Lot acceptance testing using sample mean and extremum with finite qualification samples

Abstract In the aerospace composites industry, new material lots are tested to determine if they are suitable for use. It is common to accept or reject the material lot by comparing the sample mean and lower extremum to reference values that are established based on an initial (qualification) sample of material property measurements. Current industry practices assume that the samples are drawn from a normal distribution with known parameters equal to the mean and standard deviation of the qualification sample: this assumption yields a producer’s risk that is too high. This article presents a two-sample method of setting these reference values, considering the sampling distribution of the qualification sample. This new method is validated through simulation which shows that it produces the correct probability of Type I error. Simulation is also used to investigate the statistical power of the new method and it is compared to others commonly used. A case study is presented to demonstrate the use of the new method using composite material data from industry.