This International Standard establishes a guide to the use and understanding of the Shewhart control chart approach to the methods for statistical control of a process. This International Standard is limited to the treatment of statistical process control methods using only the Shewhart system of charts. Some supplementary material that is consistent with the Shewhart approach, such as the use of warning limits, analysis of trend patterns and process capability is briefly introduced. There are, however, several other types of control chart procedures, a general description of which can be found in ISO 7870.