SPC Control Charts
Easson2D SPC provides several control charts for observing whether the measurement data remains stable during continuous production.
The following are supported:
- XBar-R
- XMed-R
- XBar-S
- X-Rm
Before use, first select the control item to analyze in the lower part of SPC Manager, then click the corresponding control chart button.
XBar-R Control Chart
The XBar-R chart consists of two charts:
- Upper chart: the mean of each group (XBar)
- Lower chart: the range of each group (R)
It can simultaneously observe whether:
the central position of each group changes, and whether the fluctuation of each group is stable.
For example, when the sample size is set to 5, every 5 consecutive samples form a group, and the mean and range of each group are calculated separately.
XMed-R Control Chart
The XMed-R chart also consists of two charts:
- Upper chart: the median of each group (XMed)
- Lower chart: the range of each group (R)
It is similar to XBar-R, but uses the median to represent the central position of each group.
XBar-S Control Chart
The XBar-S chart consists of:
- Upper chart: the mean of each group (XBar)
- Lower chart: the standard deviation of each group (S)
Unlike XBar-R, which uses the range to observe fluctuation, XBar-S uses the standard deviation to reflect the dispersion of each group.
X-Rm Control Chart
The X-Rm chart is an individual values control chart.
It consists of:
- Upper chart: the actual measured value of each sample (X)
- Lower chart: the moving range between adjacent samples (Rm)
X-Rm analyzes each sample directly, so unlike XBar-R, XMed-R, and XBar-S, it does not rely on the "sample size" for grouping.
This can be simply understood as:
The first three control charts look at "each group", while X-Rm looks at "each sample".
UCL, CL, and LCL
Control charts usually display three reference lines:
- UCL: upper control limit
- CL: center line
- LCL: lower control limit
When a data point exceeds the control range, the software highlights it with a different color to help you find positions where abnormal variation may have occurred.
Note that:
UCL / LCL are control limits calculated from the process data, not the product specification limits.
The specification limits are mainly used to judge whether a product is out of spec, while the control limits are mainly used to observe whether the production process is stable.
Simple Differences among the Four Control Charts
| Control Chart | Main observation content |
|---|---|
| XBar-R | Group mean + range |
| XMed-R | Group median + range |
| XBar-S | Group mean + standard deviation |
| X-Rm | Individual sample value + moving range |
For general grouped measurement, you can use XBar-R, XMed-R, or XBar-S as needed.
If you want to directly observe data variation sample by sample in a continuous series, you can use X-Rm.
Viewing the Control Charts
The basic workflow is:
Select the control item → Set a suitable sample size → Select the control chart type → View UCL / CL / LCL and data point variation
Through the control charts, you can observe whether abnormal fluctuation occurs in the production process more intuitively than by only looking at the measured values.