Quality assurance

On the shop floor die Prozessfähigkeit is process capability: whether the natural spread of a process fits inside its tolerance, which a customer wants shown before releasing a part for series production. In a German court the same word means something else. Der Prozess is a production process and also a lawsuit, so in civil procedure die Prozessfähigkeit is the capacity to conduct a case in person — to bring it, withdraw it or settle it — which a minor generally lacks. It is not the capacity to be a party: even a small child can be sued, but somebody else must act for it. English says « process » on the line and « proceedings » in court, so the ambiguity only exists going out of German. A quality report calling a line nicht prozessfähig means the machines cannot hold the tolerance; a lawyer would think of a litigant who needs a guardian.