Data: A set of collected facts. There are two basic kinds of numerical data: measured or variable data, such as "16 ounces," "4 miles" and "0.75 inches," and counted or attribute data, such as "162 defects."

Decision matrix: A matrix used by teams to evaluate problems or possible solutions. After a matrix is drawn to evaluate possible solutions, for example, the team lists them in the far left vertical column. Next, the team selects criteria to rate the possible solutions, writing them across the top row. Third, each possible solution is rated on a scale of 1 to 5 for each criterion, and the rating is recorded in the corresponding grid. Finally, the ratings of all the criteria for each possible solution are added to determine its total score. The total score is then used to help decide which solution deserves the most attention.

Defect: A product's or service's nonfulfillment of an intended requirement or reasonable expectation for use, including safety considerations. There are four classes of defects: class 1, very serious, leads directly to severe injury or catastrophic economic loss; class 2, serious, leads directly to significant injury or significant economic loss; class 3, major, is related to major problems with respect to intended normal or reasonably foreseeable use; and class 4, minor, is related to minor problems with respect to intended normal or reasonably foreseeable use (see also "blemish," "imperfection" and "nonconformity").

Defective: A defective unit; a unit of product that contains one or more defects with respect to the quality characteristic(s) under consideration.

Delighter: A feature of a product or service that a customer does not expect to receive but that gives pleasure to the customer when received.

Deming cycle: Sometimes called the Shewhart cycle (see "plan-do-check-act cycle").

Deming Prize: Award given annually to organizations that, according to the award guidelines, have successfully applied company wide quality control based on statistical quality control and will keep up with it in the future. Although the award is named in honor of W. Edwards Deming, its criteria are not specifically related to Deming's teachings. There are three separate divisions for the award: the Deming Application Prize, the Deming Prize for Individuals and the Deming Prize for Overseas Companies. The award process is overseen by the Deming Prize Committee of the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers in Tokyo.

Deming, W. Edwards (deceased): A prominent consultant, teacher and author on the subject of quality. After Deming shared his expertise in statistical quality control to help the U.S. war effort during World War II, the War Department sent him to Japan in 1946 to help that nation recover from its wartime losses. Deming published more than 200 works, including the well-known books Quality, Productivity, and Competitive Position and Out of the Crisis. Deming, who developed the 14 points for managing, was an ASQ Honorary Member.

Dependability: The degree to which a product is operable and capable of performing its required function at any randomly chosen time during its specified operating time, provided that the product is available at the start of that period. (No operation related influences are not included.) Dependability can be expressed by the ratio: time available divided by (time available + time required).

Deployment: Dispersion, dissemination, broadcasting or spreading of a communication throughout an organization, downward and laterally.

Design of experiments (DOE): A branch of applied statistics dealing with planning, conducting, analyzing and interpreting controlled tests to evaluate the factors that control the value of a parameter or group of parameters

Deviation: In numerical data sets, the difference or distance of an individual observation or data value from the center point (often the mean) of the set distribution.

Diagnosis: The activity of discovering the cause(s) of quality deficiencies; the process of investigating symptoms, collecting and analyzing data, and conducting experiments to test theories to determine the root cause(s) of deficiencies.

Diagnostic journey and remedial journey: A two-phase investigation used by teams to solve chronic quality problems. In the first phase, the diagnostic journey, the team journeys from the symptom of a chronic problem to its cause. In the second phase, the remedial journey, the team journeys from the cause to its remedy.

Dissatisfies: The features or functions a customer expects that either are not present or are present but not adequate; also pertains to employees' expectations.

Distribution (statistical): The amount of potential variation in the outputs of a process, typically expressed by its shape, average or standard deviation.

DMADV: A data driven quality strategy for designing products and processes, it is an integral part of a Six Sigma quality initiative. It consists of five interconnected phases: define, measure, analyze, design and verify.

DMAIC: A data driven quality strategy for improving processes and an integral part of a Six Sigma quality initiative. DMAIC is an acronym for define, measure, analyze, improve and control.

Dodge-Romig sampling plans: Plans for acceptance sampling developed by Harold F. Dodge and Harry G. Romig. Four sets of tables were published in 1940: single sampling lot tolerance tables, double sampling lot tolerance tables, single sampling average outgoing quality limit tables and double sampling average outgoing quality limit tables.

Driving forces: Forces that tend to change a situation in desirable ways.  

Effect: What results after an action has been taken; the expected or predicted impact when an action is to be taken or is proposed.

Effectiveness: The state of having produced a decided upon or desired effect.

Efficiency: The ratio of the output to the total input in a process.

Efficient: A term describing a process that operates effectively while consuming the minimum amount of resources (such as labor and time).

