What Does AQL Mean? 'AQL' stands for 'Acceptance Quality Limit', and is defined as the "quality level that is the worst tolerable" in ISO 2859-1. It represents the maximum number of defective units, beyond which a batch is rejected. Importers usually set different AQLs for critical, major, and minor defects. Most Asian exporters are familiar with this type of setting. For example: "AQL is 1.5%" means "I want no more than 1.5% defective items in the whole order quantity, on average over … [Read more...]
The Different Sampling Plans Contained in the ISO 2859 Series
The vast majority of inspectors follow the ISO 2859-1 standard. But about ISO 2859-2, -3, and so on? The relationship between these parts is explained in ISO 2859-10:2006 (introduction to the ISO 2859 series of standards for sampling for inspection by attributes): ⎯ Part 1: Sampling schemes indexed by acceptance quality limit (AQL) for lot-by-lot inspection ⎯ Part 2: Sampling plans indexed by limiting quality (LQ) for isolated lot inspection ⎯ Part 3: Skip-lot sampling procedures ⎯ … [Read more...]
What is an inspection level in ISO 2859-1 and ANSI/ASQ Z1.4?
This article introduces the different options available to buyers when it comes to the representativity of inspection findings. Inspection level II (under "normal severity") is appropriate for most inspections. But it is sometimes necessary to increase--or reduce--the number of samples to check. … [Read more...]