What is an acceptable quality level
The acceptable quality level (AQL) is a term that relates to whether tolerance levels can be applied to the percentage of defects found in a batch.
In ideal terms the defect rate would be zero however in some circumstances business may accept a certain volume of defects.
For example if the AQL is 2% it means that 2 parts per hundred maybe defective.
AQL can have a significant impact on production costs – for example if the AQL is zero then greater inspection is required at manufacture – this can result in higher prices.
An AQL expects that the company has knowledge of the lot size of the production run and the level of inspection required. AQL does have some drawbacks however – the sample of the production run checked may not be representative of the batch as a whole
Leave a Reply
