SPC

Statistical Process Control (SPC) is a technique that is widely used in the manufacturing industry to identify problems in a process so that they can be addressed before they create defective products.

Inspection is the obvious strategy that you might use to try to prevent defects from reaching their customers. But inspections come at a cost to implement and are often not guaranteed to detect defects.

100% inspection is often not feasible or desirable for because of the effort involved or the test is potentially destructive..

SPC is used as an enhancement to inspection as a quality control strategy. The principle is to take samples from the process and derive knowledge of the overall process using statistical analysis. SPC is particularly good when samples are taken during production processes to check that the process is performing as expected.

When used correctly, SPC can spot issues before having a big impact, meaning the manufacturing process can be corrected before it becomes a problem.