What steps should you take when you notice special causes in a control chart?

When special causes are identified in a control chart, the appropriate course of action is to stop, identify the special causes, and eliminate them. Special causes indicate that a process is experiencing variability due to external factors or anomalies that are not part of the normal operational process. These causes can lead to defects or performance issues if they are not addressed promptly.

Taking the time to stop and investigate allows a team to pinpoint the source of the variation, which can be critical for maintaining or improving quality. By eliminating these causes, the process can be brought back into a state of control, which is essential for the effectiveness of Total Quality Management (TQM) practices. Furthermore, addressing special causes ensures that any improvements are sustainable over time.

Continuing to monitor without changes would leave the process open to ongoing issues caused by those anomalies. Notifying a supervisor might be necessary in some situations, but it is not the most immediate action to follow when a special cause is detected. Recording the anomaly for future reference could be useful, but it does not address the problem in real-time and does not contribute to resolving the issue at hand. Therefore, actively identifying and eliminating the special causes directly addresses the root of the problem to maintain control over the process.