This International Standard specifies, for quality levels expressed as nonconforming items per million items, procedures for estimating the quality level of a single entity (e.g. a lot) and, when the production process is in statistical control, for estimating the process quality level based on evidence from several samples. Procedures are also specified for using this information when selecting a suitable sampling plan so as to verify that the quality level of a given lot does not exceed a stated limiting quality level (LQL). For the case where no prior sample data is available, guidance is given for presuming a process quality level in selecting a plan.