Critical analysis of the acceptance criteria used in measurement systems evaluation

Abstract

In order to carry out the industrial process monitoring and the product inspection, it is essential to use suitable measurement systems. Therefore, in favor of ensuring good performance for the required task, measurement system analyzes must be conducted in advance. However, the indiscriminate application of statistical methods and overestimated acceptance criteria has been used in the analysis of measurement systems. This has caused the disapproval of several measuring instruments that could be appropriately used for measuring tasks. This article reviews critically the acceptance criteria defined in the main reference manuals of measurement systems analysis (MSA and VDA 5). It also demonstrates that, in general, the measurement system variability is acceptable by 30% of tolerance in order to be controlled.