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WHAT IS PROCESS CAPABILITY?
Process is defined as any activity, or set of activities, that uses the resources to transform the input into
the output. The resources used any typical processes are 5 M + 1 E (Man, Machine, Material, Method,
Measurement + Environment).
For any process, being in control is not enough. An in-control process can produce bad products. True
improvement comes of a process comes from balancing repeatability and reproducibility (consistency) with
the capability of meeting the customer requirement.
In order to objectively measure the degree to which your process is or is not meeting those requirements,
capability indices have been developed to graphically portray that measure. Capability indices allows you to
compare the process spread with the process tolerance.
For process capability can be assessed as follows

For manufacturing processes For administrative processes

1. Machine capability (Cm / Cmk) {Cmk > 2} The process capability of the administrative
2. Preliminary process capability (Pp / Ppk) {Ppk processes can e measured based is repeatability
> 1.67} and reproducibility in delivering the desired /
expected / meeting customers requirement
3. Ongoing process capability (Cp / Cpk) {Cpk >
1.33}
Process capability is measured in long run, i.e. Ongoing Process Capability, Cp / Cpk
LSL USL
Relation ship Cp value Remarks

Tolerance
PV > Tolerance <1 Defective parts are produced.
PV = Tolerance =1 Process just meets the specifications. A
minimum of 0.3% defectives will be made if
Process process is centered at target value.
Variation
PV < Tolerance >1 Defectives might be produced if the process is
not centered at the target value
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INTERPRETATION
Cp {= tolerance / process variation} relates to the spread of the process with respect to
tolerance. Cpk takes care of spread of the process & location of the process average. Cpk is
considered to be measure of process capability. Cpk value considered as
minimum value of Cplower {=(XavLSL)/3} & Cpupper {=(USLXav)/3}.
There is certain relationship between the Cp value and process variation (as percentage to
tolerance)

To achieve Cp value PV as %age to tolerance General rule to calculate the

1.33 75.00 % percentage of process variation
to the tolerance is equal to
1.67 60.00 %
2.00 50.00 %
2.33 42.90 %
2.66 37.60 % 1 / Required Cp value
3.00 33.33 %
3.33 30.00 %
3.66 27.33 %
4.00 25.00 %

Cpk value will be same as Cp provided the process is centered at the

target value (base value).