This document gives guidance on the uses of acceptance control charts and establishes general procedures for determining sample sizes, action limits and decision criteria. An acceptance control chart should be used only when:

a) the within subgroup variation is in-control and the variation is estimated efficiently;

b) a high level of process capability has been achieved.

An acceptance control chart is typically used when the process variable under study is normally distributed; however, it can be applied to a non-normal distribution. The examples provided in this document illustrate a variety of circumstances in which this technique has advantages; these examples provide details of the determination of the sample size, the action limits and the decision criteria.