[WWWWH]

This is a great article, but is there a good modern source (say an introductory text book) on these ideas?

I've a vague memory of doing this as a first year undergraduate, but that was a long time ago. And stupidly, I didn't think I'd ever need them...

[Witoso]

I recommend "Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos" by Donald J. Wheeler, colleague of Deming. Good intro to SPC.

[WWWWH]

Thanks for the tips guys. I’ll check them out. I also pulled a copy of Box’s essays off the shelf, and while he is obviously mainly interested in experimental design he does drop in a few references to oldish books on SPC.

[Zigurd]

Deming wrote very accessible books. Out of the Crisis is a general audience book but it covers statistical quality analysis in enough depth to understand how it works.

[wheelinsupial]

Which parts of the concepts are you looking for?

Douglas Montgomery has a textbook called Statistical Process Control that covers control charts and many other statistical techniques.