Diploma in Quality Management Module 4

Sampling

SAMPLING

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Sampling

5.0 SAMPLING

INTRODUCTION

What is Sampling

In factories before taking any action concerning quality it is necessary to have data. There
are two methods available for data collection.

a) Measure every single unit of the product

b) Measure certain number of units of the product

The first method is called 100% inspection.

The second method is called sampling.

Sampling is the process of selecting a set of elements from some large set of elements,
which is referred to as a population.

Importance of Sampling in Quality Control

Data collection based on sampling has more advantages and has wider practical application
in industry as compared to hundred per cent inspection.

Aspects of comparison 100% inspection Sampling

1. Economy (a) Staff Generally expensive and Economical

(b) Instrumentation uneconomical
(c) Time
(d) Handling and incidental
Damages

2. Accuracy Poor due to fatigue Can be made

satisfactory
for a given population

3. Errors and risks of wrong decisions unknown due to known and can
unknown inspection be maintained
errors within appropriate
desired limits

4. Destructive testing Not feasible Only feasible

alternative

5. Feasibility when average level of inevitable Can be

Quality of process is worse than controlled
Acceptable level

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Sampling

Purpose of data collection

The purpose of data collection is to make decisions of take actions about a population on
the basis of data collected from it. Therefore a population is defined as a group of elements
on which action is taken or decision is made on the basis of data collected from it.

In industry data are collected using sample or samples taken from the population. The
purpose of data collection is deviated into two categories according to the action or
decision.

Action on a process

Making decisions or taking actions on the basis of data collected using sample or samples
taken from it

Eg. (a) process control

(b) process analysis

Action on a lot (see 3)

Making decisions or taking actions about a lot on the basis of data collected using from it.

Eg. (a) estimation of quality

(b) lot inspection

Population Sample Data

Sampling Measurement
Action on Process
(Process Control) Process Lot Sample Data
(Process Analysis)
Action

Sampling Measurement
Action on Lot
(Inspection Lot Sample Data
estimation of
product quality)
Action

Figure 5.1 Population, Sample and data

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Sampling

Inspection

Inspection means the evaluation of product to see whether it fulfill the quality requirements
and making decision to accept or reject it.

Inspection involves several steps

(a) Interpretation of the quality requirements

This may be well defined specifications, drawing, instructions etc.
(b) Sampling or 100% inspection
(c) Examination
This include testing, measuring, go or no go checking, visual inspection,
observation etc.
(d) Decision
Decision of whether characteristics examined, conform to the quality
requirements.
(e) Action
Decision regarding accepted product
Decision regarding rejected screening, re-inspection etc.
Recording and reporting the data obtained
Decision regarding manufacturing process (stop, re-set, change tool etc.)

BASIC MATTERS CONCERNING SAMPLING

Sampling unit and items

Before executing sampling operation a sampling unit should be defined clearly. A
sampling unit is the smallest element of being taken as a sample from population.
Materials treated in a factory are classified as follows:

(a) discrete materials eg: an electric bulb, a brick

(b) continuous materials eg: electric wire, thread
(c) fluids eg:LP gas, water
(d) bulk materials eg: fertilizer, sugar
(e)
Therefore, when a population consists of discrete materials, each material is a sampling
unit. In the case of continuous materials a fixed length of a product is taken as a sampling
unit. In the case of liquids and bulk materials, the size of the vessel by which sample is
taken in defined as sampling unit. The length of a sampling unit of continuous materials is
called sample length and a sampling unit of bulk materials is called an increment.

How to indicate quality of a sampling unit

The methods of indicating the quality of sampling units are as follows:

(a) Indication by distinction between defective and non defective

(b) Indication by number of defects
(c) Indication by indiscrete value

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Sampling

Classification of defects and defectives

The defects and defectives are classified as follows:

(a) Classification of defects

Critical defects
Major defects
Minor defects

(b) Classification of defectives

Critical defectives
Major defectives
Minor defectives

NOTES

A defect - Any non-conformance of an item with specified requirement

A defective - An item with one or more defects
A critical defective - An item having one or more critical defects and it may also
contain major and minor defects.
A major defective - An item having one or more major defects it may also contain
minor defects but no critical defects.
A minor defective - An item having one or more minor defects but no critical or major
defects.

