Guidelines for implementation of statistical process control (SPC) - Part 1: Elements of SPC

Statistical process control (SPC) concerns the use of statistical techniques and/or statistical or stochastic control algorithms to achieve one or more of the following objectives:

• to increase knowledge about a process;
• to steer a process to behave in the desired way;
• to reduce variation of final-product parameters, or in other ways improve performance of a process.

These guidelines give the elements for implementing an SPC system to achieve these objectives. The common economic objective of statistical process control is to increase good process outputs produced for a given amount of resource inputs.

This part of ISO 11462 specifies SPC system guidelines for use

• when a supplier's capability to reduce variation in processes associated with design or production needs to be proven or improved; or
• when a supplier is beginning SPC implementation to achieve such capability.

These guidelines are not intended for contractual, regulatory or certification use.