Improvement Insights Blog

You Don’t Need to Know Statistics to Do Statistical Process Control

People think you have to know statistics to do Statistical Process Control (SPC). Not true, here’s why.



“I’m Jay Arthur, author of “Lean Six Sigma For Hospitals” and QI Macros [software].

“I’ve noticed that whenever I say the phrase “Statistical Process Control,” people start to freak out. It’s unnecessary because guess what? You don’t need to know statistics to do Statistical Process Control.

“Shewhart was a statistician, he figured out how to calculate the variances and… how to calculate the upper and lower control limits and what that all means. Then Nelson expanded all of that stuff, so the statisticians did the statistical part.

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Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, QI Macros.

Think SPC is Too Complex?

Most people are terrified of “statistical” anything. Do you think SPC is too complex? You may not like the alternative.



“Whenever I talk to people about Statistical Process Control, first the word “statistical” scares the living crap out of them. But they say, “Well, you know, uh… I’m not that good with math and formulas,” and I say, “Well, you don’t have to know math and formulas. We’ve got software that’ll do all that for you. What you have to do is know what the chart tells you about what you should do about your process. They’re all a little surprised.

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Posted by Jay Arthur in Improvement Insights, Lean, Six Sigma, Statistics.