MULTIOBJECTIVE GENETIC ALGORITHM APPROACH TO THE ECONOMIC STATISTICAL DESIGN OF CONTROL CHARTS WITH AN APPLICATION TO Xbar AND S2 CHARTS Alireza Faraz a and Erwin Saniga b 1 a Centre for Quantitative Methods and Operations Management, HEC Management School, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium. b Department of Business Administration Department, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware 19716, USA. Abstract Control charts are the primary tools of statistical process control. These charts may be designed by using a simple rule suggested by Shewhart, by a statistical criterion, an economic criterion or a joint economic-statistical criterion. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses. One weakness of the methods of design listed above is their lack of flexibility and adaptability, a primary objective of practical mathematical models. In this paper, we explore multi objective models as an alternative for the methods listed above. These provide a set of optimal solutions rather than a single optimal solution and thus allow the user to tailor their solution to the temporal imperative of a specific industrial situation. We present a solution to a well known industrial problem and compare optimal multi objective designs to economic designs, statistical designs, economic statistical designs and heuristic designs. Keywords: Multiobjective Optimization; Genetic Algorithm; Economic Statistical Design; Control Charts 1 Corresponding author, E-mail address: sanigae@lerner.udel.edu