Operations Management: Processes and Supply Chains, 12th Edition

Acceptance Sampling Quality and Risk Decisions

Acceptance sampling involves the producer (or supplier) of materials and the consumer (or buyer). Consumers need acceptance sampling to limit the risk of rejecting good-quality materials or accepting bad-quality materials. Consequently, the consumer, sometimes in conjunction with the producer through contractual agreements, specifies the parameters of the plan. Any company can be both a producer of goods purchased by another company and a consumer of goods or raw materials supplied by another company.

Two levels of quality are considered in the design of an acceptance sampling plan. The first is the acceptable quality level (AQL), or the quality level desired by the consumer. The producer of the ...