Design a Sampling Plan (beta)

This program allows the user to select the various levels of risk for accepting bad lots or
rejecting good lots. Typically, the producer risk (alpha error) is set at 0.05, while the
consumer error (beta error) is set at 0.10. This spreadsheet gives the user the option to
vary those risk levels. Another way of saying this is that the AQL is defined at the
average quality level that would be accepted 95% of the time, while the LTPD is the
maximum defective rate that would be accepted 10% of the time.

The basis for the calculations in the program is the binomial distribution. The cumulative
binomial distribution has the form of:

where k is the number of defective units in the sample, n is the sample size, p is the
probability of a defective (defect rate) unit.

In order to determine the sample size to meet certain pre-specified risks, simultaneous
equations for alpha and beta risks are solved for a common sample size and acceptance
number. The program does this using the slider to increase or decrease sample size until
the simultaneous equations are solved.

Examples:

Acceptable Quality Level 1%

Unacceptable Quality Level 5%
Alpha 5%
Beta 10%

The program gave a sample size 138 and acceptance number of 3. Substituting those
numbers into the above equation gives the following:
A sample size of 138 units with an acceptance number of no more than 3 defects in the
sample gives you 94.9% chance of accepting the lot when the defect rate is 1% and an
8.17% chance of accepting the lot when the defect rate is high as 5%. Since sample sizes
and acceptance numbers are discrete numbers, there is no perfect solution. The programs
numbers are correct when compared to the binomial tables.

Acceptable Quality Level 0.5%

Unacceptable Quality Level 2%
Alpha 1%
Beta 5%

The program gave a sample size 829 and acceptance number of 9. Substituting those
numbers into the above equation gives the following:

A sample size of 829 units with an acceptance number of no more than 9 defects in the
sample gives you 99% chance of accepting the lot when the defect rate is 0.5% and a
3.1% chance of accepting the lot when the defect rate is high as 2%. Since sample sizes
and acceptance numbers are discrete numbers, there is no perfect solution. The programs
numbers are correct when compared to the binomial tables.