A new method for process control based on goodness of fit tests

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a new method based on goodness of fit tests for shift detection problems. Design/methodology/approach – In this method, although the distribution of gathered data from the process is the subject of control, but any out-of-control signal could also be generalized to the overall state of the process including the parameters of the distribution. Findings – Results of simulation study denote that among goodness of fit tests, theχ2 test has a better performance than the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test in detecting shifts of process. Also comparison of proposed method with traditional methods denotes that, proposed method generally has smaller probabilities of first and second type errors. Originality/value – To the best of author’s knowledge, no attention has previously been paid to application of goodness of fit tests in process control.