This paper proposes and defends a thesis that global consistency of tolerances is achievable only by consistent use of statistics across specification, production, and inspection. It starts with a global view of variation in a product of an engineering enterprise, embodied in two major axioms: imprecision in manufacturing and uncertainty in measurements. It traces the successful evolution of statistical practices in production and inspection to deal with those variations. Finally, designer specified tolerances are brought into the global picture. Challenges that still lie ahead are summarised at the end.
By: Vijay Srinivasan
Published in: RC21357 in 1998
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