Capability Indices

Capability indices give an indication of whether a process is:

capable: able to consistently deliver within customer specification.

The outputs of a capable process lie within the upper and lower specification limits

not capable: where some outputs will be non-conforming, even though the process is in a state of statistical control. This may be because:

The natural process spread is wider than the specification limits:

When the process spread is wider than the specification limits, some outputs will inevitably be non-conforming

Or, the process is not centred correctly with respect to the specification (even if the process spread is less than or equal to the specified tolerance):

When the process is not centred correctly, some outputs may be non-conforming