• Journal of Industrial Technology
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• v.22 no.B
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• pp.89-93
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• 2002

When testing products before shipment to the customer, quality characteristics are measured to decide whether or not their values are between the specification limits. Unfortunately, this testing procedure can lead to incorrect decisions because of gauge error. That is, good products can erroneously be qualified as bad, and bad products as good, and this has consequences for producer's and consumer's risk. In cases of such as this, the compressed gauge limit can be used to achieve the desired product quality level dictated by the manufacturer or the customer. A compressed gauge limit is a limit set by the manufacturer on a test gauge that is tighter than the specification limit established by the customer. The compressed gauge limits should be set at levels to achieve the defect levels desired by the customer and simultaneously minimize the loss of good product that is rejected due to errors in the gauges. In this article, the models for determining the defect levels and the losses obtained by adding compressed gauge limits will be developed. A response surface model approach is utilized which allows an optimal operating condition to be generated relatively easily.