MULTIVARIATE SCREENING PROCEDURES FOR QUALITY COST MINIMIZATION

We extend recent works by Tang and Tang dealing with the quality cost of a process that is screened with the use of correlated variables because the principal quality characteristic is difficult or expensive to measure. Our model includes a very flexible and general set of loss functions that can be used to model both traditional and contemporary 'losses' for deviation from target values or product specifications. We also give an analysis of the expected value of perfect information and sample information obtained from the screening variables. This facilitates the evaluation of the advisability of using screening variables.