4. In-process inspection

The idea of control charts was developed by the American W. Shewhart (1931); their use, initially slow, saw its first development in 1939-1945 in the United States, and in Europe ten years later. Some major French industries began to use them more systematically around 1965 (e.g., the textile industry), and training centers, particularly in France the Center for Applied Statistics Education and Research (CERESTA), contributed significantly to their use from that time on. However, the driving force behind their current development is the NF EN ISO 9000 quality standards; their widespread use has been facilitated by the Afnor/ISO statistical standards and the practical teaching of statistics in engineering schools.

The statistical control methods used to control a process draw on sampling theory and make it possible to determine when a process has probably deviated...