Electric data interchange (EDI): The electronic exchange of data between customers and suppliers and vice versa.

Employee involvement (EI): A practice within an organization whereby employees regularly participate in making decisions on how their work areas operate, including making suggestions for improvement, planning, goal setting and monitoring performance.

Empowerment: A condition whereby employees have the authority to make decisions and take action in their work areas without prior approval. For example, an operator can stop a production process if he or she detects a problem, or a customer service representative can send out a replacement product if a customer calls with a problem.

EN 46000: Medical device quality management systems standard. EN 46000 is technically equivalent to ISO 13485:1996, an international medical device standard. So few differences exist between the two that if an organization is prepared to comply with one, it may easily comply with the other as well.

EN 9100: An international quality management standard for the aerospace industry (see AS9100).

Environmental Auditors Registration Association (EARA): Merged with the Institute of Environmental Management and the Institute of Environmental Assessment to form IEMA.

Ethics: The practice of applying a code of conduct based on moral principles to day-to-day actions to balance what is fair to individuals or organizations and what is right for society.

Expectations: Customer perceptions about how an organization's products and services will meet their specific needs and requirements.

Experimental design: A formal plan that details the specifics for conducting an experiment, such as which responses, factors, levels, blocks, treatments and tools are to be used.

Facilitator: A specifically trained person who functions as a teacher, coach and moderator for a group, team or organization.

Failure: The inability of an item, product or service to perform required functions on demand due to one or more defects.

Failure cost: The cost resulting from the occurrence of defects.

Failure mode analysis (FMA): A procedure to determine which malfunction symptoms appear immediately before or after a failure of a critical parameter in a system. After all the possible causes are listed for each symptom, the product is designed to eliminate the problems.

Failure mode effects analysis (FMEA): A procedure in which each potential failure mode in every sub item of an item is analysed to determine its effect on other sub items and on the required function of the item.

Failure mode effects and criticality analysis (FMECA): A procedure that is performed after a failure mode effects analysis to classify each potential failure effect according to its severity and probability of occurrence.

Feedback: Communication from customers about how delivered products or services compare with customer expectations.

Fitness for use: A term used to indicate that a product or service fits the customer's defined purpose for that product or service.

Five Ss: Five terms beginning with "S" utilized to create a workplace suited for visual control and lean production. Seiri means to separate needed tools, parts, and instructions from unneeded materials and to remove the latter. Seiton means to neatly arrange and identify parts and tools for ease of use. Seiso means to conduct a cleanup campaign. Seiketsu means to conduct seiri, seiton, and seiso at frequent, indeed daily, intervals to maintain a workplace in perfect condition. Shitsuke means to form the habit of always following the first four Ss.

Five whys: A technique for discovering the root causes of a problem and showing the relationship of causes by repeatedly asking the question, "Why?"

Flowchart: A graphical representation of the steps in a process. Flowcharts are drawn to better understand processes. The flowchart is one of the "seven tools of quality."

Focus group: A group, usually of 8 to 10 persons, that is invited to discuss an existing or planned product, service or process.

Force field analysis: A technique for analyzing the forces that aid or hinder an organization in reaching an objective. An arrow pointing to an objective is drawn down the middle of a piece of paper. The factors that will aid the objective's achievement, called the driving forces, are listed on the left side of the arrow. The factors that will hinder its achievement, called the restraining forces, are listed on the right side of the arrow.

14 Points: W. Edwards Deming's 14 management practices to help companies increase their quality and productivity: 1. create constancy of purpose for improving products and services, 2. adopt the new philosophy, 3. cease dependence on inspection to achieve quality, 4. end the practice of awarding business on price alone; instead, minimize total cost by working with a single supplier, 5. improve constantly and forever every process for planning, production and service, 6. institute training on the job, 7. adopt and institute leadership, 8. drive out fear, 9. break down barriers between staff areas, 10. eliminate slogans, exhortations and targets for the workforce, 11. eliminate numerical quotas for the workforce and numerical goals for management, 12. remove barriers that rob people of pride of workmanship, and eliminate the annual rating or merit system, 13. institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement for everyone and 14. put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation.

Frequency distribution (statistical): A table that graphically presents a large volume of data so the central tendency (such as the average or mean) and distribution are clearly displayed.

FS 9100: A quality management standard developed by the FS 9000 Association for the financial services industry.

Function: A group of related actions contributing to a larger action.

Gain sharing: A reward system that shares the monetary results of productivity gains among owners and employees.

Gap analysis: The comparison of a current condition to the desired state.

Gatekeeper: A timekeeper; in team meetings, a designated individual who helps in monitoring the team's use of allocated time.

