Those of us who are accustomed to work with standards like ISO/TS 16949 are also accustomed to “hear voices”: the voice of the customer, the voice of the stakeholders, and so on. The only voice we are not accustomed to hear is the voice of quality. Perhaps this should be called the “sounds of silence,” since quality managers are almost invariably the last to be listened to, but the first to be accused during any quality trial.

The point I want to raise concerns measurements, the devices used to produce measurement data, and how these devices are used. I don’t intend to accuse the entire device industry; I only want to give some indications on how this process could be made more effective, based on my field experience.

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