Overview for Attributes Acceptance Sampling

Use Attributes Acceptance Sampling to create an inspection plan that you use to accept or reject a lot of incoming material based on the number of defects or the number of defectives in a representative sample. You can also compare multiple sampling plans to understand how varying the sample size and the acceptance number affects the plan risk.

Acceptance sampling indicates whether an entire lot of product should be accepted or rejected. With attributes, usually visual characteristics of the part, you typically inspect for defects, such as stains, rips, or scratches and record the number of defects or the number of defective units.

For example, you receive a shipment of 10,000 microchips. With acceptance sampling, you develop a plan to determine how many microchips you need to inspect (sample size) and how many defects are allowed within the sample (acceptance number).

Acceptance sampling does not improve the quality of the process in any way, and is not a substitute for good quality control processes. Acceptance sampling is useful as a decision-making tool for accepting or rejecting products and services. In particular, in cases when the quality of a supplier's process is unknown, acceptance sampling may be a good option as opposed to 100% inspection.

Where to find this analysis

To create an acceptance sampling plan for attributes data, or to compare several acceptance sampling plans for attributes data, choose Stat > Quality Tools > Acceptance Sampling by Attributes.

When to use an alternate analysis