Determining quality inspection frequency in an automated production line based on field failure data analysis

We study the problem of determining the frequency of quality control inspections in a tortilla and bread & bakery manufacturer producing pizzas. We first perform statistical analysis of failure data obtained from a real automated pizza production line. Based on this data, we develop a simple model of a quality inspector who visits several such lines and his goal is to allocate the number of his/her visits to the different workstations of the lines so as minimize the total production time of undetected, defective products.