of Achievements in Materials

and Manufacturing Engineering

VOLUME 31
ISSUE 2
December
2008

Assessing acceptance sampling

application in manufacturing electrical
and electronic products
B.M. Deros*, C.Y. Peng, M.N. Ab Rahman, A.R. Ismail, A.B. Sulong
Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia,Bangi 43600, Selangor, Malaysia
* Corresponding author: E-mail address: [email protected]
Received 12.09.2008; published in revised form 01.12.2008

Manufacturing and processing

ABSTRACT
Purpose: This paper discusses the use of acceptance sampling technique as a practical tool for quality assurance
applications to decide whether the lot is to be accepted or rejected.
Design/methodology/approach: In Malaysia, single attribute acceptance sampling plan is widely practiced
for quality assurance purposes in manufacturing companies. Literature showed that majority of past studies on
acceptance sampling had focused on the development and establishment of new methods for acceptance-sampling
application. However, there is none that had investigated the relationship between acceptance sampling plan
selection and effectiveness of the selection. Therefore, in this study, the authors had analyzed the effectiveness
the acceptance sampling plan application method and its implementation problems in manufacturing electrical
and electronics products. The study was conducted by using case study methodology at three manufacturing
companies coded names: company A, B and C. In this paper, the authors would like to share the case study
companies experienced of acceptance sampling plan selection and difficulties that they had faced during the
course of implementing acceptance sampling in their production lines.
Findings: The result from the three case study companies showed by implementing acceptance sampling
they could easily investigate and diagnose their suppliers product quality immediately upon their arrival
at the company premise.
Practical implications: The continuous improvement and review of acceptance sampling plan is important to
improve the products quality and ensure continuous customer satisfaction.
Originality/value: All the three case study companies agreed that acceptance sampling implementation had
improved their products quality in the market place.
Keywords: Acceptance sampling plan;Implementation; Quality assurance; Effectiveness

1.
Introduction
1. Introduction
Sampling plans are hypothesis tests of the product that has
been submitted for an appraisal and subsequently resulted with
acceptance or rejection [29]. A sample is selected and checked for

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Research paper

various characteristics. The product may be grouped into lots or

may be a single piece from a continuous operation. For products
grouped into lots, the entire lot is accepted or rejected. The
decision is based on the specified criteria and the amount of
defect or defective units found in the sample. Sampling at the end
of manufacturing process provides a confirmation on the

Copyright by International OCSCO World Press. All rights reserved. 2008

Manufacturing and processing

adequacy of the quality control procedures in a manufacturing

department. If the process has been controlled satisfactorily, the
product would be accepted and passed to the customer. If the
process or quality controls have broken down, the sampling
procedures will prevent defective products from going any further
or leakage to the customer. The manufacturing department, as part
of the process or quality control program uses sampling
techniques for quality monitoring purposes [3]. Effective
acceptance sampling involves effective selection of the products
and the application of specific rules for lot inspection that follows
the standards. The acceptance-sampling plan applied on a lot-bylot basis becomes an element in the overall approach to maximize
the quality level at minimum cost [25].

2.2Literature
Literature review
review
Acceptance sampling had become an important field of
statistical quality control was popularized by Dodge and Romig
[25]. The U.S. military to the testing of bullets during World War
II originally applied this sampling technique. If every bullet were
tested in advance, no bullets would be left to ship. On the other
hand, if none were tested, malfunctions might occur in the
battlefield with potentially disastrous results [17]. Dodge reasoned
that a sample should be picked at random from the lot based on
the basis of information that was yielded by the sample [25]. A
decision should be made regarding the disposition of the lot. In
general, the decision is either to accept or reject the lot. This
process is called Lot Acceptance Sampling or Acceptance
Sampling [18]. There are two major classifications of acceptance
plans: attributes ("go, no-go") and by variables [24]. The attribute
type is the most commonly used for acceptance sampling [19].
Attribute inspection is done based on physical characteristics such
as appearance, colour, feel and taste. It results in classification of
products into categories such as good/bad, bright/dark, tight/loose,
smooth/rough and so on [14]. In measurement inspection, a
characteristic is measured by using an instrument. The sampling
plans for attribute inspection will specify the number of defectives
that can be tolerated in a sample of specified size to accept lots
[10]. The sampling plans for variables usually require calculation
of an average, range or standard deviation before deciding to
accept or reject a lot. Thus, implementation of sampling by
variable is rather complicated and may require specially trained
personnel. However, variable sampling plan are more efficient in
the sense that they require less sampling compared to attribute
plans [14].

