From the beginning of cigarette production, the firmness of the cigarettes has been an important quality parameter. Though several attempts have been made to realize a way to measure cigarette hardness on the maker during production, no device has been set to work as to the knowledge of the authors. The main objective of our work is to present a measurement and control system with some results from the research work on the cigarette maker. Besides hardness, moisture, temperature and a diameter-related signal, several other analogue and digital channels can be recorded. Additionally, it is possible to control the maker via the SRM with respect to constant hardness. We used a PC-based system. The sensor components which are necessary for on-line hardness measurement are described. We find that the system is an excellent research instrument for cigarette production as makes continuous hardness measurement possible. Thus tedious laboratory hardness measurement _ which is often prone to error _ is superfluous. Results with respect to controlling the maker show constant hardness combined with less variation in loose ends.