Optimal screening limits in multi-stage assemblies

A number of models have been proposed in the literature for determining optimal screening limits. The majority of the models deal with the determination of screening limits for a product in the final stage of manufacturing. In industrial settings, however, a product is often manufactured in the form of assemblies that are made up of a number of components and subassemblies. This paper investigates the problem of determining the most cost-effective screening limits for individual components, subassemblies and the final assembly within the framework of screening inspection. This paper first presents the concept of truncated distribution, applies the concept to screening inspection by deriving the truncated statistics of interest, and then presents optimization models for the most cost-effective screening limits in the context of single and multi-stage assemblies.