Monitoring simple linear profiles using variable sample size schemes

ABSTRACT

Profile monitoring is one of the new research areas in statistical process control. Most of the control charts in this area are designed with fixed sampling rate which makes the control chart slow in detecting small to moderate shifts. In order to improve the performance of the conventional fixed control charts, adaptive features are proposed in which, one or more design parameters vary during the process. In this paper the variable sample size feature of EWMA₃ and MEWMA schemes are proposed for monitoring simple linear profiles. The EWMA₃ method is based on the combination of three exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) charts for monitoring three parameters of a simple linear profile separately and the Multivariate EWMA (MEWMA) chart is based on the using a single chart to monitor the coefficients and variance of a general linear profile. Also a two-sided control chart is proposed for monitoring the standard deviation in the EWMA₃ method. The performance of the proposed charts is compared in terms of the average time to signal. Numerical examples show that using adaptive features increase the power of control charts in detecting the parameter shifts. Finally, the performance of the proposed variable sample size schemes is illustrated through a real case in the leather industry.     

Robustness to non-normality and autocorrelation of individuals control charts

This paper studies the effects of non-normality and autocorrelation on the performances of various individuals control charts for monitoring the process mean and/or variance. The traditional Shewhart X chart and moving range (MR) chart are investigated as well as several types of exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) charts and combinations of control charts involving these EWMA charts. It is shown that the combination of the X and MR charts will not detect small and moderate parameter shifts as fast as combinations involving the EWMA charts, and that the performana of the X and MR charts is very sensitive to the normality assumption. It is also shown that certain combinations of EWMA charts can be designed to be robust to non-normality and very effective at detecting small and moderate shifts in the process mean and/or variance. Although autocorrelation can have a significant effect on the in-control performances of these combinations of EWMA charts, their relative out-of-control performances under independence are generally maintained for low to moderate levels of autocorrelation.     

Generally weighted moving average control charts using repetitive sampling

Abstract

Generally weighted moving average (GWMA) control charts have been validated for effective detection of small process shifts, and perform better than exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control charts. These charts are available based on single sampling; however, repetitive sampling charts have received less attention. Here, a GWMA control chart based on repetitive sampling (namely an RS-GWMA chart) is proposed for enhancing detectability of small process shifts. Simulations show that the proposed RS-GWMA chart with large design and small adjustment parameters outperforms existing hybrid EWMA (HEWMA) control charts based on repetitive sampling. An in-silico example is considered for demonstrating the applicability of the proposed RS-GWMA chart.     

Robustness of the EWMA and the combined X¯–EWMA control charts with variable sampling intervals to non-normality

The exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control charts with variable sampling intervals (VSIs) have been shown to be substantially quicker than the fixed sampling intervals (FSI) EWMA control charts in detecting process mean shifts. The usual assumption for designing a control chart is that the data or measurements are normally distributed. However, this assumption may not be true for some processes. In the present paper, the performances of the EWMA and combined X¯–EWMA control charts with VSIs are evaluated under non-normality. It is shown that adding the VSI feature to the EWMA control charts results in very substantial decreases in the expected time to detect shifts in process mean under both normality and non-normality. However, the combined X¯–EWMA chart has its false alarm rate and its detection ability is affected if the process data are not normally distributed.     

A new approach for monitoring process variance

ABSTRACT

Control charts are effective tools for signal detection in both manufacturing processes and service processes. Much service data come from a process with variables having non-normal or unknown distributions. The commonly used Shewhart variable control charts, which depend heavily on the normality assumption, should not be properly used in such circumstances. In this paper, we propose a new variance chart based on a simple statistic to monitor process variance shifts. We explore the sampling properties of the new monitoring statistic and calculate the average run lengths (ARLs) of the proposed variance chart. Furthermore, an arcsine transformed exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) chart is proposed because the ARLs of this modified chart are more intuitive and reasonable than those of the variance chart. We compare the out-of-control variance detection performance of the proposed variance chart with that of the non-parametric Mood variance (NP-M) chart with runs rules, developed by Zombade and Ghute [Nonparametric control chart for variability using runs rules. Experiment. 2014;24(4):1683–1691], and the nonparametric likelihood ratio-based distribution-free exponential weighted moving average (NLE) chart and the combination of traditional exponential weighted moving average (EWMA) mean and EWMA variance (CEW) control chart proposed by Zou and Tsung [Likelihood ratio-based distribution-free EWMA control charts. J Qual Technol. 2010;42(2):174–196] by considering cases in which the critical quality characteristic has a normal, a double exponential or a uniform distribution. Comparison results showed that the proposed chart performs better than the NP-M with runs rules, and the NLE and CEW control charts. A numerical example of service times with a right-skewed distribution from a service system of a bank branch in Taiwan is used to illustrate the application of the proposed variance chart and of the arcsine transformed EWMA chart and to compare them with three existing variance (or standard deviation) charts. The proposed charts show better detection performance than those three existing variance charts in monitoring and detecting shifts in the process variance.     

