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Frontiers in Statistical Quality Control 10 pp 401–416Cite as

Uncertainty and Quality Control

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Part of the book series: Frontiers in Statistical Quality Control ((FSQC,volume 10))

Abstract

Uncertainty about future developments constitutes the most important and most difficult challenge for mankind. Despite this fact, uncertainty is not a part of general science. General science assumes that the future development follows cause-effect relations which can be described by mathematical functions, where the argument represents the cause and the image represents the effect. Scientific theories have exactly this form and it is widely believed that these functions represent “truth”. Of course, this is nonsense as all the scientific theories are with certainty wrong and cannot describe the real evolution correctly. The inappropriate handling of uncertainty in science has produced a strange variety of “uncertainty theories” that causes confusion and helplessness. A friend of mine has expressed his confusion by the following words:

‘Crisp sets’, ‘fuzzy sets’, ‘rough sets’, ‘grey sets’, ‘fuzzy rough sets’, ‘rough fuzzy sets’, ‘fuzzy grey sets’, ‘grey fuzzy sets’, ‘rough grey sets’, ‘grey rough sets’, and now ‘affinity sets’. My goodness! Is there anybody around who can enlighten me, i.e., help me to see a clear pattern in this set of sets, allegedly providing powerful tools to model various kinds of uncertainty?

This paper examines the role and the handling of uncertainty in quality control. How is uncertainty quantified in quality control for making decisions aiming at maintaining or improving quality of processes and products.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fact.

  2. 2.

    See: http://www.spaceandmotion.com/quantum-mechanics-richard-feynman-quotes.htm.

  3. 3.

    “Abstract” means that the elements have no real interpretation.

  4. 4.

    According to Hu et al. (2009)

  5. 5.

    http://www.orsc.edu.cn/~liu/Lecture/Evolution/Evolution.pdf.

References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Würzburg, Sanderring 2, D-97070, Würzburg, Germany

    Elart von Collani

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  1. Elart von Collani
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Correspondence to Elart von Collani .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Inst. Statistik und Ökonometrie, Freie Universität Berlin, Garystr. 21, Berlin, 14195, Berlin, Germany

    Hans-Joachim Lenz

  2. LS für Quantitative Methoden,, insbesondere Statistik, Europa-Universität Viadrina, Grosse Scharrnstr. 59, Frankfurt/Oder, 15230, Brandenburg, Germany

    Wolfgang Schmid

  3. , Inst. Statistik und Ökonometrie, Freie Universität Berlin, Garystr. 21, Berlin, 14195, Berlin, Germany

    Peter-Theodor Wilrich

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von Collani, E. (2012). Uncertainty and Quality Control. In: Lenz, HJ., Schmid, W., Wilrich, PT. (eds) Frontiers in Statistical Quality Control 10. Frontiers in Statistical Quality Control, vol 10. Physica, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7908-2846-7_27

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