Optimal inspection intervals in a two-stage manufacturing process

A strategy suggested recently in the literature for enhancing quality is to use inspection sublots, in which a large production run (batch) is subdivided into smaller portions (sublots) for inspection. In this study we consider a two-stage batch manufacturing process in which the first stage shifts out-of-control at i.i.d. exponential times after starting in control. In any sublot, Stage 1 produces good items before the shift and bad items …