On monitoring industrial processes under feedback control

The concurrent use of statistical process control and engineering process control involves monitoring manipulated and controlled variables. One multivariate control chart may handle the statistical monitoring of all variables, but observing the manipulated and controlled variables in separate control charts may improve understanding of how disturbances and the controller performance affect the process. In this article, we illustrate how step and ramp disturbances manifest themselves in a single-input–single-output system by studying their resulting signatures in the controlled and manipulated variables. The system is controlled by variations of the widely used proportional-integral-derivative(PID) control scheme. Implications for applying control charts for these scenarios are discussed.