Review of the Next Generation GPS

In the field of engineering, Dimensional Geometrical Product Specification and Verification, so called 'GPS' is the most well known international information system. This system was developed by the International Standards Organization technical committee 213, which was established in 1996. With the more recent developments in engineering: the development and application of CAD/CAM/FMS, the availability of new measuring principles, technologies and instruments, the use of new manufacturing technology and materials, the improvement of manufacturing precision from the micrometer to the nanometer, the new generation GPS language has been developed based on well-defined mathematics. The duality principle, in the new GPS standards, links specification, verification and uncertainty together, and so integrates the function, design and measurement information of a product. As an economic tool, uncertainty in the new GPS system will be helpful to promote the efficient distribution of resources between specification and verification as well as the fast updating of products. This paper presents an integrated overview of the new GPS system, and will give interesting new concepts derived from ISO TC 213, and then describes how to use "uncertainty" as an economic tool to enable optimum allocation of resources amongst specification, manufacturing and verification.