5. Equipment management

5.1 Defining your needs

Equipment management begins as soon as it is acquired. The laboratory defines its equipment needs according to what it wants to achieve.

Requirements are defined on the basis of :

• of the measurement to be made (e.g. pH of a solution that may be strongly acidic or basic), this defines the measurement range;

• the measurement site (e.g. pH to be measured on the banks of a river), this defines the type of equipment (portable or laboratory);

• the required tolerance or uncertainty (e.g. pH to be defined to within 0.01 pH units), this enables us to define the resolution and the uncertainty requirement (maximum expanded uncertainty...