(ASTM: West Conshohocken, PA) -- Measurement systems analysis is an important topic in statistics and quality for engineering, manufacturing, laboratory practice, and business process applications. A new ASTM International standard, ASTM E2782—“Guide for measurement systems analysis (MSA),” covers many core issues of MSA.

ASTM E2782 was developed by Subcommittee E11.20 on Test Method Evaluation and Quality Control, under the jurisdiction of ASTM International Committee E11 on Quality and Statistics.

According to Stephen Luko, a statistician with Hamilton Sundstrand and a longtime committee member and former chairman of E11, when an object is measured and a result presented, typically some decision will be made or action taken as a result of the measurement result. In such cases, Luko notes, it is always reasonable to ask the following questions: “What is the error in the measurement result?” and “What is the error in the measurement process?”

“From a practical point of view, the user of a measured quantity wants to know how different might the measured quantity be from the true value of what has been measured,” says Luko.

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