CONTROL CHARTS FOR ATTRIBUTES

To control the quality of certain product whose attributes are available,

the following control charts are used.

• p-Chart - proportion or fraction of defectives

• np-Chart - number of defectives

• c-Chart - number of defects in a unit

Points to remember
• p-Chart is used when all the samples drawn from the produced items
are of the same size or of different size.

• np-Chart is used only when all the samples are of same size 𝑛.

• np-Chart and p-Chart are used only when 𝑝ҧ ≥ 0.05 or 𝑛𝑝ҧ ≥ 4.

• c-Chart is used only when each sample consists of only one item.
Construction of c-chart
• c-chart is used when it is required to control (minimize) the number of
defects per unit.
• There are situations where it is necessary to control the number of defects
in a unit of product, rather than the fraction defective or the number of
defectives.
• For example, controlling the number of defects per hundred meters of
cloth, number of air bubbles in a piece of glass, etc.
• Such situations are described by the Poisson distribution.
Control limits of c-chart

Let c represents the number of defects counted per unit and

𝑐ҧ represent the mean of the defects counted in several such units.

Then
• Central line = 𝑐ҧ
• Lower control limit, LCL= 𝑐ҧ −3 𝑐ҧ
• Upper control limit, UCL= 𝑐ҧ +3 𝑐ҧ
Problem 1
15 tape-recorders were examined for quality control test. The number
of defects in each tape-recorder is recorded below. Draw the
appropriate control chart and comment on the state of control.

Unit number (i) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

No. of defects (c) 2 4 3 1 1 2 5 3 6 7 3 1 4 2 1

Solution.
Here each sample has only one item and the number of defects in each
sample is given, we have to apply c-chart to steady the state of control.
Number of samples, 𝑁 = 15
Σ𝑐 2+4+3+⋯+1 45
Mean of the defectives, 𝑐ҧ = = = =3
𝑁 15 15

Control limits for c-chart

Central line, 𝑐ҧ = 3
Lower control limit, LCL = 𝑐ҧ −3 𝑐ҧ = 3 − 3 × 3
= 3 − 5.196 = −2.196
LCL cannot be negative, so take LCL = 0
Upper control limit, UCL = 𝑐ҧ +3 𝑐ҧ
= 3 + 5.196 = 8.196
 i c
1 2
2 4
3 3
4 1
5 1
6 2
7 5
8 3
9 6
10 7
11 3
12 1
13 4
14 2
15 1
State of control
Since all the sample points lie within LCL line and UCL line, the process
is under control.
Problem 2
A plant produces paper for newsprint and rolls of paper are inspected
for defects. The results of inspection of 20 rolls of papers are given
below. Draw the c-chart and comment on the state of control.

Roll No. (i) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

No. of defects (c) 19 10 8 12 15 22 7 13 18 13 16 14 8 7

15 16 17 18 19 20
6 4 5 6 8 9
Number of samples, 𝑁 = 20
Σ𝑐 19+10+⋯+9 220
Mean of the defectives, 𝑐ҧ = = = = 11
𝑁 20 20

Control limits for c-chart

Central line, 𝑐ҧ = 11

Lower control limit, LCL = 𝑐ҧ −3 𝑐ҧ = 11 − 3 × 11

= 11 − 9.95 = 1.05

Upper control limit, UCL = 𝑐ҧ +3 𝑐ҧ

= 11 + 9.95 = 20.95
 i c
1 19
2 10
Y 3 8
4 12
5 15
6 22
7 7
8 13
9 18
10 13
11 16
12 14
13 8
14 7
15 6
X 16 4
17 5
18 6
19 8
20 9
State of control

Since one sample point falls outside the control lines, the process is out
of control.
Test yourself
1. The following data relate to the number of defects in each of 15
units drawn randomly from a production process.
6, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12, 20, 10, 9, 10, 15, 10, 20, 15, 10.
Draw the control chart for the number of defects and comment on
the state of control.
ANS: LCL = 1.27, UCL = 21.13. The process is under control.
2. At a certain point in the assembly process, radios were subjected to a
critical inspection. Twenty radio sets were selected at random and
inspected and the number of defects per set found are given below:
4, 5, 7, 6, 8, 9, 10, 4, 6, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 10, 11, 12, 10, 6, 7
Draw the control chart for defects.
ANS: LCL = 0, UCL = 18. The process is under control.
Specification limits
Specification limits are the values between which products or services
should operate. These limits are usually set by customer requirements.
Example:
• To print labels for a shipping process, the size will be specified by the
customer. If the labels are too big or too small, it will not be accepted by
the customer. It has both lower specification limit and upper specification
limit. Otherwise labels will not be acceptable.
• Photos for visas has both upper and lower specification limit.
• A chemical company requires an inert gas to be at least 80% pure. The
quality analysts set a lower specification limit but do not set an upper
specification limit because purer is better.
• Consider a call center where calls must be answered within 30 seconds. In
this case, only an upper specification is relevant because the quicker a call
is answered, the better.
Difference between Control limits and Specification limits

• Specification limits and control limits are used for different purposes.
• Control limits are calculated from process data. They represent how a
manufacture's process actually performs. Specification limits are defined by
the customer and represent the desired performance of manufacture's
process.
• Control limits help to assess whether a process is stable. Specification limits
allow to assess how capable a process is of meeting customer requirements.
Tolerance limits
• In quality control, the limiting values between which measurements must lie
if a product is to be accepted is defined as tolerance limits. It gives a
specific proportion of the population at a given confidence level. In the
context of process control, they are used to make sure that production will
not be outside specifications.
• If the process is under control then the tolerance limits are computed as

3𝑅ത
𝜇Ƹ = 𝑥Ӗ ±
𝑑2
NOTE
If the tolerance limits are within the specification limits then the process is
assumed to operate at an acceptable level. That is, the tolerance limits are
used to determine whether individual manufactured components are
acceptable, whereas the control limits are used to control the manufacturing
process.