Each plotted point,
, represents the mean of the observations for subgroup,
.

| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| xij | jth observation in the ith subgroup |
| ni | number of observations in subgroup i |
The center line represents the process mean (
). If you specify a historical value for an analysis that allows a
historical value, then the analysis uses the historical value. Otherwise, the
analysis uses the average from your data,
, which is calculated as follows:

| Term | Description |
|---|---|
![]() | sum of all individual observations |
![]() | total number of observations |
Minitab calculates a control limit for each specification limit that you enter. If you use a Box-Cox transformation, Minitab transforms the specification limits for these calculations.
The upper control limit is calculated as follows:

The lower control limit is calculated as follows:


| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| U | upper specification limit |
| L | lower specification limit |
| σ̂ | estimator for within-subgroup variation |
| n | subgroup size |
| p | accepted proportion outside a specification limit |
| PA | probability of intervention when the proportion outside a specification limit exceeds the accepted proportion |
| u | quantile of the standard normal distribution |