AbstractThis paper proposes a new method of constructing process capability indices (PCIs) for skewed populations. It is based on a weighted standard deviation method which decomposes the standard deviation of a quality characteristic into upper and lower deviations and adjusts the value of the PCI using decomposed deviations in accordance with the skewness estimated from sample data. For symmetric populations, the proposed PCIs reduce to standard PCIs. The performance of the proposed PCIs is compared with those of standard and other PCIs, and finite sample properties of the estimates are investigated using Monte Carlo simulation. Numerical studies indicate that considerable improvements over existing methods can be achieved by the use of the weighted standard deviation method when the underlying distribution is skewed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.