Design of double sampling inspection plans for life tests under time censoring based on Pareto type IV distribution

Sampling inspection plans for life tests, called reliability sampling plans, are generally employed to determine the acceptance or non-acceptance of the lot(s) of finished products by performing tests on the sampled items, measuring the lifetime of the items and observing the number of failures of items. Lifetime of individual items is a prime quality characteristic that can be treated as a continuous random variable and can be modeled by an appropriate probability distribution. In this article, double sampling plans for life tests under time censoring with a provision to draw two random samples and to admit a maximum of one failure in the combined samples are formulated assuming that the lifetime random variable follows a Pareto type IV distribution. A methodical procedure for the selection of the plan parameters using reliable life criterion with the desired discrimination protecting the interests of the producer and the consumer in terms of the acceptable reliable life and unacceptable reliable life is evolved. The operating ratio is used as a measure of discrimination in designing the proposed reliability sampling plans.