Effect of Phase I Estimation on Phase II Control Chart Performance with Profile Data

This paper illustrates how phase I estimators in statistical process control (SPC) can affect the performance of phase II control charts. The deleterious impact of poor phase I estimators on the performance of phase II control charts is illustrated in the context of profile monitoring. Two types of phase I estimators are discussed. One approach uses functional cluster analysis to initially distinguish between estimated profiles from an in‐control process and those from an out‐of‐control process. The second approach does not use clustering to make the distinction. The phase II control charts are established based on the two resulting types of estimates and compared across varying sizes of sustained shifts in phase II. A simulated example and a Monte Carlo study show that the performance of the phase II control charts can be severely distorted when constructed with poor phase I estimators. The use of clustering leads to much better phase II performance. We also illustrate that the performance of phase II control charts based on the poor phase I estimators not only have more false alarms than expected but can also take much longer than expected to detect potential changes to the process.