An acceptance sampling plan's ability to discriminate between low quality lots and high quality lots is described by

A) a Gantt chart.
B) the Central Limit Theorem.
C) a process control chart.
D) an operating characteristics curve.
E) a range chart.

An operating characteristics (OC) curve is a graphical representation of an acceptance sampling plan's ability to discriminate between low quality lots and high quality lots. This curve shows the probability of accepting versus rejecting a lot at different levels of quality, providing information about the plan's ability to control the risk of making a Type I error (accepting a low quality lot) and a Type II error (rejecting a high quality lot). Therefore, option D is the correct answer. The other options are not directly related to the discrimination ability of an acceptance sampling plan.