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Measurement uncertainty—Surveys about customers' knowledge, reactions and needs

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Abstract

During discussions early in 2000, representatives of accredited analytical laboratories expressed concern about what the customers' reactions might be when the new requirements for evaluating and reporting uncertainty are implemented. In collaboration with accreditation bodies, authorities, laboratories and interest organisations, a two-page leaflet was produced. It was intended to be used by testing laboratories as information, e.g. together with the test report. To gain further insight into customers' views on measurement uncertainty, two surveys were conducted among some 1,200 Swedish customers. The result shows that the majority of them need and value uncertainty statements in the test report.

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Notes

  1. There are 450 accredited testing laboratories in Sweden (March 2000). Approximately 65% of them perform quantitative chemical analysis in the areas of environment, food and laboratory medicine.

  2. Small and medium-sized enterprises.

References

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Acknowledgements

The authors express their gratitude to the customers, Siv Hansson, Gun Svensson, Yvonne Samuelsson, Barbro Hall, Per-Olov Larsson, Anette Ingemarsson and Bengt Nordling (SP) for their help in distributing the questionnaire, and to Swedish and foreign project partners for their valuable comments during the development of the leaflets. Part of the work received financial support from the Swedish Business Development Agency (NUTEK).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eurachem Sweden, EQUALIS, P.O. Box 977, SE-751 09, Uppsala, Sweden

    Ulf Örnemark

  2. Eurolab Sweden, SP Swedish National Testing and Research Institute, P.O. Box 857, SE-501 15, Borås, Sweden

    Magnus Holmgren

Authors
  1. Ulf Örnemark
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  2. Magnus Holmgren
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ulf Örnemark.

Additional information

The article is based on Report 2001:07, SP Swedish National Testing and Research Institute, Borås, Sweden, December 2001.

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Örnemark, U., Holmgren, M. Measurement uncertainty—Surveys about customers' knowledge, reactions and needs. Accred Qual Assur 8, 354–358 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00769-003-0643-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00769-003-0643-7

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