process is not capable.

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Gauge and Measurement System Capability

Determine how much of the total observed variability is due to the

gauge or instrument
Isolate the components of variability in the measurement system
Assess whether the instrument or gauge is capable for the intended
application.
A simple model:
y x

where y is the total observed measurement, x is the true value of the

measurement and is the measurement error. We assume that x and
are normally and independently distributed random variables with
means 0 and variances p2 and Gauge
2
, respectively. The variance of
y is

Total
2
p2 Gauge
2

Example 8.7
A gauge will be used in a SPC process. The gauge capability should be
assessed. 20 units of the products are obtained for this purpose. Since it
is to determine the capability of the measurement operation by the
operator using the given device, the operator measured each unit of the
product twice. The data of the measurement are shown in Table 8-6. The
control charts are shown in Figure 8-14 below.

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The x chart, not served as a control chart in this case, shows that the
gauge can be used for a certain range of the measurement. The R chart
shows that the points are within control limits. The operator is good in
using this instrument to do the measurement. The standard deviation of

the measurement error Gauge can be estimated by:

R 1 .0
Gauge 0.887
d 2 1.128

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Estimating the Variance of the Components
From the data in Table 8-6, we can calculate that the standard deviation
of the 40 measurements is s=3.17. Then:
Total
2
s 2 (3.17) 2 10.05

Since we have:
Total
2
p2 Gauge
2

and Gauge 0.887 , we have Gauge (0.887 ) 0.79 . So the variance of

2 2

the process p can be estimated by:

2

P2 Total
2
Gauge
2
10.05 0.79 9.26

and the estimate of the process standard deviation of the process can be

calculated by: P 9.26 3.04

P/T Ratio
The P/T ratio, or the precisionto-tolerance ratio, is to compare the
estimate of gauge capability to the width of the specs: USL-LSL for the
part that is measured.
k Guage
P /T
USL LSL
In most cases, k=6 is used. For the previous example, if the part has
USL=60, LSL=5, then
6(0.887)
P /T 0.097
60 5

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Then the gauge capability is acceptable as the P/T ratio is less than 0.1.

Other related concepts

Precision and accuracy
These two concepts can be illustrate by the charts in Figure 7-15

Repeatability and reproducibility (Gauge R&R Analysis)

o Repeatability reflects the precision of the gauge
o Reproducibility reflects the different conditions where the
gauge is used to do the measurement such as operator, time,
environments, etc.
Measuremen
2
t Error Gauge Repeatability Reproducibility
2 2 2

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