Developing models based on historical data is both challenging and dangerous. I suggest using the historical data to develop hypotheses that can be explored through experimental design. Historical data lacks context. For example, do you know the measurement errors associated with the value for each x and the Y? Do you know what other factors were doing during the data collection? Are there any data distortion issues? What about potential lagged factor effects? What about variation in raw materials? While your thinking is not wrong, it is dangerous. If you get a large residual value, that is indicative of a model problem, not "bad" data as you suggest. If you want tools to assess consistency of weight through time, sampling is a more effective tool.
While there is no one right way, when building models from historical data, I usually suggest an additive approach. Also, this cannot be done without SME. Start with first order and add order as appropriate. There are a number of statistics that can help (e.g., R-sq Adj, R-sq Adj-R-sq, RMSE, p-values, residuals, AIC, BIC, etc.) Residuals are the actual- predicted (from the model). They are used to provide insight into basic assumptions (NID(0, constant Variance). They are useful for identifying outliers, where the model does a poor job of predicting specific data points. They can also assess problems with the assumption of random errors with a mean of 0, again this suggests issues with the model. They can often detect model inadequacies, where perhaps a nonlinear term should be introduced.
"All models are wrong, some are useful" G.E.P. Box