2.1.
plancategories
categories
2.1Sampling
Sampling plan
According to Schilling [25], acceptance sampling plan falls
into five categories: single, double, multiple, sequential and skip
lot sampling plans. Single sampling plan happens when one
sample of items is selected at random from a lot and the
disposition of the lot is determined from the resulting information.
These plans are usually denoted as (n, c) plans for a sample size n,
where the lot is rejected if there are more than c defectives. These
are the most common and easiest plans to use, even though it is
not the most efficient in terms of average number of samples

needed. Double sampling plan happens after the first sample is

tested, there are three possibilities: accept the lot; reject the lot
and no decision. If the outcome is no decision, and a second
sample is taken, the procedure is to combine the results of both
samples and make a final decision based on that information.
Multiple sampling plans are extension of the double sampling
plan where more than two samples are needed to reach a
conclusion. The advantage of multiple sampling is smaller sample
sizes. Sequential sampling plans is the ultimate extension of
multiple sampling where items are selected from a lot one at a
time and after inspection of each item a decision is made to accept
or reject the lot or select another unit. Skip lot sampling plan
means that only a fraction of the submitted lots are inspected.
Making the final choice between single or multiple sampling plan
that has acceptable properties is a matter of deciding whether the
average sampling savings gained by the various multiple sampling
plans justify the additional complexity of these plans [22].
According to Taylor [27], one should follow this approach if you
are uncertain of not knowing how much sampling, inspection will
be conducted on a day-by-day basis.

2.2. Previous studies on acceptance

2.2. Previous
studies on acceptance sampling
sampling
Acceptance sampling could help to improve system reliability
by improving component reliability through more stringent
acceptance sampling plan selection [9]. Specifying a prior
distribution on the number of defects in a lot, and revising the
distribution based on information in the acceptance sample do
this. Then, transform a given system on the number of defects in
the posterior distribution into a reliability distribution. There were
several researches conducted regarding acceptance sampling. The
critical review for past researches of application of acceptance
sampling in the manufacturing industry is summarized in Table 1.
As a summary, it was found that past studies did not
investigate the relationship between acceptance sampling
selection and their effectiveness. Selecting the correct types of
acceptance sampling level is very important prior to the start of
any inspection. The wrong selection will cause the leakage of
failed products to customers and increase the products failure
risks, thus rework costs incurred for screening the products.
Therefore, in the authors opinion it is a necessity to conduct a
research on the application of acceptance sampling in Malaysian
electrical and electronics products manufacturing industries. This
is to ensure the electrical and electronics products passed or
marketed to the customers are assured in terms of their quality
and reliability.

3.3Research
methodology
Research methodology
Case study methodology was used in this research. It involves
an in-depth investigation and appropriate when trying to answer
the how and why questions of research [33]. Case study
evidence may be in the form of qualitative (e.g. words),
quantitative (e.g. numbers) data or both, the combination of both
data types is believed to be highly synergistic. This is in-line with
the main research objective, that is to answer some of the how
and why questions in acceptance sampling implementation. In

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Journal of Achievements in Materials and Manufacturing Engineering