A EWMA control chart based on an auxiliary variable and repetitive sampling for monitoring process location

ABSTRACT

This article develops an exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control chart using an auxiliary variable and repetitive sampling for efficient detection of small to moderate shifts in location. A EWMA statistic of a product estimator of the average (which utilities the information of auxiliary variables as well as repetitive sampling) is plotted on the proposed chart. The control chart coefficients of the proposed EWMA chart are determined for two strategic limits known as outer and inner control limits for the target in-control average run length. The performance of the proposed EWMA chart is studied using average run length when a shift occurs in the process average. The efficiency of the developed chart is compared with the competitive existing control charts. The results of the study revealed that proposed EWMA chart is more efficient than others to detect small changes in process mean.     

A mixed GWMA–CUSUM control chart for monitoring the process mean

The memory-type control charts are widely used in the process and service industries for monitoring the production processes. The reason is their sensitivity to quickly react against the small process disturbances. Recently, a new cumulative sum (CUSUM) chart has been proposed that uses the exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) statistic, called the EWMA–CUSUM chart. Similarly, in order to further enhance the sensitivity of the EWMA–CUSUM chart, we propose a new CUSUM chart using the generally weighted moving average (GWMA) statistic, called the GWMA–CUSUM chart, for efficiently monitoring the process mean. The GWMA–CUSUM chart encompasses the existing CUSUM and EWMA–CUSUM charts. Extensive Monte Carlo simulations are used to explore the run length profiles of the GWMA–CUSUM chart. Based on comprehensive run length comparisons, it turns out that the GWMA–CUSUM chart performs substantially better than the CUSUM, EWMA, GWMA, and EWMA–CUSUM charts when detecting small shifts in the process mean. An illustrative example is also presented to explain the implementation and working of the EWMA–CUSUM and GWMA–CUSUM charts.     

Effect of measurement error on exponentially weighted moving average control charts under ranked set sampling schemes

Control charts are a powerful statistical process monitoring tool often used to monitor the stability of manufacturing processes. In quality control applications, measurement errors adversely affect the performance of control charts. In this paper, we study the effect of measurement error on the detection abilities of the exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control charts for monitoring process mean based on ranked set sampling (RSS), median RSS (MRSS), imperfect RSS (IRSS) and imperfect MRSS (IMRSS) schemes. We also study the effect of multiple measurements and non-constant error variance on the performances of the EWMA control charts. The EWMA control chart based on simple random sampling is compared with the EWMA control charts based on RSS, MRSS, IRSS and IMRSS schemes. The performances of the EWMA control charts are evaluated in terms of out-of-control average run length and standard deviation of run lengths. It turns out that the EWMA control charts based on MRSS and IMRSS schemes are better than their counterparts for all measurement error cases considered here.     

An Examination of the Robustness to Non Normality of the EWMA Control Charts for the Dispersion

ABSTRACT

The EWMA control chart is used to detect small shifts in a process. It has been shown that, for certain values of the smoothing parameter, the EWMA chart for the mean is robust to non normality. In this article, we examine the case of non normality in the EWMA charts for the dispersion. It is shown that we can have an EWMA chart for dispersion robust to non normality when non normality is not extreme.     

Accurate ARL computation for EWMA-S<Superscript>2</Superscript> control charts

Originally, the exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control chart was developed for detecting changes in the process mean. The average run length (ARL) became the most popular performance measure for schemes with this objective. When monitoring the mean of independent and normally distributed observations the ARL can be determined with high precision. Nowadays, EWMA control charts are also used for monitoring the variance. Charts based on the sample variance S² are an appropriate choice. The usage of ARL evaluation techniques known from mean monitoring charts, however, is difficult. The most accurate method—solving a Fredholm integral equation with the Nyström method—fails due to an improper kernel in the case of chi-squared distributions. Here, we exploit the collocation method and the product Nyström method. These methods are compared to Markov chain based approaches. We see that collocation leads to higher accuracy than currently established methods.     

