MULTIVARIATE SCREENING PROCEDURES FOR QUALITY COST MINIMIZATION

We extend recent works by Tang and Tang dealing with the quality cost of a process that is screened with the use of correlated variables bec ause the principal quality characteristic is difficult or expensive to measure. Our model includes a very flexible and general set of loss f unctions that can be used to model both traditional and contemporary ' losses' for deviation from target values or product specifications. We also give an analysis of the expected value of perfect information an d sample information obtained from the screening variables. This facil itates the evaluation of the advisability of using screening variables .