3
Background
Measurement systems are used every day in manufacturing, research and
development, and sales and marketing. Attributes which are measured
include distances, temperatures, strengths, resistance’s, and sales, just to
name a few.
Often measurements are made with little regard for the quality of such
measurements. Yet all too often, the measurements are not
representative of the true value of the characteristic being measured. That
might be because the measurement system is not accurate enough, not
precise enough, introduces bias into the measurement, or is not properly
being used by the operator.
The moral to the previous paragraph is that before you embark on using a
new measurement system for a characteristic which has not been
previously measured on it, you should perform a measurement capability
analysis. Measurement capability analyses are critical to the success of
every measurement and ensure that future measurements will be
representative of the characteristic being measured.
