Designing of a variables two-plan system by minimizing the average sample number

This article proposes a variables two-plan sampling system called tightened-normal-tightened (TNT) sampling inspection scheme where the quality characteristic follows a normal distribution or a lognormal distribution and has an upper or a lower specification limit. The TNT variables sampling inspection scheme will be useful when testing is costly and destructive. The advantages of the variables TNT scheme over variables single and double sampling plans and attributes TNT scheme are discussed. Tables are also constructed for the selection of parameters of known and unknown standard deviation variables TNT schemes for a given acceptable quality level (AQL) and limiting quality level (LQL). The problem is formulated as a nonlinear programming where the objective function to be minimized is the average sample number and the constraints are related to lot acceptance probabilities at AQL and LQL under the operating characteristic curve.