Application of Statistical Quality Control in Monitoring the Production, Packaging and Marketing Process of Sachet Water

Abstract

Statistical process control is a technique employed to enhance the quality and productivity of processes and the distribution or marketing of its products. Sachet water is a product that has become popular and is being used as a replacement for lack of potable water. It is an alternative that is readily available, affordable but with questions about its purity, production and marketing processes. The objective of this study is to apply statistical control charts in monitoring the production, packaging and distribution or marketing processes of sachet water in Nigeria. This paper employed statistical quality control approach to monitor process stability in a Table Water manufacturing company. Quality control tools such as p-chart, u-chart, X-bar and R charts as well as process capability chart were use to observed field data obtained from the sachet water manufacturing company on important processes of sachet water production and marketing for 30 working days. This was done to check if the processes were in control or out of control and to verify the capability of the marketing process of the product meeting preset specifications. With this, the statistical control charts suitable for the processes were constructed using package “qcc” in R software version 3.6.1. The results from p-chart and u-chart showed that the production and packaging process of the product is not in control and hence the need for further investigations and corrective measures to prevent variability in the process and thus allowing improvement in the quality of the product. Also, the results from X-bar and R charts showed that the marking process was in statistical process control in respects of the product sales recorded by the four independent marketers, with no assignable cause of variation. It also revealed that, the product marketing process has low capability of successfully attending the preset specification limits in respect of the product sales and hence generating low profit for the company.