“Quality is not free, but it has a pretty darn good ROI.”

So said James Rooney, chair of the American Society for Quality (ASQ), and keynote speaker at this year’s National Conference of Standards Laboratories International (NCSLI) conference in Sacramento, California. The comment got a good round of laughter from the 1,000 attendees, all of whom understand the problem of trying to justify the purchase of yet another piece of calibration equipment, paying for proper training on calibration and calibration maintenance, and the importance of the measurement lab for overall product quality.

The conference focuses on the NCSLI’s mission to “invest in the advancement of measurement science, promote education and skill development, provide tools and resources to enhance member processes, and drive technical integrity in documentary standards programming and education.”

In other words, to bring the science and theory of measurement down to earth, which is exactly what Rooney’s keynote, “The Business End of Metrology: Quality and Testing, Making the Economic Case for Quality” was all about.

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