How to indicate the quality of a lot

(1) Percent defectives of the lot

(2) Number of defects per 100 units of the lot
(3) Mean value of the lot
(4) Standard deviation of the lot

How to indicate the quality of a sample

(1) Number of defectives in the sample

(2) Number of defects in the sample
(3) Mean value of the sample
(4) Standard deviation of the sample

Formation of lots
Definitions

(a) Batch - A definite quantity of some product or material produced under

conditions which are presumed uniform.
(b) Lot - A definite quantity of some product or material belonging to one batch or a
part of a batch, and submitted for inspection.
(c) Consignment - A quantity of some commodity delivered at one time. The
consignment may consist of one or more lots or a part of a lot.

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Lot formation
Formation of lots will have to be planned with respect to the following;
(a) Type of lot (stationary lot or moving lot, item-lot or bulk-lot);
(b) Size of the lot;
(c) Homogeneity of the lot, and of sub-lots; and
(d) Identity of lots and accessibility to items in the lot.
Stationary and Moving Lots

From a stationary lot, in which the items are presented simultaneously, all the sample items
may be obtained at one time. In a moving lot, as the lot flows past the point of inspection
one or a few items at a time are selected. In many situations, stationary lots offer
advantages over moving lots, since their identification and disposition are easy and they
admit re-sampling and sequential sampling. However, they create stacking-space problem
especially when the items within are to be made easily accessible. But in sampling bulk
materials, like coal, grains, metal, etc. it is often more convenient to sample while the
material is in motion.
Size of Lot
The general rule in the formation of lots is to make the lot size as large as possible
provided that a reasonable degree of homogeneity is sampling and for the same degree of
homogeneity in the lot, the size required for the sample will not increase as rapidly as the
lot size and will not increase after a certain size for a lot.

Thus, a sample of 300 items from a lot of 10 000 items will be more efficient than a sample
of 100 items from a lot of 1 000 and will be almost as efficient as a sample of 300 items
from a lot of 100 000 items. This means that the cost of inspection per item submitted for
sampling inspection will be much less if the lot handled is larger in size. But this size of
the lot will have to be limited on account of the following factors:

a) The formation of larger lots may result in the inclusion of items differing more
widely in quality.
b) The production or supply of material may be such that the accumulation of large
lots will be over a long period;
c) Due to storage and handling difficulties, very large lots will not be feasible, and
d) The economic consequence of rejection of larger lots because of the cost of
scrapping, the cost of detailed inspecting or the cost of reworking them.

In forming a lot, therefore, a compromise will have to be made in respect of its size.

Homogeneity of Lots

As the efficiency of sampling depends on the degree of homogeneity of the lot, efforts
should be made not to have a mixed lot as far as possible and to confine the lot to material
or products originating from essentially similar conditions, such as raw materials of
components of the same source, products manufactured by the same production or
assembly line or moulds or patterns, items produced from a single batch or from one

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setting of the machines during the same day or shift, etc. product of material coming out of
a process under statistical control from homogeneous lots. When, however, sub-lots from
different sources are combined to from a lot, as far as possible, the identify of the sub-lots
should be preserved so that efficient stratification can be achieved.

Accessibility of Item in the Lot

It is also important from the point of view of convenience of inspection that the lot is easily
identifiable and is in the form that the inspector will have easy access to all parts of the lot
to select the representative sample.

ACTION OF A LOT

One aim of data collection is to take a decision or make actions about a lot on the basis of
data collected from it. Two types of decisions or actions can be arrived on a lot.

Estimation of Lot Quality

Lot quality is defined as the degree of good ness of a lot as a whole. It is expressed as
average value standard deviation, percentage of defectives etc. Estimation of lot quality
involves collection of data using samples selected from the lot and calculation of an
expression to express quality of the lot.

Lot Inspection
The purpose of lot inspection is to see whether a lot of raw materials, semi-finished
products or finished products conforms to the quality requirements and to make a decision
regarding acceptance or rejection of the lot inspection involves collection of data from the
lot and comparison the data with a acceptance criteria to judge whether the lot is accepted
or rejected. If the lot inspection is carried out through sampling it is referred to as
sampling inspection or acceptance sampling.

