The EWMA sign chart revisited: performance and alternatives without and with ties

Abstract

The EWMA Sign control chart is an efficient tool for monitoring shifts in a process regardless the observations' underlying distribution. Recent studies have shown that, for nonparametric control charts, due to the discrete nature of the statistics being used (such as the Sign statistic), it is impossible to accurately compute their Run Length properties using Markov chain or integral equation methods. In this work, a modified nonparametric Phase II EWMA chart based on the Sign statistic is proposed and its exact Run Length properties are discussed. A continuous transformation of the Sign statistic, combined with the classical Markov Chain method, is used for the determination of the chart's in- and out-of-control Run Length properties. Additionally, we show that when ties occur due to measurement rounding-off errors, the EWMA Sign control chart is no longer distribution-free and a Bernoulli trial approach is discussed to handle the occurrence of ties and makes the proposed chart almost distribution-free. Finally, an illustrative example is provided to show the practical implementation of our proposed chart.

Keywords:

• Nonparametric control chart
• sign statistic
• Markov chain
• EWMA control chart
• rounding-off errors

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Editor and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments which improved the content and the presentation of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).