Statistical Process Control for Multistage Manufacturing and Service Operations: A Review

Manufacturing and service processes today usually involve several process stages and operations. With an emphasis on achieving satisfactory product and service quality, using statistical methods for multistage process surveillance and fault diagnosis has become a necessity. Statistical process control methods have been widely recognized as effective approaches for process monitoring and diagnosis. However, most conventional SPC methods focus on single stage monitoring without considering the multistage scenario. In this paper we attempt to offer comprehensive references and a bibliography of statistical control methods for multistage manufacturing and service operations; evaluations with respect to existing methods are also given along with suggestions for future research topics