PROC SHEWHART: Constructing Range Charts

The SHEWHART Procedure

Constructing Range Charts

The following notation is used in this section:

$\text{[math]}$	process standard deviation (standard deviation of the population of measurements)
$\text{[math]}$	range of measurements in $\text{[math]}$ th subgroup
$\text{[math]}$	sample size of $\text{[math]}$ th subgroup
$\text{[math]}$	expected value of the range of $\text{[math]}$ independent normally distributed variables with unit standard deviation
$\text{[math]}$	standard error of the range of $\text{[math]}$ independent observations from a normal population with unit standard deviation
$\text{[math]}$	100 $\text{[math]}$ th percentile of the distribution of the range of $\text{[math]}$ independent observations from a normal population with unit standard deviation

Plotted Points

Each point on an $\text{[math]}$ chart indicates the value of a subgroup range ( $\text{[math]}$ ). For example, if the tenth subgroup contains the values 12, 15, 19, 16, and 14, the value plotted for this subgroup is $\text{[math]}$ .

Central Line

By default, the central line for the $\text{[math]}$ th subgroup indicates an estimate of the expected value of $\text{[math]}$ , which is computed as $\text{[math]}$ , where $\text{[math]}$ is an estimate of $\text{[math]}$ . If you specify a known value ( $\text{[math]}$ ) for $\text{[math]}$ , the central line indicates the value of $\text{[math]}$ . Note that the central line varies with $\text{[math]}$ .

Control Limits

You can compute the limits in the following ways:

as a specified multiple ( $\text{[math]}$ ) of the standard error of $\text{[math]}$ above and below the central line. The default limits are computed with $\text{[math]}$ (these are referred to as $\text{[math]}$ limits).
as probability limits defined in terms of $\text{[math]}$ , a specified probability that $\text{[math]}$ exceeds the limits

The following table provides the formulas for the limits:

Table 13.48 Limits for $\text{[math]}$ Charts
Control Limits
LCL $\text{[math]}$ lower limit = $\text{[math]}$
UCL $\text{[math]}$ upper limit = $\text{[math]}$

Probability Limits
LCL $\text{[math]}$ lower limit = $\text{[math]}$
UCL $\text{[math]}$ upper limit = $\text{[math]}$

The formulas assume that the data are normally distributed. Note that the control limits vary with $\text{[math]}$ and that the probability limits for $\text{[math]}$ are asymmetric around the central line. If a standard value $\text{[math]}$ is available for $\text{[math]}$ , replace $\text{[math]}$ with $\text{[math]}$ in Table 13.48.

You can specify parameters for the limits as follows:

Specify $\text{[math]}$ with the SIGMAS= option or with the variable _SIGMAS_ in a LIMITS= data set.
Specify $\text{[math]}$ with the ALPHA= option or with the variable _ALPHA_ in a LIMITS= data set.
Specify a constant nominal sample size $\text{[math]}$ for the control limits with the LIMITN= option or with the variable _LIMITN_ in a LIMITS= data set.
Specify $\text{[math]}$ with the SIGMA0= option or with the variable _STDDEV_ in a LIMITS= data set.

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