Table 1.
Critical reviews of previous acceptance sampling studies
No.
Researcher
Research Topic
Wu and Pearn,
Process reliability index, Cpk
1.
2007
sampling
Gonzalez and
Bayesian sampling follows to
2.
Palomo, 2003
Poison distribution
Bayesian attribute sampling
comparison of statistical and
3.
Baker et al. 1996
classical confidence levels of data
Improve the test duration of
4.
Kwon, 1996
Bayesian sampling plan
Kaya and Engin,
Genetic algorithms sampling in
5.
2007
multi-stage process
Cheng and Chen,
Genetic algorithms in design of
6.
2007
attribute double sampling
Sohn and Jang,
Degradation sampling with fitted
7.
2001
model
Sampling application for
exported products from overseas
8.
George, 1994
supplier
Pearn and Wu,
Process capability indices (PCI)
9.
2006
sampling
Klaassen and
Credit based acceptance (CBA)
10.
Chris, 2001
sampling
Weibull distribution with
Balasooriya et al.,
asymptotic distribution theory
11.
2000
sampling for reliability
Microorganisms concentration
12.
Legan et al., 2001
controlled by attributes sampling
Comparison of sampling by
13.
Pendrill, 2006
variables and attributes
Control of chemotherapeutic
14.
Borget et al., 2006
batches in an hospital pharmacy
Grain control with application to
Kobilinsky and
genetically modified organism
15.
Bertheau, 2005
(GMO) detection
this study, the main aim of case study methodology was to extract
detailed information about how and why a production line for
manufacturing electrical and electronics products had used the
acceptance sampling technique. Conducting structured interviews
on the companys production engineers and managers using a set
of questionnaire-collected data. Case study research relies on
multiple sources of evidence. The six sources of evidence most
commonly used in case study research are: documents; archival
records; observations; physical artifacts; focused interviews and
open-ended interviews. The researcher must be able to use these
different sources of evidence in a converging manner by defining
the facts of the case and to get such convergent, the researcher
must ask the same questions on multiple sources of evidence
[33]. The case study questionnaire was designed in a way to
provide details response and feedback from the industries as
needed for data collection and improvements to the product
quality. The questionnaires include information about the
acceptance sampling plan selection, production process failure,
difficulty of the acceptance sampling plan and suggestions (open
ended questionnaires). The questionnaire design was based on the

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steps and procedures adapted from William [31]. A successful

questionnaire requires careful planning, methodological
application, and detailed analysis of the results. The questionnaires
basic objective is to determine the companys performance (doing
right or wrong), determine the areas of improvement, benchmark
with other competitors, and how to serve the customer better [4].
The well-known phrase GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) is
considered as one of the measuring tools, as it has more accurate
questionnaire design. The questionnaire design is part of the
important stage in the process to get the best results and analysis.
The research process is listed as follows: designing the structured
interviews questionnaire; interviewing production engineers and
managers; conduct plant tours to verify collected data, questions
and understand the production line operations, and finally, analyze
the results obtained.

4.4.
Results
and
discussions
Results and
discussions
The case study structured interview questionnaires were
administrated at three large foreign multinational companies with
more than 1,500 employees. They are code named, Company A,
Company B and Company C. The case study structured interview
questionnaires consists of three parts: first, the company
background information; second, studying and analyzing the
companys application of acceptance sampling; and finally,
reviewing the effectiveness and benefits of acceptance sampling
application. All the three selected case study companies are
located in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. For the past 20 years,
they were involved in manufacturing electrical and electronics
products in Malaysia. All the three companies have similar
backgrounds in terms of products they produced and the
manufacturing processes used. Therefore, the authors had chosen
these three companies as the benchmark companies for
acceptance sampling adoption and implementation in Malaysian
companies. The case study was carried out using verbal interview
with the engineer and manager of each company. On overall, all
the three companies had adopted and implemented acceptance
sampling in their inspection process. The summary of each case
study company background is as shown in Table 2.
Table 2.
Summary of Case Study Companies Background
Company

Company
Type

Products
Manufactured

Acceptance
Sampling

Japanese

Disk drives, DVD

camera

Yes

European

Heat ventilation
products

Yes

Japanese

Audio products,
camcorders

Yes

All the three companies had adopted the application of

acceptance sampling plan with Military Standard 105E attribute
single sampling plan for both incoming and outgoing inspection
as shown in Table 3.

B.M. Deros, C.Y. Peng, M.N. Ab Rahman, A.R. Ismail, A.B. Sulong

Manufacturing and processing

Table 3.
AQL inspection level for the case study companies
Acceptanc
e Sampling
AQL Level
Normal
Tighten
Loosen
AQL Level
Normal
Tighten
Loosen
AQL Level
Normal
Tighten
Loosen

Company A

Company B

Incoming
AQL Level
II
0.4%
0.1%
1.0%
Incoming
AQL Level
II
0.4%
0.1%
1.0%
Incoming
AQL Level
II
0.4%
0.1%
1.0%

