THE OPTIMAL FREQUENCY AND SEQUENCING OF TESTS IN THE INSPECTION OF MULTICHARACTERISTIC COMPONENTS

A product (component) often requires inspection on its characteristics , of which nonconformance of one would result in the rejection of the component. However, the need for inspection should also be justified i n terms of the costs involved. Because the defective rates, the testin g errors (Types I and II), and the inspection costs are different acro ss characteristics, not all the tests are cost effective to be conduct ed, whereas some of them may be justified in being executed more than once. What tests should be selected? How many times should a test be c onducted? In what sequence should selected tests be carried out? On th e basis of the theorems established in this paper, an efficient algori thm for finding the optimal inspection plan is developed. An example p roblem is solved and the results are studied. Finally, some extensions of the model are discussed.