Development of a Reliability Sampling System With Quick‐Switching Decision Rule and Dual‐Inspection Mechanisms for Improving Test Efficiency

Abstract

ABSTRACT Verifying product reliability to ensure that its lifetime meets the warranty period is critical for manufacturers to maintain competitiveness and control warranty costs. Reliability acceptance sampling plans (RASP) assist practitioners in limiting the risk of incorrect decisions while efficiently verifying product reliability. Recent literature has discussed the application of a modified warranty‐oriented lifetime performance index, incorporating accelerated life testing (ALT) and failure‐censoring scheme, to develop a modified RASP (MRASP). However, we note that MRASP decides based on a single sampling inspection of the lot, which may be overly arbitrary. Furthermore, the method requires a relatively large number of test samples to obtain information on product reliability, leading directly to increased testing costs. Therefore, this study develops a novel sampling system, termed QSSR, which combines a quick‐switching sampling decision‐rule switching mechanism with a resubmission‐based dual‐inspection mechanism to address the limitations of the existing MRASP. Through detailed investigation and comparison, we find that the proposed QSSR significantly reduces AFN compared with MRASP, indicating improved AFN‐based test efficiency, and offers superior discriminatory power in assessing lot reliability. Finally, a case study is presented to demonstrate the practical applicability of the proposed method.