Harold French Dodge was one of the principal architects of the science of statistical quality control. He is universally known for his work in originating acceptance sampling

Acceptance sampling

Acceptance sampling uses statistical sampling to determine whether to accept or reject a production lot of material. It has been a common quality control technique used in industry and particularly the military for contracts and procurement. It is usually done as products leave the factory, or in...

 plans for putting inspection operations on a scientific basis in terms of controllable risks.

From 1917 to 1958 worked at quality assurance department at Bell Laboratories with Walter Shewhart, George Edwards

George Edwards

George Edwards was an English naturalist and ornithologist, known as the "father of British ornithology".Edwards was born at Stratford, Essex. In his early years he travelled extensively through mainland Europe, studying natural history, and gained some reputation for his coloured drawings of...

, Harry Romig, R. L. Jones, Paul Olmstead, E.G.D. Paterson, and Mary N. Torrey. At that time the basic concepts of acceptance sampling was developed, such as :

• Consumer's Risk
  Consumer's Risk
  Consumer's risk or Consumer risk is a potential risk found in all consumer-oriented products, that a product not meeting quality standards will pass undetected though the manufacturer's quality control system and enter the consumer marketplace....
  
  ,
• Producer's Risk
  Producer's Risk
  Producer's risk is the probability that a good product will be rejected as a bad product by the consumer.It calculates the probability of loss from rejecting a batch which, in fact, should have been accepted, or accepting a batch that, in fact, will be rejected by the customer....
  
  ,
• double sampling,
• lot tolerance percent defective (LTPD), and
• average outgoing quality limit (AOQL).

Also he originated several types of:

• acceptance sampling schemes,
• CSP type continuous sampling plans,
• chain sampling plans, and
• skip-lot sampling plans.

During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Dodge served as a consultant to the Secretary of War

United States Secretary of War

The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War," was appointed to serve the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation...

, and was chairman of the American Standards Association (now the American National Standards Institute

American National Standards Institute

The American National Standards Institute is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organization also coordinates U.S. standards with international...

) War Committee Z1, which prepared the Z1.1, Z1.2, and Zl.3 quality control standards.

See also

• Dodge-Romig tables