A dairy producers quality assurance and quality control activities are impacted by a number of governmental regulations and their markets desire for a good quality product. Of course, there is a cost to these activities, in dollars and time.
The goal of skip-lot sampling is to limit the number of lots from a supplier which are required to submit to sampling, or quality control. The pace which “limiting” occurs is setup in the dairy producer’s skip-lot formula.
A simple example of a skip-lot formula:
- Identify a qualifying vendor and item.
- Initially all received lots from that vendor of that item are sampled. This continues until a specified consistent number of lots meet 100% acceptance.
- Then, the formula can move to reducing the number of lots tested, until again a specified consistent number of lots meet 100% acceptance.
- When a lot is rejected, the formula can move a level back or to the beginning – depending on the dairy producers skip-lot formula.
While skip-lot sampling does not remove all need for testing, the formula does set a goal to achieve and maintain a certain desired limited number of ‘skips’.
A couple of key points about skip-lot sampling:
- Skip-lot sampling is not for critical or key component dairy producer items.
- The items selected should have already demonstrated a record of high quality
- Skip-lot sampling should be applied to vendor’s who have a proven solid reputation.
Through the goal of skip-lot sampling, the dairy producer can possibly see improved time and dollars being saved. Their departments can then possibly allocate time and effort to more critical quality driven activities.
