An economic process monitoring procedure is presented when the major quality characteristic of the item is dichotomous. Every item is inspected and decided whether it is conforming or not. If an item is found to be nonconforming, the previous number of the successive conforming items is compared with a predetermined number r to check the process for existence of any assignable cause of variation. A cost model is constructed on the basis of costs of inspection, illegal signal, undetected out-of-control state and corrective action. By minimizing the expected total cost per unit time, the optimal value of r is obtained. The effects of cost coefficients are studied numerically.