As will be explained throughout this book, knowing the statistics of measurement error for test equipment will allow us to know and improve test accuracy and precision, which in turn, will allow us to greatly improve: Product Quality, Test Productivity, and Product Yields.

The center of this work is the "Test Capability Study" this is a spreadsheet based analysis that can quickly be set up and give an estimate of the overall uncertainty of a measurement based on a sampling of test systems or test configurations. The "Test Capability Study" is a streamlined and more efficient form of the "Gage R & R Study."

Also covered is the "Propagation of Errors" (POE) analysis to first and second order. The first order POE is commonly treated in many fine books, but the second order POE is rarely treated. For those familiar with first order POE I think you will find it a real treat to study the second order POE as it will help you get a deeper and more accurate understanding of POE.

As well as treating measurement errors, second order POE can accurately analyze variation contributions to product distributions as well as other variations in physical systems that can be defined mathematically.