Select better suppliers based on manufacturing precision for processes with multivariate data

Process capability indices have been widely used in the manufacturing industry for measuring process reproduction capability according to manufacturing specifications. Processes with univariate data have been investigated extensively, but are comparatively neglected for processes with multivariate data. Chou (Chou, Y.M., 1994. Selecting a better supplier by testing process capability indices. Quality Engineering, 6, 427–438) developed a procedure using univariate Cp to determine whether or not two processes are equally capable, which allows one to select the supplier with better quality. However, for processes with multiple characteristics, no methods are available for comparing two processes with multivariate data. In this paper, we consider the supplier selection problem based on manufacturing precision in which the processes involve multiple quality characteristics. We derive the distribution of the corresponding test statistic, and calculate critical values required for the comparison purpose. A real-world application is presented for justification.