1. Introduction
In the contemporary data-driven environment, both environmental and economic systems produce complex time-series signals that require robust and systematic monitoring. For example, per capita plastic-waste generation, which is closely linked to sustainability objectives, and the proportion of government expenditure, which reflects fiscal discipline and efficiency, often exhibit persistence, structural fluctuations, and potential long-memory behavior. Conventional control charts, although foundational, often falter when faced with such intricate dynamics, producing outcomes that lean unevenly toward particular directions or process structures. Against this backdrop, symmetry emerges as more than a mathematical property; it becomes a guiding principle of fairness and harmony in statistical process monitoring. A control chart designed with symmetrical foundations responds in equilibrium to both upward and downward shifts, reflecting changes with mirror-like impartiality. This balanced architecture ensures that detection is not skewed by direction, memory length, or data structure, but instead remains consistent and equitable.
Statistical process control (SPC) provides a comprehensive framework for maintaining quality and identifying departures from expected process behavior [
1]. At the foundation of SPC lie control charts, which differentiate between common-cause variation, reflecting the inherent and often symmetrical structure of natural variability, and assignable-cause variation, arising from external disturbances that disrupt this balance [
2]. A process is regarded as being in control when variability remains symmetrically distributed around its central tendency, whereas the emergence of asymmetrical or directional deviations is interpreted as evidence of assignable causes and signals an out-of-control state. In this context, the idea of symmetry, understood as balance and orderly distribution, plays a fundamental role in interpreting process behavior. By showing whether fluctuations remain within expected symmetric bounds or deviate in an asymmetric manner, control charts support timely and informed decision-making across diverse fields, including manufacturing, healthcare, environmental monitoring, and finance [
3].
Among the earliest and most widely applied schemes is the Shewhart control chart [
2]. Although effective for large and abrupt shifts, the Shewhart chart lacks sensitivity to smaller deviations. To address this shortcoming, alternative designs such as the cumulative sum (CUSUM) chart [
4] and the exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) chart were developed. The EWMA chart, first introduced by Roberts [
5], is especially valued for its ability to detect small to moderate shifts by incorporating past observations through a smoothing parameter. Over time, extensions and modifications of the EWMA have been proposed to improve sensitivity under various process conditions [
6].
The modified EWMA (MEWMA) chart is one such extension, enabling simultaneous monitoring of multiple correlated variables [
7]. Research has demonstrated that the MEWMA chart is more effective than the traditional EWMA in capturing process shifts when correlations are present across variables. More recently, further modifications have been proposed to enhance detection power. For example, Patel and Divecha [
8] and Khan et al. introduced modified EWMA approaches that demonstrated improved sensitivity to abrupt process shifts. Alevizakos et al. [
9] extended this approach to propose the double modified EWMA (DMEWMA), which incorporates an additional smoothing component designed to improve sensitivity to subtle mean shifts. This modification is especially relevant for processes that display gradual or small deviations, where the conventional EWMA or even the MEWMA may lack responsiveness.
Despite these advancements, a persistent limitation is that most existing work assumes independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) observations. In real-world applications, however, data frequently exhibit autocorrelation and long-range dependence. For instance, economic indicators such as inflation, stock returns, and government spending, as well as environmental measures such as temperature, air quality, and waste generation, often reveal patterns that extend beyond short-term autocorrelation. Traditional autoregressive (AR) and moving average (MA) models have long been used to capture such dependencies [
10,
11,
12], with ARMA models providing a balance between the two. However, when persistence spans longer horizons, fractionally integrated processes are more suitable.
The autoregressive fractionally integrated moving average (ARFIMA) model, introduced by Granger and Joyeux [
13] and Hosking [
14], incorporates the fractional differencing parameter d to capture long-memory behavior. A restricted version of this model, the autoregressive fractionally integrated (ARFI) process, arises when the moving average component is omitted. The ARFI (p, d) model has proven to be particularly useful for processes where fractional differencing dominates the memory structure [
15]. Both the ARI and ARFI processes, therefore, provide a natural framework for analyzing persistent environmental and economic datasets, such as those used in the present study.