A Study on EWMA charts with runs rules—the Markov chain approach

ABSTRACT

Runs rules are usually used with Shewhart-type charts to enhance the charts' sensitivities toward small and moderate shifts. Abbas et al. in 2011 took it a step further by proposing two runs rules schemes, applied to the exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) chart and evaluated their average run length (ARL) performances using simulation. They showed that the proposed schemes are superior to the classical EWMA chart and other schemes being investigated. Besides pointing out some erroneous ARL and standard deviation of the run length (SDRL) computations in Abbas et al., this paper presents a Markov chain approach for computing the ARL, percentiles of the run length (RL) distribution and SDRL, for the two runs rules schemes of Abbas et al. Using Markov chain, we also propose two combined runs rules EWMA schemes to quicken the two schemes of Abbas et al. in responding to large shifts. The runs rules (basic and combined rules) EWMA schemes will be compared with some existing control charting methods, where the former charts are shown to prevail.     

A weighted likelihood ratio test-based chart for monitoring process mean and variability

In this paper, a new single exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control chart based on the weighted likelihood ratio test, referred to as the WLRT chart, is proposed for the problem of monitoring the mean and variance of a normally distributed process variable. It is easy to design, fast to compute, and quite effective for diverse cases including the detection of the decrease in variability and individual observation case. The optimal parameters that can be used as a design aid in selecting specific parameter values based on the average run length (ARL) and the sample size are provided. The in-control (IC) and out-of-control (OC) performance properties of the new chart are compared with some other existing EWMA-type charts. Our simulation results show that the IC run length distribution of the proposed chart is similar to that of a geometric distribution, and it provides quite a robust and satisfactory overall performance for detecting a wide range of shifts in the process mean and/or variability.     

Control charts based on linear combinations of order statistics

The last 20 years have seen an increasing emphasis on statistical process control as a practical approach to reducing variability in industrial applications. Control charts are used to detect problems such as outliers or excess variability in subgroup means that may have a special cause. We describe an approach to the computation of control limits for exponentially weighted moving average control charts where the usual statistics in classical charts are replaced by linear combinations of order statistics; in particular, the trimmed mean and Gini's mean difference instead of the mean and range, respectively. Control limits are derived, and simulated average run length experiments show the trimmed control charts to be less influenced by extreme observations than their classical counterparts, and lead to tighter control limits. An example is given that illustrates the benefits of the proposed charts. parameters; see, for example, Hunter (1986) and Montgomery (1996). On the other hand, EWMA charts have been shown to be more efficient than Shewharttype charts in detecting small shifts in the process mean; see, for example, Ng & Case (1989), Crowder (1989), Lucas & Saccucci (1990), Amin & Searcy (1991) and Wetherill & Brown (1991). In fact, the EWMA control chart has become popular for monitoring a process mean; see Hunter (1986) for a good discussion. More recently, EWMA charts have been developed for monitoring process variability;     

Control charts based on linear combinations of order statistics

The last 20 years have seen an increasing emphasis on statistical process control as a practical approach to reducing variability in industrial applications. Control charts are used to detect problems such as outliers or excess variability in subgroup means that may have a special cause. We describe an approach to the computation of control limits for exponentially weighted moving average control charts where the usual statistics in classical charts are replaced by linear combinations of order statistics; in particular, the trimmed mean and Gini's mean difference instead of the mean and range, respectively. Control limits are derived, and simulated average run length experiments show the trimmed control charts to be less influenced by extreme observations than their classical counterparts, and lead to tighter control limits. An example is given that illustrates the benefits of the proposed charts. parameters; see, for example, Hunter (1986) and Montgomery (1996). On the other hand, EWMA charts have been shown to be more efficient than Shewharttype charts in detecting small shifts in the process mean; see, for example, Ng & Case (1989), Crowder (1989), Lucas & Saccucci (1990), Amin & Searcy (1991) and Wetherill & Brown (1991). In fact, the EWMA control chart has become popular for monitoring a process mean; see Hunter (1986) for a good discussion. More recently, EWMA charts have been developed for monitoring process variability;     

A new nonparametric synthetic EWMA control chart for monitoring process mean

The exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control charts are widely used in chemical and process industries because of their excellent speed in catching small to moderate shifts in the process target. In usual practice, many data come from a process where the monitoring statistic is non-normally distributed or it follows an unknown probability distribution. This necessitates the use of distribution-free/nonparametric control charts for monitoring the deviations from the process target. In this paper, we integrate the existing EWMA sign chart with the conforming run length chart to propose a new synthetic EWMA (SynEWMA) sign chart for monitoring the process mean. The SynEWMA sign chart encompasses the synthetic sign and EWMA sign charts. Monte Carlo simulations are used to compute the run length profiles of the SynEWMA sign chart. Based on a comprehensive comparison, it turns out that the SynEWMA sign chart is able to perform substantially better than the existing EWMA sign chart. Both real and simulated data sets are used to explain the working and implementation of existing and proposed control charts.     