Incoming
AQL Level
II
0.6%
0.4%
1.0%
Incoming
AQL Level
II
0.6%
0.4%
1.0%
Incoming
AQL Level
II
0.6%
0.4%
1.0%

Yearly

Yearly

Review
Frequency

Company C
Incoming
AQL Level II
0.4%
0.1%
1.0%
Incoming
AQL Level II
0.4%
0.1%
1.0%

Fig. 1. Electrical parts inspection result and production rejection

result (after incoming inspection) comparison data at Company A

Incoming
AQL Level II
0.4%
0.1%
1.0%
Yearly

There are two types of data used for comparisons:

(a) Incoming inspection: incoming inspection results
(Acceptance sampling plan);
(b) Production result: production process 100% inspection
results
(Leakage of failure detection by incoming inspection)
COMPANY A
There are two major categories of products: electrical parts
and mechanical parts. The defect classification follows to Military
Standard 105E: major, minor and critical. Judgment major is
given when the item cause failure or did not function as intended.
Judgment minor is given when the item lower or impaired the
efficiency, shortened the useful lifetime or reduce the value of the
item. Judgment critical is given when the item result in hazardous
or unsafe conditions for individuals using or maintaining the
product. Each type of defects is assigned with acceptable
sampling plan as final products judgment.
The review on the effectiveness of acceptable sampling plan
to detect suppliers products defect failure is conducted by data
collection from previous month inspection result. Figure 1 and
Figure 2 shows the comparison of electrical and mechanical parts
inspection result and production rejection results (after incoming
inspection).
The analysis found that sampling inspection plan of this
company is insufficient to detect the parts failure delivered from
supplier. The incoming inspection was observed to be under control
at AQL 0.15%. However, the production rejection failure was found
not achieving the target at AQL 0.15%. The weak point of the parts
failure leakage was identified in Table 4. From the verbal interview,
the authors conclude that the respondent was unsatisfied with the
current production rejection failure result.

Fig. 2. Mechanical parts inspection result and production rejection

result (after incoming inspection) comparison data at Company A
Table 4.
Reasons of parts failure in incoming and production
Incoming Inspection
Production Rejection
Suppliers have
New models with
Electrical
transferred the
problems
parts
production process to
sub-contractors
Low quality parts
Mechanica
Parts higher precision
purchased from
l parts
hard to control
China
COMPANY B
All the parts purchased from suppliers are mechanical or
semi-finished assembly products. Additional sample size code
(e.g. C, D, E etc.) will be assigned to the products in order to find
the applicable code letter for inspection in the particular lot or
batch size. Sample size code is selected based on the mechanical
precision requirement for each product. Higher precision of parts
will require more quantities to be inspected. For visual inspection,
the visual standard is based on the limit sample, which is a unit of
product showing the worst condition for it to be acceptable. If the
product appearance inspection is found worst than the limit
sample, the judgment of this product is rejected. The limit sample
must be agreed in between suppliers and customers for standard
judgments. The limit sample needs to have validity date and both

Assessing acceptance sampling application in manufacturing electrical and electronic products

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Journal of Achievements in Materials and Manufacturing Engineering

Volume 31 Issue 2 December 2008

parties endorsement on the sample. For equipment measurement

inspection, the parts are measured with a standard gage and some
are coupled with specially made gage for fixture confirmation. To
maintain the equipment and fixture precision, re-calibration for
equipment and fixture need to be conducted by following to the
preventive maintenance scheduling.
Figure 3 shows the comparison of parts inspection result and
production rejection results (after incoming inspection). On
overall, it was found that the production has higher rejection,
compared to incoming sampling inspection.

detection points to be inspected in the automated machine is based

on the previous products failure history. For example, the new
models integrated circuit has total 200 inspection points, which
needed to be inspected. However to reduce the inspection duration
and cost, these products are required to inspect only 50 points.
The decision of this 50 points to be inspected are based on the
history of previous failure occurred in the production and the
responsible risk of failure. Additional inspection points will be
later added in future from time to time, if there is any failure
occurred in the production.

