Walter Shewhart

One of the most notable contributors to modern industry is Walter Shewhart, a

quality control pioneer.
He started his rise to guru status as a Bell Telephone employee in 1918.
Born in New Canton, Illinois in 1891, Shewhart set precedents that would be
referenced for years to come in establishing the importance of information distribution
among quality managers and production personnel.

Shewhart Charts:
Common vs. Special Causes
While at Bell Labs, Shewhart revolutionized their production process.
This ensured greater economic gains in the form of reducing the need for repair of
the equipment the labs produced.
He referenced what constituted "common causes" and "special causes" of
production issues. He analyzed these with his famed Shewhart charts or "control charts.
Walter Shewhart laid the statistical foundation upon which all modern industry would be
built.

In the graph above you see the control limits (UC and LC)are well within the specification
limits (US and LS). The process is capable of meeting the specification.

In the graph above you see the control limits (UC and LC) above and below the
specification limits. In this case the process is not capable of meeting the specification.
When this occurs you have a couple of choices to ship good material.

"Common causes" in quality assessment is best represented by imagining one

cursive printing the word "cat," five times; it's natural to expect some minor variation
from word to word, but in general each attempt would appear relatively the same.
Minor variations such as these are considered "common causes" in the world of
quality control.
If, on the other hand, during the writing process the writer is bumped and writes a
skewed letter, this variation in word is considered a "special cause" in the world of
quality control.
It's the goal of Shewhart's control charts to identify and track these types of
variations with the intent to both monitor and identify possible patterns.
This info supplies quality control managers with the tools necessary to minimize
and eliminate "special causes," which affects the companys bottom line.

PDSA Cycle
Walter Shewhart also created the Shewhart Cycle or PDSA (plan, do, study, act)
cycle, the scientific method for learning through action as well as observation.
To illustrate:
If a company isn't experiencing the success it would like in a given area, the
company is wise to brainstorm ideas for improvement.
This is the "plan" phase of the cycle.
Next, the company chooses a course of action to pursue, then pursues it, which
logically, constitutes the "do" phase.
The "study" phase that follows consists of the company observing the results of
their actions, and subsequently, making judgments as to their efficacy.
This step is crucial. It serves as the foundation for the next and final "act" phase.
The act phase instructs the company to analyze the observed results.
If the results are pleasing, change course to pursue this direction further.
If they are not, this phase instructs the company to circle back to the original
brainstorming pool in order to start the process over again and repeat the cycle until the
company is pleased with the results.
This plan illustrates Shewharts ideas that continual evaluation of management
procedures and management's consideration of new ideas are vital in streamlining
"common causes" and mitigating "special causes" in variation.
Walter Shewhart History
Walter Shewhart excelled as a mathematician at the University of Illinoisundergraduate degree and post graduation degrees.
University of California at Berkeley, 1917-doctorate in physics.

Department chair for the Wisconsin Normal School's school of physics.

Western Electric, Bell Labs.
He excelled both as an engineer (from 1918-1924) to technical advisor (from 19251956).
Accomplished lecturer speaking both overseas and domestically, Walter Shewhart
garnered international respect and acclaim at such places as Rutgers University and
Princeton.
-Honorary professor to the former and contributing advisor to the department of
mathematics of the latter.
Beyond academia, Shewhart's expertise was recognized by the United Nations, the
Indian government and the United States War Department. All of which he served as a
consultant.

Member- England's Royal Statistical Society, The Institute of Mathematics, The

American Statistical Association and the New York Academy of Science.
Founder American Society for Quality Control
Accomplished author- Economic Control of Quality of Manufactured Product in
1931, Statistical Method from the Viewpoint of Quality Control in 1938, as well as
countless other widely respected articles for professionally specific journals.

Awards
Holley Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Statistical Society and American Society for
Quality.
Father of statistical quality control," or simply, SQC.

Modern generation managers adopted his philosophy as the "Six Sigma" approach
for quality assurance.
Walter Shewhart died on March 11th, 1967 in Troy Hills, New Jersey; a genius, an
innovator, a visionary, and a legend in his not only own time, but for decades thereafter.
He was a founder of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, being elected a fellow and
serving a term as vice-president in 1936 and president from 1936 to 1944.
The ASQC made him their first honorary member in 1947 and also made him the first to
receive their Shewhart Medal.