Quality and productivity are essential for survival in the global economy. Customers expect products and services to meet acceptable standards of quality. Quality control involves measuring and managing the variation inherent in processes which produce the finished products.
Statistics plays an important role in Quality management. It provides the objective evidence to managers to monitor and control the performance of production processes and assess the quality of finished products. This is integral to the Total Quality Management approach to product and service delivery.
It is therefore essential that every manager who is responsible for the production of a finished product or the delivery of a service to clients be familiar with the statistical tools that can be used to analyse process output that impacts on product or service quality. In addition such managers should develop quantitative reasoning skills to meaningfully and validly interpret statistical process control findings themselves or question the interpretations given by others.