The Quality and Motivational Effects of Statistical Process Control

Abstract

A common conviction among quality practitioners is that the implementation and practice of Statistical Process Control (SPC) within the production environment would lead to improvements in output quality. How and why this conviction might be valid, on the other hand, has not been well conceptualized in the scientific domain. Furthermore, besides improved performance in terms of output quality, other benefits that might arise from the implementation and practice of SPC is a question that has yet to be adequately addressed in the literature. This article proposes a theoretical framework to provide a better conceptual understanding for these two issues. This theoretical framework extends the conceptualization and definition of a recently proposed construct, (SPC Implementation/Practice), by formally postulating direct and indirect effects for this construct. These postulated effects go beyond stating the intuitively obvious—namely, that SPC Implementation/Practice positively affects quality—(1) to specifically relate Process Quality and Product Quality to SPC Implementation/Practice and (2) to incorporate the Job Characteristics Model into an explanation of how and why SPC Implementation/Practice affects front-line operators' internal work motivation and job satisfaction levels.