Preface

This book aims to provide a concise account of the essential elements of quality control. It is designed to be used as a text for courses on quality control for students of industrial engi‐ neering at the advanced undergraduate, or as a reference for researchers in related fields seeking a concise treatment of the key concepts of quality control. It is intended to give a contemporary account of procedures used to design quality models.

The book focuses on a clear presentation of the main concepts and results of different mod‐ els of quality control, with particular emphasis on statistical models and quality manage‐ ment. It provides a description of basic material on these main approaches to quality con‐ trol, as well as more advanced material on recent developments in statistical models, includ‐ ing Bayesian inference, Markov methods and cost models.

It places particular emphasis on contemporary computational ideas, such as applications in Markov chain and Bayesian inference. The text concentrates on concepts, rather than mathe‐ matical detail, but every effort has been made to present the key theoretical results in as pre‐ cise and rigorous a manner as possible, consistent with the overall level of the book.

Prerequisites for the book are statistics, and some knowledge of basic probability. Some pre‐ vious familiarity with the objectives of quality models and main approaches to statistical quality control is helpful. Key mathematical and probabilistic ideas have been reviewed in the text where appropriate.

The book arose from material contributed by scholars in the field of quality control. We thank all who have contributed to that material.

#### **Mohammad Saber Fallah Nezhad**

College of Engineering, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran

**Section 1**

**Statistical Quality Control**