Evaluating the performance of control charts in these contexts requires robust metrics. The most widely adopted measure is the average run length (ARL), which quantifies the expected number of samples until a signal is triggered [
16]. A high in-control ARL (ARL
0) indicates fewer false alarms, while a low out-of-control ARL (ARL
1) reflects faster detection of actual shifts. Numerous methods have been developed to estimate ARL. Early work applied Markov chain approximations [
17] and Monte Carlo simulation [
18], while more recent efforts have focused on numerical integral equations (NIE) [
19] and explicit formulas [
20]. The NIE approach has been especially popular for its generality, whereas explicit formulations are increasingly valued for their computational efficiency and mathematical transparency [
21,
22]. Nevertheless, relatively few studies have systematically examined ARL behavior for EWMA-type modifications under fractionally integrated processes.
Several contributions in the literature highlight this research gap. Crowder [
23] derived analytical results for the ARL of the EWMA charts under Gaussian processes, while Champ and Rigdon [
24] examined run-length distributions by comparing Markov chain and the NIE approaches. Subsequent studies have extended explicit formulations to modified EWMA charts, demonstrating their applicability across domains such as manufacturing and finance. Yet, despite these developments, systematic examination of the DMEWMA chart within ARI and ARFI settings remains limited, particularly in terms of empirical evaluation using real world data. In addition, previous studies have paid little attention to the role of symmetry in process behavior. Balanced or proportionate fluctuations typically suggest stability, whereas asymmetrical deviations often imply structural irregularities and potential process deterioration. Addressing this dimension is essential for establishing a more comprehensive understanding of chart performance in complex correlated environments.
The present study addresses this gap by providing an analytical assessment of the DMEWMA control chart for detecting shifts in ARI and ARFI models. Specifically, we derive and validate explicit ARL formulations for the DMEWMA, compare them with the MEWMA and the EWMA benchmarks through simulation, and examine their empirical performance using two real-world datasets: per capita plastic waste and government expenditure. By combining theoretical derivations, simulation analysis, and case studies, this study offers a comprehensive evaluation of the strengths and limitations of DMEWMA in both synthetic and empirical settings. The contributions of this work are threefold: (i) To develop explicit formulas and approximations for the ARL of the DMEWMA chart under ARI and ARFI processes. (ii) To conduct extensive simulations comparing DMEWMA with MEWMA and EWMA, highlighting conditions under which DMEWMA offers superior detection power. (iii) To demonstrate the practical applicability of the approach through two real-world datasets, thereby confirming that the advantages observed in simulations extend to empirical contexts. Through these contributions, this study bridges the gap between theory and practice, showing that advanced EWMA-type charts can effectively monitor processes with long memory and fractional integration. The results are expected to provide valuable insights for both academic research and practical applications in environmental monitoring, economic policy, and beyond.
4. Simulation Design
The initial goal of the simulation study is to evaluate the performance of the explicit ARL formulas developed in
Section 4 to the numerical integral equation approach. Although both systems are predicted to provide the same ARL results, their computing efficiency varies significantly. Demonstrating this comparability while emphasizing the efficiency improvements of the explicit approach is critical for determining its practical relevance. The second goal is to assess and compare the performance of three control charting schemes—EWMA, MEWMA, and DMEWMA—for both short-memory ARI and long-memory ARFI processes. The comparison focuses on each charts sensitivity to minor and moderate changes in process mean, as well as its overall detection capability as evaluated by the relative mean index (RMI). This two-part analysis provides a fair evaluation of methodological soundness and comparative effectiveness across various process topologies.
For the EWMA chart, the smoothing parameter λ was varied between 0.05 and 0.40, consistent with conventional practice. For each λ, the control limit constant was adjusted until the in-control average run length (ARL
0) was approximately 370, matching the standard benchmark for Shewhart-type charts. For the MEWMA chart, two parameters (λ, c) were considered. The same ARL
0-matching procedure was applied by simulating multiple (λ, c) pairs and retaining those producing ARL
0 ≈ 370. The ccc parameter, which governs the contribution of lagged differences, was tuned in the range of 0.05–0.50 to ensure stability. For the proposed DMEWMA chart, four parameters (λ
1, λ
2, c
1, c
2) were explored within the same ranges as above. To simplify computation and practical implementation, symmetry was assumed (c
1 = c
2 = c), following Patel and Divecha (2011) [
8]. Monte Carlo simulations were performed to estimate ARL
0, and the control limits were iteratively adjusted until ARL
0 ≈ 370, consistent with EWMA and MEWMA. Once equal in-control performance was established (ARL
0 ≈ 370 for all charts), out-of-control ARL (ARL
1) values were compared across various mean shifts (0.5σ–2.0σ). The final parameter sets were selected to achieve minimum ARL
1 under the maintained ARL
0 condition, ensuring a fair and optimized comparison.
