A new generation of process capability indices

In quality control, we may confront imprecise concepts. One case is a situation in which upper and lower specification limits (SLs) are imprecise. If we introduce vagueness into SLs, we face quite new, reasonable and interesting processes, and the ordinary capability indices are not appropriate for measuring the capability of these processes. In this paper, similar to the traditional process capability indices (PCIs), we develop a fuzzy analogue by a distance defined on a fuzzy limit space and introduce PCIs, where instead of precise SLs we have two membership functions for upper and lower SLs. These indices are necessary when SLs are fuzzy, and they are helpful for comparing manufacturing process with fuzzy SLs. Some interesting relations among these introduced indices are proved. Numerical examples are given to clarify the method.     

Construction of closed interval for process capability indices Cpu,Cpl, and Spk based on Boole’s inequality and de Morgan’s laws

ABSTRACT

Considerable effort has been spent on the development of confidence intervals for process capability indices (PCIs) based on the sampling distribution of the PCI or the transferred PCI. However, there is still no definitive way to construct a closed interval for a PCI. The aim of this study is to develop closed intervals for the PCIs C_pu, C_pl, and S_pk based on Boole's inequality and de Morgan's laws. The relationships between different sample sizes, the significance levels, and the confidence intervals of the PCIs C_pu, C_pl, and S_pk are investigated. Then, a testing model for interval estimation for the PCIs C_pu, C_pl, and S_pk is built as a powerful tool for measuring the quality performance of a product. Finally, an applied example is given to demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed method and the testing model.     

Probability-Based Process Capability Indices

This article deals with alternative process capability indices (PCIs) to traditional basic PCIs C _p , C _pk , and C _pm based on different fraction conforming type of probabilities. In view of various problems of constructing capability indices for univariate as well as multivariate set up, these alternative PCIs are very useful as compared to C _p , C _pk , and C _pm . Computing aspects of proposed PCIs are discussed for normal and non normal processes when process tolerance is symmetric as well as asymmetric. Generalization of these PCIs for multivariate set up is also discussed. Some simulation study results and real life problems are given for applications of proposed PCIs.     

Developing and designing of an efficient variables sampling system based on the process capability index

Process capability indices (PCIs) are extensively used in the manufacturing industries in order to confirm whether the manufactured products meet their specifications or not. PCIs can be used to judge the process precision, process accuracy, and the process performance. So developing of sampling plans based on PCIs is inevitable and those plans will be very much useful for maintaining and improving the product quality in the manufacturing industries. In view of this, we propose a variables sampling system based on the process capability index C_pmk, which takes into account of process yield and process loss, when the quality characteristic under study will have double specification limits. The proposed sampling system will be effective in compliance testing. The advantages of this system over the existing sampling plans are also discussed. In order to determine the optimal parameters, tables are also constructed by formulating the problem as a nonlinear programming in which the average sample number is minimized by satisfying the producer and consumer risks.     

Parametric inference of the process capability index for exponentiated exponential distribution

Process capability indices (PCIs) are most effective devices/techniques used in industries for determining the quality of products and performance of manufacturing processes. In this article, we consider the PCI C_pc which is based on the proportion of conformance and is applicable to normally as well as non-normally and continuous as well as discrete distributed processes. In order to estimate the PCI C_pc when the process follows exponentiated exponential distribution, we have used five classical methods of estimation. The performances of these classical estimators are compared with respect to their biases and mean squared errors (MSEs) of the index C_pc through simulation study. Also, the confidence intervals for the index C_pc are constructed using five bootstrap confidence interval (BCIs) methods. Monte Carlo simulation study has been carried out to compare the performances of these five BCIs in terms of their average width and coverage probabilities. Besides, net sensitivity (NS) analysis for the given PCI C_pc is considered. We use two data sets related to electronic and food industries and two failure time data sets to illustrate the performance of the proposed methods of estimation and BCIs. Additionally, we have developed PCI C_pc using aforementioned methods for generalized Rayleigh distribution.     

A General Class of Test Procedures for Left-Truncated and Right-Censored Data

When the distribution of one of the characteristics of a process is non normal, methods based on empirical percentiles suggest the use of several process capability indices (PCIs) which are similar to the usual C _p , C _pk , C _pm , and C _pmk indices. However most of these PCIs apply only to the case of symmetrical tolerances. To take into account the asymmetry of the tolerances as well as the asymmetry of the process distribution, new PCIs which improve the previous ones are proposed. In the end and in order to validate the method proposed here, we apply it to a real production case.     