SAMPLE SELECTION

Selection of Representative Samples

In any case, whether sampling inspection or estimation of low quality, decisions made or
action taken on the basis of sample information assume some very important thing. They
assume that sample on which a decision is to be based is representative of the lot from
which it was taken. If the sample is not representative of lot then decisions about that lot
based upon information obtained from such sample can lead to undesirable and sometimes
serious consequences. A representative sample means, the sample selected, resemble the
lot from which it was taken at least with respect to the characteristic of interest. If this is
so, then it is possible to make decisions about the lot on the basis of the sample information
and with a reasonable amount of certainty that the decision made will be a good one.
However, the decisions based on sample observation always have some errors or risk of
making wrong decisions.

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Sampling

Errors Involved in Sampling

Bias
The result of taking samples by giving preference to certain parts of the lot.
Eg. Taking only the biggest pieces from a lot
Taking only the surface of a liquid at rest
Sampling only the surface of a liquid at rest
Making only non-defective units

Bias is an error that occurs when the sample is not drawn at random.

Reliability
The errors caused by the followings are classified in this category.
Lack of standards
Lack of understanding of standards where these exist
Inconsistency of inspectors
Difference among inspectors
Bias in instruments
Errors in rounding off, calculation and interpretation
Reference to wrong standard etc.
Fraud, collusion or falsification
Fatigue, blunder and human imperfection

Reliability is a matter that has to be controlled by carrying out sampling in accordance with
the standard.

Precision and Accuracy

When sampling or/and measurement are repeated many times by the same standard
methods, with the same population, the data obey a distribution. The difference between
the mean value of this distribution and the true value is called accuracy and the dispersion
of this distribution is called precision.

This is an error which arises from the fact that the result of the samples from the same lot is
vary. However this variation follows a pattern which is predictable and can be exploited to
advantage in keeping these errors and associated risks within desired limits.

Methods of Sample Selection

The purpose of sampling is to make a decision or action on lots based on the result of
investigation samples. Therefore it is necessary to draw samples so as to represent the
property of lots as close as possible.

Random Sampling
Selection of samples from a lot in such a way that every sampling unit in the lot will have
an equal chance (probability) of being included in the sample regardless of sampling unit’s
appearance or position.

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Principles of Random Sampling

(a) Those who were engaged in the production of the products shall not conduct the
sampling
(b) In drawing out a sample, a person of responsibility should attend the place
(c) Sampler should be thoroughly aware of the purpose and the importance of
sampling

How to Carryout Random Sampling

There are two methods to carryout random sampling.

(a) Lottery method : Stir and mix the lot sufficiently and select the sample
(b) Using a series of random numbers

A series of random numbers means a set of numbers between 0 and 9 positioned at random
and having the equal chance of being selected. In order to prepare such a series, random
number table can be used.

Selection of a series of Random Numbers using Random Number Tables

(A book of random numbers consists of tables of random numbers and each page of the
book contains a table)
Step 1 - Assign numbers to the sampling unit in the lot
Step 2 - Select a page from the book
Step 3 - Determine which row in which page are to be selected at random
Drop a pencil onto the page selected, then read out 0 digit numbers close
to the point where the pencil struck
Step 4 - Start reading numbers from left end of the selected row
- Discard numbers appeared twice or more
- Discard numbers having value more than the lot size
Step 5 - Proceed till the required sample size is obtained

Systematic Sampling

To make sampling entirely at random from a lot is often difficult. In such cases it is often
favorable to draw samples at a constant interval in terms of time and space. This method is
called systematic sampling.

When a lot consists of N units and the size of the sample is n

a = n/N is called sampling ratio
And, its reciprocal 1/a = N/n is called sampling interval

In systematic sampling, the first unit to be sampled is decided at random in the first
interval, and the following units are selected at regular interval after previous sampled unit.
When using systematic sampling in place of random sampling attention is required since
bias tends to occur according to the situation. Eg: periodic variation

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Sampling

Stratified Sampling
When it is possible to divide a lot into several strata (sub lots) it is better to stratify and
then to carryout random sampling from each stratum. The sampling method to stratify the
lot into strata is called stratified sampling. This sampling method is often used in practice
because of the following merits.
(a) It facilitates easy random sampling as samples can be drawn from each
small stratum
(b) The same precision can be generally obtained with smaller size of a
sample than that of random sampling.

