Abstract: In order to improve the consistency of physical quality of cigarettes, the effects of five factors (operator, shift, cigarette maker, batch of cut filler and sampling time) on the stability of physical quality of cigarettes were analyzed with nested factorial design. The results showed that: 1) Cigarette maker and batch of cut filler were the main variables affecting the physical indices, sample variance and sample generalized variance. 2) For the cut filler of constant physical quality, the influence of the same cigarette maker on cigarette physical indices did not vary with sampling time. 3) Operator and shift were not the variation sources affecting the physical indices, sample variance and sample generalized variance significantly. Therefore for pursuing higher consistency and stability of cigarette physical quality, it is essential to promote, the intra- and inter-batch consistency of physical quality of cut filler and the consistency of working states of cigarette makers.