Saving Control Limits

[See SHWXS1 in the SAS/QC Sample Library]You can save the control limits for and charts in a SAS data set; this enables you to apply the control limits to future data (see Reading Preestablished Control Limits) or modify the limits with a DATA step program.

The following statements read measurements from the data set Turbine (see Creating Charts for Means and Standard Deviations from Raw Data) and save the control limits displayed in Figure 15.116 in a data set named Turblim:

proc shewhart data=Turbine;
   xschart KWatts*Day / outlimits=Turblim
                        nochart;
run;

The OUTLIMITS= option names the data set containing the control limits, and the NOCHART option suppresses the display of the charts. The data set Turblim is listed in Figure 15.120.

Figure 15.120 The Data Set Turblim Containing Control Limit Information
Control Limits for Power Output Data

_VAR_ _SUBGRP_ _TYPE_ _LIMITN_ _ALPHA_ _SIGMAS_ _LCLX_ _MEAN_ _UCLX_ _LCLS_ _S_ _UCLS_ _STDDEV_
KWatts Day ESTIMATE 20 .002699796 3 3351.92 3485.41 3618.90 100.207 196.396 292.584 198.996

The data set Turblim contains one observation with the limits for process KWatts. The variables _LCLX_ and _UCLX_ contain the lower and upper control limits for the chart, and the variables _LCLS_ and _UCLS_ contain the lower and upper control limits for the chart. The variable _MEAN_ contains the central line for the chart, and the variable _S_ contains the central line for the chart. The value of _MEAN_ is an estimate of the process mean, and the value of _STDDEV_ is an estimate of the process standard deviation . The value of _LIMITN_ is the nominal sample size associated with the control limits, and the value of _SIGMAS_ is the multiple of associated with the control limits. The variables _VAR_ and _SUBGRP_ are bookkeeping variables that save the process and subgroup-variable. The variable _TYPE_ is a bookkeeping variable that indicates whether the values of _MEAN_ and _STDDEV_ are estimates or standard values. For more information, see OUTLIMITS= Data Set.

You can create an output data set containing both control limits and summary statistics with the OUTTABLE= option, as illustrated by the following statements:

proc shewhart data=Turbine;
   xschart KWatts*Day / outtable=Turbtab
                        nochart;
run;

The data set Turbtab is listed in Figure 15.121.

Figure 15.121 The OUTTABLE= Data Set Turbtab
Summary Statistics and Control Limit Information

_VAR_ Day _SIGMAS_ _LIMITN_ _SUBN_ _LCLX_ _SUBX_ _MEAN_ _UCLX_ _STDDEV_ _EXLIM_ _LCLS_ _SUBS_ _S_ _UCLS_ _EXLIMS_
KWatts 04JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3487.40 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 220.260 196.396 292.584  
KWatts 05JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3471.65 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 210.427 196.396 292.584  
KWatts 06JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3488.30 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 147.025 196.396 292.584  
KWatts 07JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3434.20 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 157.637 196.396 292.584  
KWatts 08JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3475.80 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 258.949 196.396 292.584  
KWatts 09JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3518.10 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 211.566 196.396 292.584  
KWatts 10JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3492.65 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 193.779 196.396 292.584  
KWatts 11JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3496.40 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 212.024 196.396 292.584  
KWatts 12JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3398.50 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 199.201 196.396 292.584  
KWatts 13JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3456.05 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 173.455 196.396 292.584  
KWatts 14JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3493.60 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 187.465 196.396 292.584  
KWatts 15JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3563.30 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 205.472 196.396 292.584  
KWatts 16JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3519.05 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 173.676 196.396 292.584  
KWatts 17JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3474.20 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 200.576 196.396 292.584  
KWatts 18JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3443.60 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 222.084 196.396 292.584  
KWatts 19JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3586.35 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 185.724 196.396 292.584  
KWatts 20JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3486.45 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 223.474 196.396 292.584  
KWatts 21JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3492.90 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 145.267 196.396 292.584  
KWatts 22JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3432.80 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 190.994 196.396 292.584  
KWatts 23JUL 3 20 20 3351.92 3496.90 3485.41 3618.90 198.996   100.207 208.858 196.396 292.584  

The data set Turbtab contains one observation for each subgroup sample. The variables _SUBX_, _SUBS_, and _SUBN_ contain the subgroup means, subgroup standard deviations, and subgroup sample sizes. The variables _LCLX_ and _UCLX_ contain the lower and upper control limits for the chart. The variables _LCLS_ and _UCLS_ contain the lower and upper control limits for the chart. The variable _MEAN_ contains the central line for the chart. The variable _S_ contains the central line for the chart. The variables _VAR_ and Batch contain the process name and values of the subgroup-variable, respectively. For more information, see OUTTABLE= Data Set.

A data set created with the OUTTABLE= option can be read later as a TABLE= data set. For example, the following statements read Turbtab and display charts (not shown here) identical to those in Figure 15.116:

title 'Mean and Standard Deviation Charts for Power Output';
proc shewhart table=Turbtab;
   xschart KWatts*Day;
run;

Because the SHEWHART procedure simply displays the information in a TABLE= data set, you can use TABLE= data sets to create specialized control charts (see Specialized Control Charts: SHEWHART Procedure). For more information, see TABLE= Data Set.