Design of Variables Sampling Plan in Agro-Allied Industry for Packed Yam Flour in-view of International Regulatory Standards

Abstract

To stay competitive in today’s global market, manufacturers must ensure products released to consumers, meet international regulations and standards and this can only be done by putting in place sampling plans to guarantee the release of quality lots of products into the market. Hence, the objective of this paper is to design a variables sampling plan for the released of packed yam flour in view of international regulations on the net content of packaged goods. Probability plots, operating characteristic curves, the average outgoing quality (AOQ), average outgoing quality limit (AOQL) and average total inspection (ATI) were useful measures to evaluate the fitness of the sampling plan using the Minitab 2021 statistical software package. The packing process net weight, was found to be normally distributed with a p-value of 0.075 and a process standard deviation of 2.16. A comparative analysis on sample size, sampling plan measures, such as the AOQ, AOQL, and ATI and in view of best practice, were decisive in selecting a sampling plan with a sample size of 31 packs per lot as the most economic plan for lot sentencing. A practical demonstration on this sampling plan usage was also showcased. This sampling plan elevates and improves the net content of the packed product released into the market in view of international regulatory laws.