A department can apply Statistical Process Control by:

Statistical Process Control (SPC) involves measuring and tracking processes to monitor performance and ensure that a process operates at its full potential. By collecting data on various attributes of the production processes, organizations can analyze trends and variations within the data. This allows for early detection of issues, enabling preventive measures to be taken before significant defects or failures arise. By focusing on the measurement aspect, SPC helps maintain quality control and continuous improvement efforts within a production environment.

The other options relate to operational aspects but do not encapsulate the core of SPC. Reducing operational costs may be a beneficial outcome of effective process controls, but it is not a direct application of SPC. Increasing labor hours does not inherently improve processes and may lead to inefficiencies without data-driven insights. Limiting production output might address certain issues but fails to leverage the advantages of tracking data and improving process stability, which is at the heart of Statistical Process Control.