Two Stage Sampling

Sometimes it is not possible to carryout random sampling considering all sampling units in
a lot since the lot is presented in large number of packages. In such a situation it is easy to
carryout sampling in stages. In the first stage the packages (primary sampling unit) are
taken from the lot. Next in the second stage sampling units (secondary unit) are taken from
selected packages. This sampling method is called two-stage sampling.

SAMPLING INSPECTION (ACCEPTANCE SAMPLING)

Inspection of a limited number of items or of a limited quality of materials taken from a lot
according to a prescribed sampling plan for the purpose of accepting or rejecting the entire
lot.

Sampling Plan
A statement of the sampling procedure and the rules for making decisions about the lot is
called sampling plan.

Acceptance Sampling Plans for Lots of Discrete – Items

According this plan, limited numbers of items are taken from a lot to form a sample and
each item of the sample is inspected. The decision regarding the lot is made on the basis of
sample data.

(a) Attribute Sampling Plan

When the items are inspected for their quality and results are expressed no
defectives or non defectives, the plan is called attribute sampling plan.

(b) Count of defects Sampling Plan

When the items are inspected for their quality and the results are expressed as
count of defects, the plan is called count of defects sampling plan.

(c) Variable Sampling Plan

When the items are inspected for their quality and the results are expressed in
items, of unit of measurement on a continuous scale the plan is called variable
sampling plan.

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Sampling

Attribute Sampling Plan

Single Sampling Plan

Attribute single sampling plan is defined by
N = lot size
n = sample size
C = Acceptance number (ie. The allowable number of defectives in
the sample)

A single sampling plan is operated as follows

A sample of size n is taken from the lot
If d ≤ c accept the lot
d > c reject the lot

Where d = observed number of defectives in the sample

Double Sampling Plan

Attribute double sampling plan is defined by
N = lot size
n1 = size of the first sample
n2 = size of the second sample
c1 = acceptance number for the first sample
c2 = acceptance number for the two samples combined
A double sampling plan operates as follows
i A sample of size n1 is taken from the lot
ii if d1 < c1 accept the lot
if d 1 > c2 reject the lot
if c1 ≤ d1 ≤ c2 second sample is taken
Where d1 is the number of defectives in the first sample
iii
if the second sample is taken,
if d 1 + d 2 ≤ c2 accept the lot
if d 1 + d 2 > c2 reject the lot
Where d2 is the number of defectives in the second sample
Variable Sampling Plan

Variable sampling plan is defined as follows

i A sample of size n is taken from a lot and each item of the sample is tested for a
characteristic
ii Calculate the quality statistic as appropriate

U–X X–L
QU = ----------- and / or QL = --------
s s

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Where U = upper specification limit X = mean

L = lower specification limit s = standard deviation

iii (a) If only upper specification limit U is given

if Qu ≥ K accept the lot
if Qu < K reject the lot

(b) If only lower specification limit L is given

if QL ≥ K accept the lot
if QL < K reject the lot

(c) When both U and L are given

if QL ≥ K and QU ≥ K accept the lot
if QL < K and/or Qu < K reject the lot
Where K is the acceptability constant

Acceptance sampling Plans for Bulk Materials

Bulk materials are essentially continuous and do not consist of discrete, constant items that
may be drawn into sample. When taking samples from bulk materials the ultimate
sampling unit must be created. The size and form of the unit depend upon the particular
device employed. The sampling unit of bulk materials is called increment.

A Bulk Sampling Plan Consists of Followings

(a) Taking increments from a lot

(b) Mixing and blending these increments to form a composite sample
(c) Reducing composite sample to a size suitable for laboratory testing
(d) Testing of laboratory samples
(e) Obtains an estimate and making decision about the lot

Precision of Estimate

Overall precision of the estimate is dependant on the

(a) Sampling method
(b) Reduction procedure
(c) Measurement method

Therefore it is necessary to improve precision of sampling method, reduction procedure

and measurement method.

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