Functional plant layouts are normally adopted in organizations that manufacture large varieties of components in low annual volumes. Attempts to improve the efficiency of these layouts have normally focused on the identification and implication of group technology cells which process a limited...

Summarizes the quality control methods and techniques developed over the last five decades and categorizes them into three broad approaches, each identified with three broadly‐defined product development stages. Observes that the quality management approaches developed and applied to assess...

Considers the problem of determining economic statistical np ‐control chart designs under the fuzzy environment of closely satisfying type I and II errors. Goes on to model the problem as fuzzy mathematical programming, and uses a heuristic method to obtaining the solution.

Following an alarm signal from a control chart it may be necessary to conduct an adjustment to bring the process mean towards a target value. Addresses the problem of how such an adjustment should be made, based on the use of an EWMA control chart, including the special case in which the EWMA is...

Prototype patterns and pattern diagnostic characteristics have been proposed in a previous article. Simulation results based on the prototypes and the diagnostic characteristics have also been presented as a justification for the study. Outlines a methodology, with three major components, which...

Introduces a process capability index which indicates the incapability of a process to meet its specifications. This incapability index is obtained by a transformation of the C * pm index, and it is more informative than C * pm . This transformation allows one to separate information concerning...

Discusses some of the practical difficulties commonly experienced with Shewhart control charts, and makes three suggestions for overcoming these difficulties. The first suggestion is to distinguish the “out‐of‐control” points by some means other than control lines – perhaps by ringing...

Studies the necessity of controlling the variation of the skewness of the process distribution in order to reduce the product scrap. Proposes a γ control chart for detecting the skewness shift, also implements a simulation procedure to decide the control limits of the γ chart.