A comparison of neural network and control charting for monitoring profiles in manufacturing processes

The issue of monitoring profiles has been defined as being one of the most promising areas of research in statistical process control. One immediate difficulty is how to characterize a profile. As a matter of fact, the identification of a statistical model may become more difficult than expected, thus representing an obstacle to the introduction of profile monitoring in actual applications. For example, when a profile represents the physical dimensions of a machined surface, as it results in manufacturing applications, measurements data often exhibit complex spatial correlation. The aim of this work is to explore a different approach for monitoring profiles, which uses the Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) neural network. The implementation of this neural network is based on a set of profiles which are representative of the process in its natural, or in-control, state. Throughout the paper, a real case study related to profiles data obtained by a common machining process is used. With reference to the Phase II of profile monitoring, performance of the proposed approach are compared to those of multivariate control charting of the parameters vector. Although the proposed neural network does not produce always outperforming results, it presents comparable performance in several cases. The main advantage presented by the approach is that the model of profile data is “autonomously” derived by the neural network, without requiring any further intervention by the quality practitioner. This feature may create an important bridge between profile monitoring and quality monitoring of several specifications in actual applications.