SAMPLING PLANS

Trainer : Balakrishnan Srinivasan

Position: Process and Quality Improvement
Executive
Copyright © 2017, All rights reserved
 INTRODUCTION

• Sampling Plans are concerned with Inspection and

Decision making on the lot of products Supplied or
Manufactured

• An statistical tool to ensure that the output of a

process conforms to requirements
Sampling Plan is most useful when at least one
of the following conditions exists:

– A large number of items must be processed in a

short time
– The cost consequences of passing defectives are low
– Destruction testing is required
– Fatigue or boredom caused by inspecting large
numbers of items leads to inspection errors
An effective sampling plan is one with the following
characteristics:
• It has a specified high probability of accepting lots that the producer
considers to be of good quality.

• It has a specified low probability of accepting lots that the consumer

considers to be of poor quality.
• Sampling plans:
– Plans that specify lot size, sample size,
number of samples, and acceptance/rejection
criteria
• Single-sampling plan
• Double-sampling plan
• Multiple-sampling plan
DEFINITION OF SAMPLING
• Inspection of a sample from a lot to decide whether to accept
or Reject a lot
TYPES
• Attribute Sampling ( Pass or Fail- Good or Reject-Not a
Measureable Data)
The presence or absence of a Characteristic is noted in each of the sample
inspected
• Variable Sampling ( Measurable Data)
The numerical magnitude of a characteristic is measured and
recorded for each of the sample inspected
Purpose and Use of Sampling

Protect against the bad lots

Reject bad lots

Guard against major failures

 Developing a Sampling Plan

Many sampling plans are developed to have a

– Producer’s risk of 5 percent
– Consumer’s risk of 10 percent

Standard references are widely available to obtain sample sizes and

acceptance criteria for sampling plans
– Government MIL-STD tables
 Acceptance Sampling Standards

 Military Standards (Mil-Std.)

Mil-Std.105 - Sampling Procedure for Inspection by Attributes
Mil-Std.414 - Sampling Procedure for Inspection by Variables
 American National Standards Institute (ANSI/ASQ)
ANSI/ASQ Z1.4- Sampling Procedure for Inspection by Attributes
ANSI/ASQ Z1.9- Sampling Procedure for Inspection by Variables
 International Organization for Standardization ( ISO)
ISO 2859 - Sampling Procedure for Inspection by Attributes
ISO 3951 - Sampling Procedure for Inspection by Variables
 International Organization for
Standardization ( ISO)

• ISO 2859 – Internationally recognized standard that specifies an

acceptance sampling system for attributes
• It is Indexed in terms of Acceptance Quality Limit ( AQL)
• The objective is to induce suppliers to maintain a quality level
that is as good as the AQL specified by the buyer
• The system also minimizes the risk for the buyer of accepting an
occasional poor lot
 Symbols and Abbreviations
• Lot Size or Batch Size
N
• Sample size
n
AQL
• Acceptance Quality Limit

Ac
• Acceptance Number

Re
• Rejection Number

LTPD
• Lot Tolerance Percent Defective

Pa
• Probabilty of Acceptance
 DEFINITIONS

• A sample consists of one or more units of product drawn from a

Sample lot, the units of the sample being selected at random without
regard to their quality.

Sample Size • The number of units of product in the sample is the sample size

LOT SIZE • The number of units of product in a lot

• Defined as the “quality level that is the worst tolerable”. It

represents the maximum number of defective units, beyond
which a batch is rejected.
AQL • EXAMPLE-
• AQL 1% -Meaning- Defective products within 1% in the
lot/Batch supplied are acceptable
 SINGLE SAMPLING PLANS FOR
ATTRIBUTES

PROCEDURE:
• Samples are drawn at random from a lot
• The samples are then inspected
• The disposition of lot is determined based on ( n ,Ac, Re)
where
“n” stands for sample size
“Ac” represents Acceptance number
“ Re” represents Rejection number
 SINGLE SAMPLING PLANS FOR
ATTRIBUTES