For all simulations, the in-control ARL0 is designed to be approximately 370, and 500, following standard practice in quality control applications. Out-of-control performance (ARL1) is examined under a wide range of mean shift sizes, including and The smoothing constant is varied to reflect both low and moderate levels of memory, and the modification parameters of MEWMA and DMEWMA are tuned according to conventional design strategies. Each scenario is replicated sufficiently to obtain stable ARL estimates, and CPU times are recorded for both the explicit formulas and the NIE method to assess computational efficiency.
4.1. Performance of the Control Charts
This study evaluates the performance of two methods for calculating the Average Run Length: the explicit formulas and the Numerical Integral Equation approach. Computations were conducted in Mathematica, employing a sufficient number of division points to ensure numerical precision.
Table 1,
Table 2,
Table 3 and
Table 4 compare the Exact analytical method with the Numerical Integral Equation technique for ARL evaluation in ARI and ARFI processes. Both methods yield numerically identical results with 100% accuracy, confirming the validity of the Exact formulations. However, the Exact method computes results in less than 0.001 s, whereas the NIE method requires 3–5 s depending on parameter settings. This efficiency advantage makes the Exact approach particularly suitable for real time monitoring and large-scale simulations.
Following standard statistical process control practice, an in-control ARL (ARL0) of 370 was adopted, where lower ARL values indicate increased sensitivity in detecting process shifts, as reflected in the out-of-control ARL (ARL1) measurements. For each process type, the explicit solutions were computed using derived analytical expressions, while the NIE method implementations utilized corresponding numerical formulations.
To quantify the agreement between methods, we employed the Accuracy percentage criteria and CPU times:
where
and
are the ARL from the explicit formula, and NIE method, respectively.
The correctness of the exact formulations under both ARFI(1,d) and ARFI(2,d) procedures is confirmed by
Table 5,
Table 6,
Table 7 and
Table 8, which demonstrate that the Exact technique and the NIE method provide identical ARL values with 100% accuracy. The Exact technique’s main benefit is its computing efficiency; it constantly executes in less than 0.001 s, whereas the NIE method takes several seconds. Additionally, the Exact method is insensitive to variations in
and stable across a variety of long-range dependence levels (d = 0.15, 0.30, 0.45). These findings demonstrate its usefulness as a preferred tool for tracking processes with autoregressive behavior and fractional integration, as well as its robustness and dependability.
Table 9 shown both methods yield the same ARL values; explicit formulas provide overwhelming computational efficiency. In NIE, CPU time increases with the number of discretization points used in the approximation.
4.2. Compare the Between Several Control Charts
The performance of the EWMA and the MEWMA control charts under different situations is compared with that of DMEWMA control charts under ARI(p,d) and ARFI(p,d) models utilizing explicit ARL calculation formulae. To assess how well the control charts identify out-of-control situations, an overall performance indicator, namely the relative mean index, is applied in addition to ARL. Control schemes with the lowest RMI values is considered more effective, as they detect shifts more swiftly and robustly.
where
is number of shifts size considered,
is the
values of a control charts for the specific shift
and
is the smallest of
values found in all of the charts proposed to detect the shift
, receptively.
Table 10 and
Table 11 chow the consistent outcomes are seen by comparing the EWMA, MEWMA, and DMEWMA charts using the ARI(p,1) framework for both settings with
and
All charts keep the in-control ARL near the objective when there is no shift
However, the DMEWMA chart shows the lowest out-of-control ARL values across both
and
after modest to moderate shifts occur
showing improved sensitivity. Although the performance difference narrows, DMEWMA still produces lower ARL values than EWMA and MEWMA when the shift size rises
This advantage is further confirmed by the RMI: DMEWMA regularly achieves the lowest RMI (0.016 for
and 0.033 for
), whereas EWMA produces the highest values, indicating a significantly lower detecting capability. The MEWMA performs reasonably well, outperforming EWMA but coming short of DMEWMA. Together, these results demonstrate that DMEWMA provides more efficient and robust detection of mean shifts in autoregressive integrated processes, regardless of the choice of ARL
0.