Statistical analysis of process capability indices with measurement errors: The case ofC p

Process capability indices (PCIs) have been widely used in manufacturing industries to previde a quantitative measure of process potential and performance. While some efforts have been dedicated in the literature to the statistical properties of PCIs estimators, scarce attention has been given to the evaluation of these properties when sample data are affected by measurement errors. In this work we deal with the problem of measurement errors effects on the performance of PCIs. The analysis is illustrated with reference toC _p , i.e. the simplest and most common measure suggested to evaluate process capability. The authors would like to thank two anonymous referees for their comments and suggestion that were useful in the preparation and improvement of this paper. This work was partially supported by a MURST research grant.     

An asymptotic confidence interval for the process capability index Cpm

Abstract

The use of indices as an estimation tool of process capability is long-established among the statistical quality professionals. Numerous capability indices have been proposed in last few years. C_pm constitutes one of the most widely used capability indices and its estimation has attracted much interest. In this paper, we propose a new method for constructing an approximate confidence interval for the index C_pm. The proposed method is based on the asymptotic distribution of the index C_pm obtained by the Delta Method. Under some regularity conditions, the distribution of an estimator of the process capability index C_pm is asymptotically normal.     

On Confidence Intervals for Process Capability Indices in a One-Way Random Model

In this article, we investigated the bootstrap calibrated generalized confidence limits for process capability indices C _pk for the one-way random effect model. Also, we derived Bissell's approximation formula for the lower confidence limit using Satterthwaite's method and calculated its coverage probabilities and expected values. Then we compared it with standard bootstrap (SB) method and generalized confidence interval method. The simulation results indicate that the confidence limit obtained offers satisfactory coverage probabilities. The proposed method is illustrated with the help of simulation studies and data sets.     

Elliptical safety region plots for C pk

The process capability index C _pk is widely used when measuring the capability of a manufacturing process. A process is defined to be capable if the capability index exceeds a stated threshold value, e.g. C _pk >4/3. This inequality can be expressed graphically using a process capability plot, which is a plot in the plane defined by the process mean and the process standard deviation, showing the region for a capable process. In the process capability plot, a safety region can be plotted to obtain a simple graphical decision rule to assess process capability at a given significance level. We consider safety regions to be used for the index C _pk . Under the assumption of normality, we derive elliptical safety regions so that, using a random sample, conclusions about the process capability can be drawn at a given significance level. This simple graphical tool is helpful when trying to understand whether it is the variability, the deviation from target, or both that need to be reduced to improve the capability. Furthermore, using safety regions, several characteristics with different specification limits and different sample sizes can be monitored in the same plot. The proposed graphical decision rule is also investigated with respect to power.     

A note on the asymptotic distribution of the process capability index C pmk

Process capability indices have been widely used to evaluate the process performance to the continuous improvement of quality and productivity. The distribution of the estimator of the process capability index C _pmk is very complicated and the asymptotic distribution is proposed by Chen and Hsu [The asymptotic distribution of the processes capability index C _pmk , Comm. Statist. Theory Methods 24(5) (1995), pp. 1279–1291]. However, we found a critical error for the asymptotic distribution when the population mean is not equal to the midpoint of the specification limits. In this paper, a correct version of the asymptotic distribution is given. An asymptotic confidence interval of C _pmk by using the correct version of asymptotic distribution is proposed and the lower bound can be used to test if the process is capable. A simulation study of the coverage probability of the proposed confidence interval is shown to be satisfactory. The relation of six sigma technique and the index C _pmk is also discussed in this paper. An asymptotic testing procedure to determine if a process is capable based on the index of C _pmk is also given in this paper.     

Sample size determination for estimating multivariate process capability indices based on lower confidence limits

With the advent of modern technology, manufacturing processes have become very sophisticated; a single quality characteristic can no longer reflect a product's quality. In order to establish performance measures for evaluating the capability of a multivariate manufacturing process, several new multivariate capability (NMC) indices, such as NMC _p and NMC _pm , have been developed over the past few years. However, the sample size determination for multivariate process capability indices has not been thoroughly considered in previous studies. Generally, the larger the sample size, the more accurate an estimation will be. However, too large a sample size may result in excessive costs. Hence, the trade-off between sample size and precision in estimation is a critical issue. In this paper, the lower confidence limits of NMC _p and NMC _pm indices are used to determine the appropriate sample size. Moreover, a procedure for conducting the multivariate process capability study is provided. Finally, two numerical examples are given to demonstrate that the proper determination of sample size for multivariate process indices can achieve a good balance between sampling costs and estimation precision.     

