What is the primary purpose of control charts in process management?

Control charts are fundamental tools in process management that are specifically designed to monitor process variation over time. The primary purpose is to help identify trends, shifts, or abnormalities within a process, which can indicate whether a process is stable and within control limits. By plotting data points on a control chart, practitioners can observe how the process behaves over time, allowing them to distinguish between common cause variation (natural fluctuations inherent to the process) and special cause variation (unusual events that require investigation).

This monitoring helps in maintaining quality and consistency in outputs by enabling timely intervention when variations exceed predefined limits, thus fostering continuous improvement. The insights gained from control charts assist teams in making data-driven decisions, ultimately leading to enhanced process performance and reduced defects.