Measurement System in Control if the Equipment requires Daily Calibration?

[hohoberiberi]

Hi everybody, it's my first post here. I'm a fresh graduate, 2 months on my new job. It happens so that it involves doing a MSA. In fact I learned that something like MSA exists after being employed, as the universities in my country are focused on problems rather far from reality. I have a question about measurements. From what I understand, MSA can be done if the measurement process is in SPC, meaning that the there is a systematic measurement of a master sample and this measurement shows relatively small variation.
But what if the equipment requires daily calibration? Can I still say that the process is in control when measurements of the master sample are coherent when done after calibration, or am I missing the point?

[Jennifer Kirley]

Welcome to the Cove!

You are not alone: many universities don't teach quality assurance subjects outside of technical programs such as Industrial Technology.

So here we are. I am wondering what equipment needs daily calibration.

All the same, unless the equipment is unstable I am not convinced that a need for daily calibration indicates a loss of control. If an instrument was calibrated and an MSA study was done right afterward with unsatisfactory variation, I would question the instrument but not the program. After all, the MSA study is telling you what you want to know: the instrument's performance over repeated measurements over a range of dimensions, and then by different users.

I have never seen a prerequisite of SPC to do an MSA study. The relationship I understand is that it would be desirable to have MSA when pursuing process control and SPC; we do want reliable instruments with which to collect our data, yes?

So: which of your instrument(s) require daily calibration?

[bobdoering]

One point of clarification is are you doing daily verification (mastering) or are you doing daily calibration? It is very rare to need daily calibration. It would also be nice to know what gaging you are talking about, and what it is you are trying to gage. Generic questions lead to dangerously vague and often misdirected answers.

[hohoberiberi]

Thanks for your replies. I understand the subject a little better now.

It also seems I used the wrong word. Mastering looks like the right one. Calibration still needs to be done every two or three days. It's a CV mercury probe used in semiconductors industry for resistivity measurements among others. It's old and in bad shape, I also heard that it's not used according to the industry standards. I am supposed to check. It all looks bad at first glance and the point of this MSA is to see how bad it really is.

But it's good to know that there's a place where I can ask some questions to people who know this stuff.