Calibrated measuring equipment: setup, calibration, checkout, and quality studies.
In this app a gauge is just a product with a special classification. Open the product, find the Product Classification card, and click Gauge / Instrument. This needs the gauge admin permission — the buttons are disabled otherwise.
Why one product per gauge model? Because the product record describes the model (say, a 0–1″ micrometer), while each physical unit you own is registered underneath it as a serialized instance. Specs are entered once; every instance inherits them.
Fill in the Gauge Specifications card: Gauge Type (Caliper, Micrometer, Dial Indicator, and so on), Measurement Type, Resolution, Range Min/Max with a unit, and the allowed Tol (+) / Tol (−). The tolerance is what the app uses later to judge whether a calibration reading passed.
The two scheduling fields matter most:
In the Gauge Instances card, use Add New Instance: Serial Number (required), Location, Assigned To, Status (In Service, Out for Calibration, or Retired), and Notes. A new In Service instance starts its calibration clock today, so its next due date appears immediately on the Gauge Dashboard.
The Gauge Dashboard is your calibration control center. The cards at the top count gauges that are Overdue, Due Soon, at their Use Limit, Checked Out, and Current; the filter buttons (including Unknown, for instances with no due date yet) narrow the table to match. Click any row for a detail pop-up with Calibration, Checkouts, and Specs tabs.
Calibrations are recorded on the gauge’s product page — expand an instance and use the Record Calibration form (you need the gauge supervisor or admin permission). Enter the Date, the Result (Pass, Fail, Adjusted, Limited Use, or Retired), who performed it, the Calibration standards (your reference masters) used, and the Nominal and Actual readings. The app then does the bookkeeping for you:
Use the Upload button on any record to attach the calibration certificate (PDF, JPG, PNG, DOC, DOCX, XLS, XLSX) — auditors will ask for these.
The Trends page charts deviation over time and warns when a gauge is drifting toward its tolerance limit. Every change is also written to the audit trail.
Checkout answers the question every quality manager dreads: who has the micrometer right now? It also builds a usage history, which matters if a gauge later fails calibration and you need to know where it was used.
On the Gauge Dashboard, click a gauge row to open its detail pop-up. If the gauge shows Available, pick a person in the Select user box and click Check Out. The dashboard then shows a purple badge with the holder’s name, and the Checked Out filter button lists everything currently out.
Open the same pop-up and click Check In. There is one handy shortcut: recording a calibration automatically checks the gauge in, since it is obviously back in the cal lab at that point.
The Checkouts tab in the pop-up shows who took the gauge, when it came back, how long it was out, and a Still Out badge for open loans. Separately, if the gauge has a use limit, the instance panel on the product page has a Record Use button to count uses; when the limit is reached the gauge is flagged Use limit reached — calibration required and Record Use is disabled until someone recalibrates it. Checkout and usage recording are available to gauge supervisors and admins.
A calibration standard is the trusted reference you calibrate gauges against — gauge block sets, pin gauge sets, master rings, calibration weights, temperature standards, and so on. Registering them on the Standards page gives you traceability: every calibration record can name the standard it used, and the standard carries its own certificate details.
Use the Register a Calibration Standard form. To save typing, pick a Standard Category (grouped into Dimensional, Surface & Geometry, Hardness & Material Testing, Force/Torque & Pressure, Temperature, Mass & Weight, Electrical, and Flow) and a Grade / Class, then click Auto-Fill Fields — the app fills in typical industry specs and highlights the fields that still need your input, such as the serial number and certificate details. You can also choose Custom / Other and enter everything manually.
Standards themselves are certified by an outside lab, and those certificates expire. Enter the cert expiry date and the page will warn you with a red banner for expired certificates and a yellow one for anything expiring within 30 days. This matters because calibrations performed with an expired standard may not be audit-compliant — the Gauge alerts and notifications raises the same alerts so you do not have to keep checking the page.
Standards that are no longer used can be deactivated rather than deleted, so old calibration records keep their reference.
Calibration proves a gauge reads correctly on a reference. A Gauge R&R study answers a different question: when real people measure real parts, how much of the variation comes from the measurement system instead of the parts? In other words — can we trust this measurement system?
On the R&R / MSA page, create a study by naming it and choosing the gauge product (and optionally one specific instance). Then set the design:
Entering a Part Tolerance is optional but recommended — it lets the app express the result as %GRR of tolerance, which is the figure most customers ask for.
A study moves through statuses: Setup while measurements are being entered, In Progress once the grid is complete, Completed after you compute the results, then Approved or Rejected by a reviewer. The verdict follows the standard rule of thumb: %GRR under 10% is Acceptable, 10–30% is Marginal (may be fine for non-critical dimensions), and over 30% is Unacceptable. The app also reports NDC (number of distinct categories) — you want 5 or more, meaning the gauge can actually tell your parts apart.
When a gauge fails calibration, the uncomfortable truth is that everything it measured since its last good calibration is suspect. The CAPA & Recalls page manages that fallout. You will only see it (and its dashboard button) with the CAPA or recall permission.
Click New Recall to flag the gauge and its suspect window: Suspect From (the last known good calibration date) to Suspect To (when the failure was discovered). Add a Severity (Minor, Major, Critical), describe what was found, what product or processes are affected, and the immediate containment action. Each recall gets a number like RCL-2026-001 and moves through Open, Investigation, Containment, Closed (or Cancelled), finishing with a disposition.
A CAPA (Corrective and Preventive Action) is the structured fix. Create one on its own or from a recall — linking it automatically moves an open recall into Investigation. A CAPA carries a number like CAPA-2026-001, a type (Corrective or Preventive), a priority (Critical, High, Medium, Low), an owner, and a due date. On the detail page you document the root cause, the corrective and preventive actions, and how you verified they worked. You can break the work into action items assigned to people with due dates (statuses Open, In Progress, Completed, Cancelled) and attach evidence files. Closing the CAPA records who verified it and when — exactly what an auditor wants to see.
Some quality systems require a second person to review every calibration before it counts. This app supports that as an optional workflow — it is off by default, and nothing changes for you unless someone turns it on.
A user with the gauge settings permission opens the gear button on the Gauge Dashboard and enables the calibration approval workflow. While enabled, new calibration records sit in Pending status until they are approved or rejected. There are four approval modes:
A switch also controls whether a notification goes out when a calibration is waiting for review.
Reviewers with the approval permission see an Approvals button on the dashboard with a count of pending records, leading to the Calibration Approvals queue. Each row shows the gauge, the result, the readings and deviation, and whether tolerance was met — enough to judge the record without leaving the page. Click Approve or Reject and optionally add reviewer notes. If the mode forbids self-approval you will see Cannot approve own on your own records. Every decision is stamped with who and when in the audit trail.
You should not have to open the dashboard every morning to find out a gauge went overdue. The Notifications page collects gauge alerts in one place, and the bell button on the Gauge Dashboard shows the unread count.
Each alert carries a severity badge (Critical, Warning, or Info). Use the check button to mark one read, the × to dismiss it, or Mark All Read at the top.
The Notification Settings panel on the right is per person: switch notifications on or off, tick which alert types you care about, set how many days before a due date you want warning (14 by default), and enter an email address if you want the alerts bundled into an email digest. Quality managers typically want everything; a shop-floor user might only keep Calibration Overdue.
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