Fig. 3. Company B parts inspection result and production

rejection result (after incoming inspection) data

Fig. 4. Company C parts inspection result and production

rejection result (after incoming inspection) comparison data

The production rejection failure did not achieve the target

percentage, i.e. AQL 0.10%. From the verbal interview, the
respondent explained that this company was unsatisfied with the
current production rejection failure result. Currently, the heat
ventilation products are unstable in term of quality performance.
In total, there are three suppliers of these products. All the parts
suppliers are sourcing them from China. These parts are
purchased at very low prices. As the results, Company C found
the qualities of the parts supplied from China are at lower quality
level if compared to the parts purchased locally in Malaysia.

All the three companies agreed that the application of

acceptance sampling could improve the productivity and quality
of their products. Figure 5 shows the perception of the engineers
and managers at the three case study companies for acceptance
sampling implementation in their company.

COMPANY C
There are two main categories of parts mechanical and
electrical. Each part has various types of testing and inspection
methods. In this case study research, audio products has been
chosen for analysis because this product had applied acceptance
sampling plan for inspection in the company. For this product, the
acceptance sampling level is set at AQL 0.4%. This product is
tested with visual inspection, measurement, fitting, mechanical
tape test and electrical inspection test.
Comparison of parts inspection results and production rejection
results (after incoming inspection) were collected and shown in
Figure 4. Overall, it was found that the production line had slightly
higher rejection, compared to incoming sampling inspection.
From the interview, the respondent explained that Company C
was unsatisfied with the current production rejection failure
result. The respondent explains that their audio products were
inspected with electrical automated machine. The electrical
automated machine is unable to cover all the functional failure on
the integrated circuit. The selection of printed circuit board

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Research paper

Fig. 5. Case study companies perception of acceptance sampling

implementation
From the interviews, the authors found each company had
spent considerable amount of cost and time to develop and
implement the acceptance-sampling plan. The inspection costs
include manpower cost and equipment purchased for inspection
and improved the factory facilities. All the respondents believed
the money and time spent are worthwhile with the results they
obtained through acceptance sampling. The results of
improvements through acceptance sampling implementation are
faster delivery (follow to just-in-time, JIT standard), better

B.M. Deros, C.Y. Peng, M.N. Ab Rahman, A.R. Ismail, A.B. Sulong

Manufacturing and processing

quality, lower products cost and higher reputation for companys

products. From the interviews with the plant personnel, it is
understood that the application of just-in-time (JIT) activities is
no longer applied only to Japanese companies but also to
European company. For further improvement of the companys
productivity and deliveries, the European company had also
benchmark and learned from Japanese company on how to apply
and implement the JIT activities. The European company had
started to apply all others relevant acceptance sampling activities
which could further improve their effectiveness and efficiency of
their production lines. In this regards, there are few suggestions
and feedbacks from the respondents to improve the acceptance
sampling application. The respondents of the interviewed
companies suggested the companys top management should
regularly review and improve supplier parts detection through:
a.
Conduct tightened inspection continuously for all new parts
for the first 5 lots of delivered from the supplier;
b. Conduct on-site inspection to suppliers plant for checking
process capability and consistency confirmation, and thus
conduct necessary improvement activity immediately;
c.
Review the current acceptance sampling plan regularly; and
d. Review the inspection methods (electrical, measurement or
visual inspection) regularly. Add the inspection methods (if
necessary) to improve the detection process.

[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]

[6]
[7]
[8]

[9]

5.5Conclusions
Conclusions
Effective acceptance sampling involves effective selection
and the application of specific rules for lot inspection. The
acceptance- sampling plan applied on a lot-by-lot basis becomes
an element in the overall approach to maximize quality at
minimum cost. Since different sampling plans may be statistically
valid at different times during the life of a process, therefore all
sampling plans should be periodically reviewed. From the case
study, it was found that the companies have clear vision of their
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats analysis. The
three case study companies have performed assessment on their
acceptance-sampling plan and relates its effectiveness to the
achievement on their products quality. The continuous
improvement and review of acceptance sampling plan is
important to improve the products quality and ensure continuous
customer satisfaction.

[10]
[11]

[12]
[13]

[14]
[15]

Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Ministry of Science
Technology and Environment (MOSTE) Malaysia and Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia for their support in providing the research
grant for the project entitled Development of a tool for
benchmarking implementation in manufacturing SMEs (Science
Fund 06-01-02-SF0345).

[16]

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B.M. Deros, C.Y. Peng, M.N. Ab Rahman, A.R. Ismail, A.B. Sulong