In high-quality processes, events related to non-quality rarely occur and the times between these events (TBE) is likely to follow a skewed distribution like the gamma distribution. In order to monitor TBE data, an Adaptive Exponential Weighted Moving Average (AEWMA) control chart is proposed in this paper. This chart is designed to perform well over a range of shifts instead of being only efficient for a particular shift. An extensive performance analysis shows that, for most shifts, the Average Run Length (ARL) of the proposed chart performs better than other already existing control charts. In order to help the quality practitioner, some guidelines for choosing the most effective scheme in practice are provided. Finally, an illustrative example of the proposed scheme is also presented. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.
Exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) control charts for time-between-events (TBE) are commonly suggested to monitor high-quality processes for the early detection of process deteriorations. In this study, an enhanced one-sided EWMA TBE scheme is developed for rapid detection of increases or decreases in the process mean. The use of the truncation method helps to improve the sensitivity of the proposed scheme in the process mean detection. Moreover, by taking the effects of parameter estimation into account, the proposed scheme with estimated parameters is also investigated. Both the average run length (ARL) and standard deviation of run length (SDRL) performances of the proposed scheme with known and estimated parameters are studied using the Markov chain method, respectively. Furthermore, an optimal design procedure is developed for the recommended one-sided EWMA TBE chart based on ARL. Numerical results show that the proposed optimal one-sided EWMA TBE chart is more sensitive than the existing optimal one-sided exponential EWMA chart in monitoring both upward and downward mean shifts. Meanwhile, it also performs better than the existing comparative scheme in resisting the effect of parameter estimation. Finally, two illustrative examples are considered to show the implementation of the proposed scheme for simulated and real datasets.
21 January 2021 in Communications in Statistics - Simulation and Computation
Control charts based on Time Between Events (TBE) have been shown to be effective in high quality processes, where the defects or failures (events) occur at a very low probability. The occurrences of events are usually modeled as a homogeneous Poisson process. The TBE data is likely to follow a skewed distribution, such as the gamma distribution. In order to monitor high quality processes, this study focuses on the development of modified one-sided Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) TBE charts. The Monte-Carlo simulation method is used to evaluate the Run Length (RL) properties of the proposed schemes. The results show that the proposed schemes are more sensitive to process shifts than some competitive procedures. Finally, a real data example is provided to illustrate the implementation of the proposed charts.
30 June 2020 in Communications in Statistics - Theory and Methods
Exponential type charts are useful tools to monitor the time between events in high-quality processes with a low defect rate. Most studies on exponential charts are designed with the average run length (ARL) metric. The only use of ARL in the design of control charts is sometimes criticized because the shape of the run length (RL) distribution of control charts changes with the shift size. In fact, the RL distribution of the exponential exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) chart is skewed, especially when the process is in-control. Hence, the median run length (MRL) serves as a more meaningful indicator. Moreover, in some situations, the shift size in the process is unknown in advance. Under this case, the expected median run length (EMRL) can be used as the metric. In this paper, the RL properties of both the upper- and lower-sided exponential EWMA charts are studied through a Markov chain approach. Two optimal design procedures are developed for one-sided exponential EWMA charts based on the MRL and EMRL, respectively. The choices of reflecting boundaries for one-sided exponential EWMA charts are discussed through many numerical studies. The MRL and EMRL performances of the one-sided exponential EWMA charts are investigated.
Integrating machine learning (ML) with Statistical Process Control (SPC) is important for Industry 4.0 environments. Contemporary manufacturing data exhibit high-dimensionality, autocorrelation, non-stationarity, and class imbalance, which challenge classical SPC assumptions. This systematic review, conducted following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, provides a problem-driven synthesis that links these data challenges to corresponding methodological families in ML-based SPC. Specifically, we review approaches for (1) high-dimensional and redundant data (dimensionality reduction and feature selection), (2) autocorrelated and dynamic processes (time-series and state-space models), and (3) data scarcity and imbalance (cost-sensitive learning, generative modeling, and transfer learning). Nonlinearity is treated as a cross-cutting property within each category. For each, we outline the mathematical rationale of representative algorithms and illustrate their use with industrial examples. We also summarize open issues in interpretability, thresholding, and real-time deployment. This review offers structured guidance for selecting ML techniques suited to complex manufacturing data and for designing reliable online monitoring pipelines.
9 August 2020 in Quality and Reliability Engineering International