Have you ever stepped on a scale to weigh yourself, stepped off the scale, and then stepped back on to measure your weight a second time? Have you ever gotten two different readings? Whether you are monitoring your weight or trying to improve a process vital to your company’s success, it is imperative that the measurement system you use is adequate.
While no measurement system is perfect, we rely on such systems to quantify data that help us control quality and monitor changes in critical processes. So, how do you know whether the changes you see are valid and not just the product of a faulty measurement system? After all, if you can’t trust your measurement system, then you can’t trust the data it produces.