Shewhart Control Chart

The Shewhart control chart, invented by Walter Shewhart at Bell Labs in the 1920s and set out in his 1931 book, is the foundational tool of statistical process control. It plots a process statistic — typically the subgroup mean (X-bar) and range (R) — over time against a center line and three-sigma control limits, distinguishing the natural common-cause variation inherent in a stable process from special-cause variation that signals something has changed and warrants investigation.