From a book on GMP I've come across:
In-process controls may be performed in regular intervals during a process step (e.g. tabletting, encapsulation) or at the end of a process step (e.g. granulation, blending).
Is this use of the verb "performed" in relation to "controls" natural, or would it seem a bit odd to a native speaker of English?
Can one "perform" controls? The matter is, some time ago I read the following in a book dedicated to misuse of English words:
… Used as a noun, we do not 'carry out' or 'perform' controls. …
Best Answer
Sure
As @TRomano already linked before denying his own research, plenty of people use the expression 'perform control(s)'.
Neither of you is wrong that the expression seems odd. The most common sense of control as a noun is the interface used to direct the actions of some device. The original sense was as a synonym for restraint or for a means of restraint. Perform doesn't work for any of those: apply is what happens to restraint and use is more common than either of them.
That said, the phrase in question shows up at ngram because other definitions of control exist. Its scientific sense as an experiment performed without a certain variable or factor is imminently performable. Its general sense as direction, management, or administration and its senses as a clipped form of control group, animal, &c. both suggest roles which can be performed.
More importantly, the original quote is not about 'controls' generally but about 'in-process controls' (IPC). That bit of jargon is defined as "checks that are carried out before the manufacturing process is completed". These are not applied restraints but inspections and procedures which should be performed during the manufacturing process to ensure quality control.
The discussion of 'control' and its definitions, apart from being largely mistaken, is aside the point. IPCs are procedures which must be performed and there's nothing ungrammatical about it.