Last month, I talked about vision vs. video and brought up the possibility of confusion between inspection and measurement. Some think that inspection is qualitative and measurement is quantitative. I can’t say I’ll put the matter to rest, but I’ll present a few different considerations to think about.

Where you do it
Incoming inspection is a function or a department where purchased goods are inspected to make sure they meet specifications. This is one place where the difference between inspection and measurement comes into play. It depends on what you’re inspecting.

Many times, the criteria for inspecting a purchased item are cosmetic in nature. Is it the right color? Does it have any blemishes or imperfections? Such assessments may not be quantitative or measurable, so you can argue that such parts are inspected but not measured.

Many times, however, some aspect of that inspection process involves measurement. An obvious example is a part that must have particular dimensions to fit or function properly. Part of the incoming inspection process of such a part is measurement of those dimensions to determine whether they’re within specification. In this case, measurement is part of the inspection process.

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