Abstract This report describes the application of Statistical Process Control (SPC) to improve the quality of manufacturing at Nokia. The production lines concerned in this study are modeled by a succession of placement machines, which are placing components on Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) used in internet broadband systems, and an optical control system measuring the position of each component.

History and basic concept of SPC are reviewed using SPC PC IV as an example software tool. Combining SPC PC IV with intelligent systems was tested. Special requirements of the production system at Nokia are difficult for standard SPC techniques: small lot size, inspection programs not tuned up, not enough reliable data, etc. The approach described here is slightly different to the traditional SPC: only the main features of SPC have been used. The new Process Control Tool moves the process control towards active handling of the data.

The tool is currently tested, and according to the preliminary results, improvement on following areas can be seen: better understanding of the process and its problems, faster response and in some cases even anticipated response, greater interest of the line workers who will have an active role in quality assurance. The Process Control Tool will be integrated as a part of the production line. The structure of the program makes different upgrades easy to implement.