ISO 7870-3:2012 gives guidance on the uses of acceptance control charts and establishes general procedures for determining sample sizes, action limits and decision criteria. This 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.

This chart is typically used when the process variable under study is normally distributed, however, it can be applied to a non-normal distribution. Examples are included to illustrate a variety of circumstances in which this technique has advantages and to provide details of the determination of the sample size, the action limits and the decision criteria.