loi de forme

19:20 Nov 10, 2012 

Fair enough; sometimes the ST is already published on the Web.
Anyway, it starts making more sense:

Coefficients d’aptitude du moyen CAM (here: moyen = moyen de production / la machine) => various indexes showing different capabilities of the mean of production/ i.e. of one machine (not a "statistical mean value")

Coefficients d’aptitude du processus CAP = various indexes showing different capabilities of the whole chain of production / of the process of production as a whole.

"une loi de forme" IS definitely about a statistical distribution - most likely a Gaussian one.

19:08 Nov 10, 2012 

an internal document - I'm sorry if I didn't make that point, but I thought it was obvious. It is for the suppliers of the company for whom I am translating it.

18:59 Nov 10, 2012 

If it's not some internal document (i.e. not for public consumption) could you give us a link?

18:53 Nov 10, 2012 

That looks very impressive....but I'm not sure whether it moves us forward.
More context information ...?
Unless I post the whole document, I don't quite see what I can give you.
As for CAM, I'm not expert (otherwise I wouldn't be posting this question) but I can only refer you to http://www.cimi.fr/formation/2012/cap10, where you will see "Coefficients d’aptitude du moyen CAM".
My text also has (more context ...) Cpk ("a measure of process capability" says Wikipedia), but that doesn't get me any further except to confirm that we are talking about production control statistics.
I think rkillings has hit the nail on the head.

18:34 Nov 10, 2012 

capabilités machine CAM?
(CAM is "Coefficients d'aptitude du moyen"/"Coefficients of Aptitude to the Mean") simply doesn't hold water.
Is there somewhere a statistical distribution involved?
in which case CAM could be
"Coefficient d'aptitude moyen" = "Mean Coefficient of Aptitude"
on the other hand
"Coefficients d'aptitude du moyen(de production?)" would be "Coefficients of Aptitude of the mean (of production?)".
I have a strong feeling that "si la caractéristique obéit à ***une loi de forme***" means that this characteristic has many possible values, so they generate a "distribution of probability", which is acceptable only if this "distribution of probability curve" has a certain shape. But until you give more context information, it's just pure guessing.

I would also think that "Les indices de capabilités en série" means "Les indices de capabilités [si la machine est utilisée pour une production] en série", i.e. that it's about a serial production of some goods, not about "serial logical connections" in some circuit?