Table 12 and
Table 13 present the performance comparison of DMEWMA, MEWMA, and EWMA charts under the
process with
and
respectively. Across both tables, the results show that the MEWMA chart generally outperforms the EWMA and the DMEWMA in detecting small shifts
, as reflected by its consistently lower out-of-control ARL values. This is particularly evident when
, where the MEWMA achieves the smallest ARL values across both
and
For moderate and larger shifts
, all three charts tend to converge in performance, although DMEWMA occasionally achieves slightly lower ARL values (e.g., at
, and
). The RMI further highlights this distinction: in both
Table 12 and
Table 13, MEWMA consistently yields the lowest RMI values (e.g., 0.240 and 0.220 in
Table 12, and 0.130 and 0.093 in
Table 13), confirming its superior overall detection efficiency for long-memory processes. By contrast, DMEWMA exhibits higher RMI values, reflecting weaker relative performance in this setting, while EWMA performs worst overall with the largest RMI.
5. Real Data Applications
To complement the findings from the simulation study, we further assess the practical relevance of the proposed control chart formulations using real-world datasets. The purpose of this section is to demonstrate how the theoretical results translate into empirical performance when applied to time series exhibiting long-memory and fractional integration characteristics. Two datasets are analyzed: (i) per capita plastic waste generation (kg/person/day) across countries, and (ii) the percentage of government expenditure. Each dataset is modeled within the ARI(p,d) and ARFI(p,d) framework, and the modified EWMA-type charts—including the EWMA, the MEWMA, and the DMEWMA—are applied for monitoring shifts in the underlying processes. The series are decomposed into fitted values and residuals, with model parameters estimated using EViews 10. Finally, the residuals are evaluated for exponential white noise behavior using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test in SPSS 20, ensuring the suitability of the assumed error structure.
Application 1. Per capita plastic waste (kg/person/day) data in 2010 for all countries in the world, with a total of 186 observations. These data were sourced from Our World in Data (https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/plastic-waste-per-capita?tab=table) accessed on 26 May 2025. The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test shows that the residuals of the model follow an exponential distribution (Sig = 0.848 > 0.05
). The following equation is suitable: Application 2. The government expenditure on education, total (% of government expenditure) from 76 countries worldwide in 2023. These data were sourced from Our World in Data (https://ourworldindata.org/data?topics=Education+and+Knowledge) and accessed on 26 May 2025. The Kolmogorov–Smirnov test shows that the residuals of the model follow an exponential distribution (Sig = 0.147 > 0.05).
The following equation is suitable: Figure 1 shows the detailed context and interpretation for both datasets as follows:
Per capita plastic waste generation (kg/person/day, 2010): This dataset includes 186 observations for all countries worldwide, sourced from Our World in Data. The data represent daily plastic waste generated per person in each country. The time series was modeled using the
framework, and the residuals were tested for exponential white noise using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test (Sig = 0.848 > 0.05), confirming the suitability of the assumed error distribution.
Figure 1a shows the observed values alongside the fitted model, illustrating variability across countries and allowing for monitoring shifts in the process using the proposed EWMA-type charts.
Government expenditure on education (% of total expenditure, 2023): This dataset includes 76 countries worldwide, sourced from Our World in Data. The series represents the proportion of government expenditure allocated to education in each country. An
model was applied, with residuals tested for exponential white noise (Sig = 0.147 > 0.05), confirming the appropriateness of the model assumptions.
Figure 1b shows the observed series and fitted model, highlighting cross-country variability and supporting the evaluation of control chart performance for detecting process shifts.
