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He demonstrated that monitoring and controlling variation throughout production was the more efficient and economical way. He recognized that inspecting and rejecting or reworking product was not the most economical way to produce a high-quality product.
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Bell Labs wanted to economically monitor and control the variation in the quality of components and finished products. He pioneered the use of statistical techniques for monitoring and controlling quality. This lead to an invention of the widely known method as statistical process control (SPC). Shewhart discovered a way to distinguish between common and special causes of variation in a process.
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