26 April 2011: Edgar Dietrich

By comparing version 4 of the MSA manual to the previous version you will find more than 60 changes. This article, however, tries to answer the following question: What is in it for us?

On the one hand, the updates are helpful textual changes and, on the other hand, some modifications in the evaluation methods. These modifications will force companies into adjusting their MSA studies to the 4^th edition; otherwise they will not pass future audits. The answer to the question “What is in it for me” can be answered by a simple “NOTHING”. Capability analysis evaluating measurement systems do not only assess the current status but mainly help to improve the measurement process and keep it in statistical control under real operating conditions. However, the 4^th edition does not provide any information about improvements. In the author’s opinion, MSA 4 will not improve any measurement process. It will just cause considerable effort since companies will have to adapt their approach to the new version.

solara.MP 10 solves the problem

Being a businessman and manager of the Q-DAS group, I would not be honest if I said that I was not glad about such changes. Users, especially our customers, will not be able to avoid the implementation of MSA 4 requirements in their company. The result is that they have to update the applied software. Now, I have some good news for our users: solara.MP (since version 10) includes an evaluation strategy based on MSA 4! Q-DAS customers using this version are well-prepared for the next audit since they can even transfer data from previous studies...