Optimizing Mill Effectiveness Through Statistical Process Control (SPC), 19PEERS

Statistical process control (SPC) is a powerful technique for improving customer satisfaction and mill productivity, while reducing product and process variability and waste.  At its foundation, SPC identifies and controls meaningful variables, ensuring processes operate at their fullest potential for the long term.   

In the 1980’s the U.S. paper industry attempted to adopt SPC, but most efforts quickly ceased.  The industry was ill-prepared to sustain it, because there weren’t enough leaders committed to this approach to continuous improvement for the long term. Corporate leadership and unwavering commitment to leading the charge for the benefit of the customer is the most important element in establishing SPC in an organization.  Early efforts lacked that dedication.

SPC identifies special causes, which are variations that happen on occasion and they are not often pursued or eliminated. When teams trained in SPC become highly skilled in identifying, statistically analyzing and eliminating sources of variation, they prove effective in getting to root cause and eliminating these special causes. By uncovering special causes at the outset of a process or test being tracked through control charts, the challenge of process optimization becomes clearer and simplified. The outcome is an increasingly consistent, high-quality product, which elevates customer satisfaction and loyalty.     

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