ASTM E122
Full Name
ASTM E122 – Standard Practice for Calculating Sample Size to Estimate, With Specified Precision, the Average for a Characteristic of a Lot or Process
Scope
This practice covers simple methods for calculating how many units to include in a random sample in order to estimate with a specified precision, a measure of quality for all the units of a lot of material, or produced by a process.
This practice will clearly indicate the sample size required to estimate the average value of some property or the fraction of nonconforming items produced by a production process during the time interval covered by the random sample. If the process is not in a state of statistical control, the result will not have predictive value for immediate (future) production.
The practice treats the common situation where the sampling units can be considered to exhibit a single (overall) source of variability; it does not treat multi-level sources of variability.
Keywords
sampling; random sample; sample size