Table 14 and
Table 15 present the performance of the EWMA, the MEWMA, and the DMEWMA charts applied to the plastic waste and government expenditure datasets, respectively. Across both applications, the DMEWMA consistently achieves lower ARL values for small and moderate shifts, indicating superior sensitivity compared with the conventional EWMA and the MEWMA procedures. For larger shifts, the performance of all three methods converges, yet the RMI values clearly confirm the efficiency of DMEWMA. These findings highlight the robustness of DMEWMA in real-world contexts, offering more effective detection of subtle changes in both environmental and economic processes.
6. Conclusions
The findings from both the simulation studies and the empirical applications offer a consistent perspective on the relative performance of the three control charts examined: EWMA, MEWMA, and DMEWMA. Overall, although the EWMA chart is simple and widely adopted, it responds more slowly to small process shifts. This behavior aligns with its design principle as a smoothing chart that is better suited for gradual rather than abrupt changes. The MEWMA chart, by incorporating additional memory through a multivariate structure, demonstrates improved sensitivity in certain settings, particularly for moderate shifts. However, the DMEWMA chart consistently emerges as the most efficient alternative, particularly when early detection of subtle changes is required. Its double modification enables a sharper balance between variance reduction and shift detection, resulting in lower ARL values across a broad range of scenarios.
When comparing the simulation results with the empirical applications, a clear consistency is observed. In the simulation framework, which examined the ARI(p,d) and ARFI(p,d) processes, DMEWMA repeatedly outperformed the other methods for small to moderate shifts, whereas all three approaches converged in performance for larger shifts. The real data applications, involving per capita plastic waste and government expenditure, confirmed this pattern. DMEWMA again provided the lowest ARL values and the most favorable RMI, demonstrating its robustness in practical monitoring tasks.
Importantly, the findings suggest that the theoretical advantages established under controlled simulations are preserved in real-world contexts. This reinforces the suitability of DMEWMA as a reliable monitoring tool for processes with long-memory and fractional integration characteristics. At the same time, the comparative analysis indicates that while MEWMA can occasionally compete with DMEWMA under specific parameterizations, EWMA consistently lags behind in detecting small deviations.
Although the DMEWMA chart generally outperforms traditional MEWMA and EWMA charts in detecting moderate to large shifts, the results reveal that under certain long-memory ARFI conditions, the MEWMA chart can exhibit slightly superior performance. This behavior can be explained by the intrinsic interaction between the chart’s weighting mechanism and the long-range dependence of the process.
For ARFI processes, the fractional differencing parameter introduces persistent autocorrelation over long horizons. In such cases, the dual-memory structure of DMEWMA—where two smoothing parameters (λ1 and λ2) are combined—may unintentionally over-smooth or overreact to correlated residuals. Specifically, when both λ1 and λ2 are relatively small, the chart gives high weight to past observations, amplifying the long-memory effects already present in the data. As a result, the control statistic becomes less responsive to small deviations, leading to slightly longer out-of-control run lengths.
In contrast, the standard MEWMA chart, which relies on a single smoothing parameter λ, maintains a more stable balance between sensitivity and robustness in long-memory environments. Its simpler exponential weighting may align better with the decay rate of autocorrelation in ARFI processes, allowing it to track persistent but gradual mean shifts more efficiently.
Therefore, the slight inferiority of DMEWMA in these cases is not due to a structural weakness, but rather to the complex interaction between dual-memory smoothing and long-range dependence. Fine-tuning the parameter pair (λ1, λ2) for ARFI-specific memory characteristics could potentially mitigate this effect, and future studies could explore adaptive tuning strategies that dynamically adjust the DMEWMA parameters based on the estimated fractional differencing parameter (d).
The consistency between simulation and empirical evidence highlights the broader implication: control charts designed for ARFI-type processes are not merely theoretical constructs but can be effectively applied to complex real data exhibiting persistence and structural dependencies. This echoes earlier work emphasizing the role of long-memory modeling in economic and environmental data [
10,
11]. Overall, this study provides strong evidence that DMEWMA offers a significant advancement over conventional EWMA-type charts for both simulated and real-world monitoring applications.
Although this study focuses on the statistical evaluation of the DMEWMA chart, future work may incorporate an economic design framework. The DMEWMA parameters can be optimized to minimize the expected total cost per unit time, accounting for sampling, false alarm, and process adjustment costs. Integrating the proposed chart into an economic optimization model would further enhance its industrial applicability.