In order for an organization to pursue continuous improvement, it will eventually need to use variables control charts. If an organization has significantly reduced defective output and/or defects by successful application of attributes control charts, then attributes control charts are no longer effective. An organization must then decide on what quality characteristics are most important to its customers and begin measuring these characteristics. In this way an organization can work toward reducing variation in its process and getting its process on target with respect to these important quality characteristics. In this week's forum, I'd like for you to describe some process with which you are familiar (e.g., a process in your place of employment) and discuss how variables control charts can be used for quality improvement. Specifically, what quality characteristics would be measured? Which are critical to customer satisfaction? What might be some challenges in obtaining these data?