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Unit of Measurement

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Definition

The smallest division of quantity used to measure the output from a manufacturing or transactional process. All continuous measures have measurement units attached. For example, Cycle time may be measured in units of time, such as hours, or minutes. Here one hour (or one minute) is the unit of measurement. Length may be measured in inches, so an inch is the unit of measurement. Discrete variables (categorizations and counts) don’t have measurement units attached, but counts are usually expressed as ‘per unit of’ something – for instance, number of Defects per square yard (of cloth), or returns per month, etc.