The Optional Allocation of Inspection Effort in a Class of Nonserial Production Systems

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Abstract
The allocation of quality control inspection effort (QCIE) within a class of nonserial production systems permitting inspection errors is considered. If the allocation of QCIE is unconstrained, and providing inspected and uninspected items from an operation are aggregated, then, for the cost structure considered, this problem is shown to be equivalent to a nonlinear zero-one integer programming problem. This implies the existence of an optimal inspection policy involving only integer multiples of 100% inspection at each potential location. However, if the allocation of QCIE is constrained or the segregation of inspected and uninspected items is permitted, then the existence of such an optimal policy is no longer assured.