Process Capability
Process Capability Index (Cpk)
Process capability index (Cpk) is a statistical tool, to measure the ability of a process to produce output within customer’s specification limits. In simple words, it measures producer’s capability to produce a product within customer’s tolerance range. Cpk is used to estimate how close you are to a given target and how consistent you are to around your average performance. Cpk gives you the best-case scenario for the existing process. It can also estimate future process performance, assuming performance is consistent over time. Cpk is a standard index to state the capability of one process, the higher the Cpk value the better the process is. For instance, Machine 1 has a Cpk of 1.7 and machine 2 has a Cpk of 1.1. From the Cpk value, one can derive that Machine 1 is better than 2. Since Cpk uses specification limits and parts variation (sigma), we can also arrive at the yield processed and losses from the machine.