Comparisons of Acceptance Sampling Plans for the Exponential Lifetime Distribution

Abstract

Reliability acceptance sampling is concerned with whether to accept or reject a collection of items based upon the information obtained from life testing. Although various reliability acceptance sampling plans have been developed, little is known about their relatvie performances. This paper compares reliability acceptance sampling plans under Type II censoring, Hybrid censoring, and Time-Truncated Type II censoring assuming that the lifetimes of items in a lot follow an exponential distribution. The three plans are compared in terms of the power, the expected number of failures, and the expected time required to reach a decision. Computational experiments are conducted and the results are tabulated to provide guidelines for selecting an appropriate plan for a given situation.