2. Purpose and role of the metrology function in a company

The result of a measurement can generally be considered as technical information communicated to a user. Based on this information, the user will be asked to make a decision:

• product acceptance (when measuring characteristics or performance to establish conformity with a specification);

• process validation ;

• adjustment of a parameter as part of the control of a manufacturing process (slaving) ;

• validation of a hypothesis as part of a development ;

• environmental protection ;

• defining the safety conditions of a product or system.

All these decisions contribute to product or service quality. The validity of the decisions made therefore depends directly on...