I'm interested to know if anyone with experience in industry has experience with performing validations on measurement systems, such as Gauge R&Rs (Gauge Repeatability and Reproducibility). Similar to how the process used to produce the part needs to be validated, the inspection means used to inspect the part to determine whether it is good or bad also needs to be validated. A Gauge R&R study gives a measure of the uncertainty of the measurement system, accounting for variations within the system itself as well as external factors causing variation such as different inspectors measuring the same part.

Right now one of the projects my company is working on is struggling to pass a Gauge R&R. It is a very small part with very small tolerances, and although our supplier believes it can produce the part to our specs, they are unable to pass the gauge R&R, which means we have no way of knowing whether the parts are in spec or not since we cannot validate the inspection means. Has anybody run into a situation like this before, or does anyone have experience with Gauge R&R studies?