Grouped data exponentially weighted moving average control charts

In the manufacture of metal fasteners in a progressive die operation, and other industrial situations, important quality dimensions cannot be measured on a continuous scale, and manufactured parts are classified into groups by using a step gauge. This paper proposes a version of exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control charts that are applicable to monitoring the grouped data for process shifts. The run length properties of this new grouped data EWMA chart are compared with similar results previously obtained for EWMA charts for variables data and with those for cumulative sum (CUSUM) schemes based on grouped data. Grouped data EWMA charts are shown to be nearly as efficient as variables-based EWMA charts and are thus an attractive alternative when the collection of variables data is not feasible. In addition, grouped data EWMA charts are less affected by the discreteness that is inherent in grouped data than are grouped data CUSUM charts. In the metal fasteners application, grouped data EWMA charts were simple to implement and allowed the rapid detection of undesirable process shifts.     

An adaptive exponentially weighted moving average control chart for monitoring process variances

The exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control chart is efficient in detecting small changes in process parameters but less efficient when the changes are relatively large, due to what is known as the inertia problem. To diminish the inertia, an adaptive EWMA (AEWMA) chart has been proposed for monitoring process locations to improve over the traditional EWMA charts. The basic idea of the AEWMA scheme is to dynamically weight the past observations according to a suitable function of the current prediction error. This article extends the idea of the AEWMA chart for monitoring process locations to the case of monitoring process dispersion. A Markov chain model is established to analyze and design the suggested chart. It is shown that the AEWMA dispersion chart performs better than the EWMA and other dispersion charts in terms of its ability to perform relatively well at both small and large changes in process dispersion.     

An Improved Distribution-free EWMA Mean Chart

Control charts are effective tools for signal detection in both manufacturing processes and service processes. Much service data come from a process with variables having nonnormal or unknown distributions. The commonly used Shewhart variable control charts, which depend heavily on the normality assumption, should not be properly used here. In this article, we propose an improved asymmetric EWMA mean chart based on a simple statistic to monitor process mean shift. We explored the sampling properties of the new monitoring statistic and calculated the average run lengths of the proposed asymmetric EWMA mean chart. We recommend the proposed improved asymmetric EWMA mean chart because the average run lengths of the modified charts are more accurate and reasonable than those of the five existed mean charts. A numerical example of service times with a right skewed distribution from a service system of a bank branch is used to illustrate the application of the improved asymmetric EWMA mean chart and to compare it with the five existing mean charts. The proposed chart showed better detection performance than those of the five existing mean charts in monitoring and detecting shifts in the process mean.     

A new adaptive EWMA control chart using auxiliary information for monitoring the process mean

The adaptive memory-type control charts, including the adaptive exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) and cumulative sum (CUSUM) charts, have gained considerable attention because of their excellent speed in providing overall good detection over a range of mean shift sizes. In this paper, we propose a new adaptive EWMA (AEWMA) chart using the auxiliary information for efficiently monitoring the infrequent changes in the process mean. The idea is to first estimate the unknown process mean shift using an auxiliary information based mean estimator, and then adaptively update the smoothing constant of the EWMA chart. Using extensive Monte Carlo simulations, the run length profiles of the AEWMA chart are computed and explored. The AEWMA chart is compared with the existing control charts, including the classical EWMA, CUSUM, synthetic EWMA and synthetic CUSUM charts, in terms of the run length characteristics. It turns out that the AEWMA chart performs uniformly better than these control charts when detecting a range of mean shift sizes. An illustrative example is also presented to demonstrate the working and implementation of the proposed and existing control charts.     

EWNA charts for monitoring the mean and the autocovariances of stationary processes

In this paper various types of EWMA control charts are introduced for the simultaneous monitoring of the mean and the autocovariances. The target process is assumed to be a stationary process up to fourth-order or an ARMA process with heavy tailed innovations. The case of a Gaussian process is included in our results as well. The charts are compared within a simulation study. As a measure of the performance the average run length is taken. The target process is an ARMA (1,1) process with Student-t distributed innovations. The behavior of the charts is analyzed with respect to several out-of-control models. The best design parameters are determined for each chart. Our comparisons show that the multivariate EWMA chart applied to the residuals has the best overall performance.