Steps to Accept or Reject a Lot or Batch

1) Find the Sample size code Letter based on
- Lot size
- General Inspection Level ( I,II, III) or
Special Inspection Level( S-1, S-2,S-3,S-4) - (Refer Table-I- ISO 2859)
2) Fix the sample size for Inspection from the Sample size code Letter
(Refer Table-I- ISO 2859)
3) Find ( Ac,Re) corresponding to Sample size code Letter and AQL
(Refer Table-II-A-ISO 2859)
4) “Accept the Lot” if the number of accepted samples equals or less than Ac
and
“Reject the Lot”if the number of rejected samples equals or greater than Re
 SINGLE SAMPLING PLANS FOR
ATTRIBUTES

ILLUSTRATION:
Assume the inspection of a medical device calls for a specification
which specifies G-II inspection with AQL of 1% and Lot size is 1000
units
Determine sample size code letter, sample size and Ac and Re
Answers [ Refer ISO-2859 Table-I and Table II-A-
Sampling Plans for Normal Inspection ]
Sample size code Letter- J
Sample Size- 80
Ac – 2 & Re- 3
(Refer Table-I- ISO 2859)
(Refer Table-II-A-ISO 2859)
 SINGLE SAMPLING PLANS FOR
ATTRIBUTES

Example: For a lot size of 2000, and AQL of 0.40%, and an Inspection Level of S-
4,
Determine sample size code letter, sample size and Ac and Re

Answers [ Refer ISO-2859 table-I and Table – III-A]

Sample size code Letter- G
Sample Size- 32
Ac – 0 & Re- 1
 DOUBLE SAMPLING PLANS
FOR ATTRIBUTES

 The double sampling
plan is used:
when a clear decision
about acceptance or
rejection of a lot
cannot be taken on the
basis of a
single sample
 DOUBLE SAMPLING PLANS
FOR ATTRIBUTES
Example: Assume a S-4 inspection with an AQL=2.5% is specified and
the lot size is 6000 Units

Answers [ Refer Table -I and Double Sampling Plans-Table

III-A]
Sample size code Letter- G
First sample size -20 and second Sample Size- 20
Ac – 0 & Re- 3
Ac – 3 & Re- 4
(Refer Table-I- ISO 2859)
DOUBLE SAMPLING PLANS-TABLE III-
A
 OPERATING CHARACTERISTIC CURVES
( OC- CURVES)

• The operating characteristic (OC) curve measures the performance of a sampling plan

• A Graph curve plots the probability of accepting the lot ( Y-Axis) and the lot fraction or
the percent defectives ( X-Axis)

• A sampling plan is developed with an objective to accept a lot with a low proportion
nonconforming most of the time and rejected with a high proportion nonconforming
very often.

• The OC curve indicates the degree to which this objective achieved

A typical OC Curve for Proportions
 Constructing an OC Curve

Constructing an OC Curve
Suppose you want to develop an OC curve for a
situation in which
– n = 120
– N = 5,000 items
– Lot is accepted if no more than c = 2 defective is
found
 OC-CURVES

Effect of the sample size and the acceptance number

For fixed values of N and c, as the sample size becomes larger,

the slope of the OC curve becomes steeper, implying a greater
discriminatory power
Ideal OC curve
OC-CURVES

The OC-CURVE shows the OC curves for four sampling plans.

Note that the probability of acceptance decreases for a given
lot quality as the acceptance number c decreases.
The chosen values of n and c should be such that they match
the goals of the user.
 SUMMARY OF SAMPLING PLANS

• Types of Sampling Plans

• Importance of Sampling Plans
• Sampling Plans for Attributes
• Standards for Sampling Plans
• Single Sampling Plans with Illustration
• Double Sampling Plans with Illustration
• The Significance of Operating Curves (OC-Curves)
• Construction of Operating Curves (OC – Curves)
• The effect of Sample size and Acceptance number on OC-
Curves