Developing optimal group acceptance sampling plans based on Weibull distribution with limited risks

Single and group sampling plans are conventional methods for assessing the quality of submitted lots of products. The group scheme is considered as more efficient than the single sampling plan with respect to cost and time to reach the final decision about the submitted lot. In this paper, a group sampling plan for the lot acceptance is developed for the time-truncated life test when the lifetime of a product follows the Weibull distribution. The test plans are constructed by minimizing and limiting a weighted-average of the producer and consumer risks. Integer nonlinear programing is used to determine the optimal number of groups and the acceptance number. Several tables and figures are constructed to analyze the behavior of the proposed test plans. A comparison of the suggested GASP and the traditional optimal two-point plan shows that the proposed optimal plans outperform the optimal two-point plan in terms of sample size. A real data analysis is presented for illustration of the results. The results derived for Weibull distribution are also valid for any other lifetime model.