Statistical methods in process management — Capability and performance — Part 7: Capability of measurement processes

This document defines a procedure to validate measuring systems and a measurement process in order to state whether a given measurement process can satisfy the requirements for a specific measurement task with a recommendation of acceptance criteria. The acceptance criteria are defined as a capability figure (CMS, CMP) or a capability ratio (QMS, QMP).

NOTE This document follows the approach taken in ISO/IEC Guide 98-3 (GUM), and establishes a basic, simplified procedure for stating and combining uncertainty components used to estimate a capability index for an actual measurement process.

This document is primarily developed to be used for simple one-dimensional measurement processes, where it is known that the method uncertainty and the specification uncertainty are small compared to the implementation uncertainty. It can also be used in similar cases, where measurements are used to estimate process capability or process performance. It is not suitable for complex geometrical measurement processes, such as surface texture and position measurements that rely on several measurement points or simultaneous measurements in several directions.