Title: Computer-aided design of X and R charts using teaching-learning-based optimisation algorithm

Authors: Abhijeet Ganguly; Saroj Kumar Patel

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, Odisha-769008, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, Odisha-769008, India

Abstract: Control charts are broadly applied in industries to establish and maintain statistical control of a process which leads to improve the quality and productivity. Design of control charts requires selection of three parameters namely sample size, sampling interval and width of control limits for the chart. The prime aim of the economic design of a control chart is to find the optimal values for control chart parameters such that the total cost of process control would be minimum. This article uses a new population based teaching-learning-based optimisation search algorithm for the joint economic design of X and R control charts that find global minimum for the loss cost function by optimising the design parameters. A MATLAB program has been developed for the computer-aided design of control charts. The algorithm has been tested for as many as 160 sets of numerical data and the results were observed to be superior to that reported in two different papers with respect to cost savings.

Keywords: joint economic design; loss cost; R charts; teaching-learning based optimisation; TLBO; X-bar charts; control charts; statistical process control; SPC; control chart design; loss function; computer-aided design; CAD.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPQM.2015.071517

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 2015 Vol.16 No.3, pp.325 - 346

Received: 16 Jan 2014
Accepted: 18 Mar 2014
Published online: 31 Aug 2015 *

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