It’s difficult to think of a manufacturing environment in which measurements of processes aren’t taken in one form or another. These measurements, usually compared to some standards, are taken to see how processes are behaving to ensure that the customer is getting what he or she expects.
In any setting, business or personal, the trust we place in the measurement instruments can have a significant effect. Whether it’s the ice cream manufacturer’s scale that weighs your pint, a blood pressure monitor that checks your spouse’s hypertension, or the gas gage in your car, we typically trust these measurements at face value, questioning the reliability only when something goes wrong.