Selection and evaluation of most profitable process targets for the control of canning quality

A noniterative numerical method is proposed for solving the Hunter and Kartha model to determine the most profitable target for a canning process. Given a specified lower limit which determines the acceptability of the product, the method produces an almost exact estimate of the optimal process mean. Only a pair of estimating constants and percentiles of the distribution of fill are needed for this purpose. Simple formulas are also derived to compute the optimal expected profit and the average contents of underfilled and overfilled cans. Using these formulas the effects of adopting a target on process outputs and the benefit of reducing the process variability or improving the salvage value of the product can be examined to validate the model.