Process yield, the percentage of processed product units passing inspection, is a standard numerical measure of process performance in manufacturing industry. Based on the expression of process yield, Boyles (1994) presented a yield-measure index, S<SUB align="right"><SMALL>pk</SMALL></SUB>, for normally distributed processes. In...</small></sub>

Taguchi has introduced the loss function approach to quality improvement by focusing on the reduction of variation around the target value. This concept pays attention to the product designer's original intent; that is, values of a critical characteristic at a target lead to maximum product...

Johnson (1992) developed the process loss index Le, which is defined as the ratio of the expected quadratic loss to the square of half specification width. Tsui (1997) expressed the index LeasLe=Lpe+Lot, which provides an uncontaminated separation between information concerning the potential...

Process capability indices have been proposed in the manufacturing industry to provide numerical measures on process reproduction capability, which are effective tools for quality assurance and guidance for process improvement. In process capability analysis, the usual practice for testing...