An earth mover’s distance based multivariate generalized likelihood ratio control chart for effective monitoring of 3D point cloud surface

•A new distance metric is proposed to calculate the distance of point clouds and represent surface 3D characteristics.•This method can satisfy the calculation of point cloud data with large-scale, irregular, and unstructured characteristics.•A multivariate control chart is presented to monitor the regions of interest with 3D characteristics.•This method can effectively identify the process shift and provide a reference for the location of surface defects.