Methods
Quality Control
Also Known As Statistical Quality Control
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Quality control is the systematic inspection and statistical monitoring of a manufacturing process to detect and prevent defects before a product reaches the customer, rather than relying only on inspecting the finished item. Walter Shewhart at Bell Telephone Laboratories developed statistical process control in the 1920s, using control charts to distinguish ordinary variation from a genuine process problem, and W. Edwards Deming later carried these methods to Japanese manufacturers after the Second World War, where they became central to the quality reputation Japanese industry built in the following decades.
Facts
Core PrincipleSystematic inspection and statistical monitoring of a process to detect and prevent defects before they reach the customer. 1 Origin YearWalter Shewhart introduced the statistical control chart at Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1924, generally credited as the founding moment of modern statistical quality control. Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Both grew out of the same early twentieth century scientific management movement toward standardized, monitored industrial processes.
In Field
Invented By
Predecessor Of
Sources
1. Statistical Process Control (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationHistory sectionQuote, History section
Statistical process control was pioneered by Walter A. Shewhart at Bell Laboratories in the early 1920s.
1. Statistical Process Control (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationHistory section, control chartQuote, History section, control chart
Shewhart developed the control chart in 1924 and the concept of a state of statistical control.
Technology: A World History
Daniel R. Headrick, Oxford University Press, 2009
A History of Technology
Charles Singer, E. J. Holmyard, A. R. Hall and Trevor I. Williams, editors, Oxford University Press, 1954
The History of Six Sigma: From Motorola to Global Adoption (Six Sigma Online)
Shewhart's Great Discovery (Quality Digest)
Notable Alumni: W. Edwards Deming (U.S. Census Bureau)
United States Census BureauAssociated With: W. Edwards DemingView the Source Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
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