An SPC Monitoring System for Cycle-Based Waveform Signals Using Haar Transform.

Due to the rapid development of computer and sensing technology, many measurements of process variables are readily available in manufacturing processes. These measurements carry a large amount of information about process conditions. It is highly desirable to develop a process monitoring and diagnosis methodology that can utilize this information. In this paper, a statistical process control monitoring system is developed for a class of commonly available process measurements—cycle-based waveform signals. This system integrates the statistical process control technology and the Haar wavelet transform. With it, one can not only detect a process change, but also identify the location and estimate the magnitude of the process mean shift within the signal. A case study involving a stamping process demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed methodology on the monitoring of the profile-type data. Note to Practitioners—Cycle-based signal refers to an analog or digital signal that is obtained through automatic sensing during each operation cycle of a manufacturing process. The cycle-based signal is very common in various manufacturing processes (e.g., forming force in stamping processes, the holding force, and the current signals in spot welding processes, the insertion force in the engine assembly process). In general, cycle-based signals contain rich process information. In this paper, cycle-based signal monitoring will be accomplished by monitoring the wavelet transformation of the signal, instead of monitoring the raw observations themselves. Further, a decision-making technique is developed using the SPC monitoring system to locate where the mean shift occurred and to estimate magnitudes of mean shifts. Thus, this paper presents a generic framework for the enhanced statistical process control technique of cycle-based signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]