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MSA¶
These pages hold the mathematics the Measurement System Analysis tools share. Each one is included inline on the tool pages that use it, so a tool's own Math Details page carries the equations you need without a detour, and these pages are where the full treatment lives.
The Crossed, Nested and Extended studies share nearly all of this. Where a page applies to only one of them, it says so at the top.
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Variance Components | The model every study fits, the rule that sorts the components into repeatability, reproducibility and part to part, the five aggregates, the floor at zero, and the fixed term substitute |
| Gage Evaluation | Every reported column: standard deviation, study variation, the two percentage families, tolerance width, percent of tolerance, the precision to tolerance ratio, and the number of distinct categories |
| Expected Mean Squares | The expected mean square system, its coefficients balanced and unbalanced, the method of moments solve, the F tests and their synthesized denominators, and the interaction removal loop |
| Restricted Maximum Likelihood | What REML maximises, which terms enter the fit, the non-negativity constraint, the reported diagnostics, and the model it cannot fit |
| XbarR Method | The range based method in full, and the three things it cannot produce. Crossed studies only |
| Probabilities of Misclassification | The five reported probabilities, the historical standard deviation substitution, the 8 sigma rule, and the mean shift sweep |
| Bias and Linearity | Bias and its t test, the linearity fit of bias on reference value, linearity and percent linearity, and the acceptance verdict |
How the three estimation methods relate¶
All three answer the same question and report the same set of quantities. They differ in how they get the variance components, and in what they cannot produce:
| XbarR | Expected Mean Squares | REML | |
|---|---|---|---|
| where the estimates come from | ranges | the analysis of variance table | the whole data set at once |
| study types | Crossed only | any | any |
| analysis of variance table | no | yes | yes |
| can report a negative estimate floored to zero | reproducibility only | yes | never |
| confidence intervals | none | balanced data only | balanced and unbalanced |
| misclassification block | none | yes | yes |
Once the components exist, everything downstream is the same whichever method produced them: the grouping rule, the aggregates, and every column on the report. That is why Variance Components and Gage Evaluation are written without reference to the method.