Fuzzy Testing for One-Sided Process Capability Indices

Process capability indices are widely used to evaluate the performance of processes in the manufacturing industry. Over the years, the issues have been investigated extensively. Some articles have studied them with fuzzy estimation. However, it seems that no article has proposed a version of triangular fuzzy numbers for critical value to test the process capability. In this article, we use Buckley's approach (2003 Buckley , J. J. ( 2003 ). Fuzzy Probabilities: New Approach and Application . Heidelberg : Physica-Verlag .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) to construct the triangular fuzzy numbers for C _pl and C _pu , especially, the triangular fuzzy numbers for critical values are derived to execute the fuzzy hypothesis testing for C _pl and C _pu . Some numerical examples are taken to illustrate the proposed methodology.     

Three New Multivariate Process Capability Indices

Different multivariate process capability indices are developed by researchers to evaluate process capability when vectors of quality characteristics are considered in a study. This article presents three indices referred to as NCpM, MCpM, and NMC _PM in order to evaluate process capability in multivariate environment. The performance of the proposed indices is investigated numerically. Simulation results indicate that the proposed indices have descended estimation error and improved performance compared to the existing ones. These results can be important to researchers and practitioners who are interested in evaluating process capability in multivariate domain.     

A general class of capability indices in the case of asymmetric tolerances

Vannman has earlier studied a class of capability indices, containing the indices C _p , C _pk , C _pm and C _pmk , when the tolerances are symmetric. We study the properties of this class when the tolerances are asymmetric and suggest a new enlargened class of indices. Under the assumption of normality an explicit form of the distribution of the new class of the estimated indices is provided. Numerical investigations are made to explore the behavior of the estimators of the indices for different values of the parameters. Based on the estimator a decision rule that can be used to determine whether the process can be considered capable or not is provided and suitable criteria for choosing an index from the family are suggested.     

Reliable confidence intervals for assessing normal process incapability

This study aims to provide a reliable confidence interval for assessing the process incapability index [C_pp]. The concept of the generalized pivotal quantities is utilized for constructing the generalized confidence interval for [C_pp]. And, simulations are performed for demonstrating our proposed method and one existent method. The results show that the empirical confidences of these two methods are significantly affected by the degree of process departure. Therefore, we suggest the practitioners to select proper one for capability testing purpose based on the information of degree of process departure.     

Estimating process capability index Cpk: classical approach versus Bayesian approach

Process capability index C_pk has been the most popular one used in the manufacturing industry dealing with problems of measuring reproduction capability of processes to enhance product development with very low fraction of defectives. In the manufacturing industry, lower confidence bound (LCB) estimates the minimum process capability providing pivotal information for quality engineers to monitoring the process and assessing process performance for quality assurance. The main objective of this paper is to compare and contrast the LCBs on C_pk using two approaches, Classical method and Bayesian method.     

A Bayesian procedure for assessing process performance based on the third-generation capability index

Capability indices that qualify process potential and process performance are practical tools for successful quality improvement activities and quality program implementation. Most existing methods to assess process capability were derived on the basis of the traditional frequentist point of view. This paper considers the problem of estimating and testing process capability based on the third-generation capability index C _pmk from the Bayesian point of view. We first derive the posterior probability p for the process under investigation is capable. The one-sided credible interval, a Bayesian analog of the classical lower confidence interval, can be obtained to assess process performance. To investigate the effectiveness of the derived results, a series of simulation was undertaken. The results indicate that the performance of the proposed Bayesian approach depends strongly on the value of ξ=(μ?T)/σ. It performs very well with the accurate coverage rate when μ is sufficiently far from T. In those cases, they have the same acceptable performance even though the sample size n is as small as 25.     

Process Capability Analysis in Non Normal Linear Regression Profiles

When the distribution of a process characterized by a profile is non normal, process capability analysis using normal assumption often leads to erroneous interpretations of the process performance. Profile monitoring is a relatively new set of techniques in quality control that is used in situations where the state of product or process is represented by a function of two or more quality characteristics. Such profiles can be modeled using linear or nonlinear regression models. In some applications, it is assumed that the quality characteristics follow a normal distribution; however, in certain applications this assumption may fail to hold and may yield misleading results. In this article, we consider process capability analysis of non normal linear profiles. We investigate and compare five methods to estimate non normal process capability index (PCI) in profiles. In three of the methods, an estimation of the cumulative distribution function (cdf) of the process is required to analyze process capability in profiles. In order to estimate cdf of the process, we use a Burr XII distribution as well as empirical distributions. However, the resulted PCI with estimating cdf of the process is sometimes far from its true value. So, here we apply artificial neural network with supervised learning which allows the estimation of PCIs in profiles without the need to estimate cdf of the process. Box-Cox transformation technique is also developed to deal with non normal situations. Finally, a comparison study is performed through the simulation of Gamma, Weibull, Lognormal, Beta and student-t data.