Gage Repeatability & Reproducibility (GR&R).: The evaluation of a gauging instrument's accuracy by determining whether the measurements taken with it are repeatable (there is close agreement among a number of consecutive measurements of the output for the same value of the input under the same operating conditions) and reproducible (there is close agreement among repeated measurements of the output for the same value of input made under the same operating conditions over a period of time).

Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T): A method to minimize production costs by showing the dimensioning and tolerancing on a drawing while considering the functions or relationships of part features.

Goal: A broad statement describing a desired future condition or achievement without being specific about how much and when.

Go/no-go: State of a unit or product. Two parameters are possible: go (conforms to specifications) and no-go (does not conform to specifications).

Green Belt (GB): A business team leader responsible for managing projects and implementing improvement in his or her organization. An employee of an organization who has been trained on the improvement methodology of Six Sigma and will lead a process improvement or quality improvement team as part of his or her full-time job.

Group dynamic: The interaction (behaviour) of individuals within a team meeting.

Hawthorne effect: The concept that every change results (initially, at least) in increased productivity.

Hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP): A quality management system for effectively and efficiently ensuring farm to table food safety in the United States. HACCP regulations for various sectors are established by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration.

Heijunka: The act of leveling the variety or volume of items produced at a process over a period of time. Used to avoid excessive batching of product types and volume fluctuations, especially at a pacemaker process.

Highly accelerated life test (HALT): A process developed to uncover design defects and weaknesses in electronic and mechanical assemblies using a vibration system combined with rapid high and low temperature changes. The purpose of HALT is to optimize product reliability by identifying the functional and destructive limits of a product. HALT addresses reliability issues at an early stage in product development.

Highly accelerated stress audits (HASA): A technique in which a sample of parts (as opposed to 100% of the production as in HASS, below) is taken and subjected to stresses similar to the levels and duration for HALT. In monitoring the production process, the intent of HASA is to detect slight shifts in the attributes of the product so corrective actions can be taken and implemented before the performance of outgoing product approaches the specifications.

Highly accelerated stress screening (HASS): A technique for production screening that rapidly exposes process or production flaws in products. Its purpose is to expose a product to optimized production screens without affecting product reliability. Unlike HALT, HASS uses non-destructive stresses of extreme temperatures and temperature change rates with vibration.

Hoshin planning: Breakthrough planning. A Japanese strategic planning process in which a company develops up to four vision statements that indicate where the company should be in the next five years. Company goals and work plans are developed based on the vision statements. Periodic audits are then conducted to monitor progress.

Imagineering: Developing in the mind's eye a process without waste.

Imperfection: A quality characteristic's departure from its intended level or state without any association to conformance to specification requirements or to the usability of a product or service (see also "blemish," "defect" and "nonconformity").

Improvement: The positive effect of a process change effort.

In-control process: A process in which the statistical measure being evaluated is in a state of statistical control; in other words, the variations among the observed sampling results can be attributed to a constant system of chance causes (see also "out-of-control process").

Incremental improvement: Improvements that are implemented on a continual basis.

Indicators: Established measures used to determine how well an organization is meeting its customers' needs as well as other operational and financial performance expectations.

Inputs: The products, services, material and so forth obtained from suppliers and used to produce the outputs delivered to customers.

Inspection: Measuring, examining, testing and gauging one or more characteristics of a product or service and comparing the results with specified requirements to determine whether conformity is achieved for each characteristic.

Inspection cost: The cost associated with inspecting a product to ensure it meets the internal or external customer's needs and requirements; an appraisal cost.

Inspection, curtailed: Sampling inspection in which inspection of the sample is stopped as soon as a decision is certain. Thus, as soon as the rejection number for defectives is reached, the decision is certain and no further inspection is necessary. In single sampling, however, the whole sample is usually inspected in order to have an unbiased record of quality history. This same practice usually is followed for the first sample in double or multiple sampling.

Inspection lot: A collection of similar units or a specific quantity of similar material offered for inspection and acceptance at one time.

Inspection, normal: Inspection in accordance with a sampling plan that is used under ordinary circumstances.

Inspection, reduced: Inspection in accordance with a sampling plan requiring smaller sample sizes than those used in normal inspection. Reduced inspection is used in some inspection systems as an economy measure when the level of submitted quality is sufficiently good and other stated conditions apply. Note: The criteria for determining when quality is "sufficiently good" must be defined in objective terms for any given inspection system.

Inspection, tightened: Inspection in accordance with a sampling plan that has stricter acceptance criteria than those used in normal inspection. Tightened inspection is used in some inspection systems as a protective measure when the level of submitted quality is sufficiently poor. It is expected the higher rate of rejections will lead suppliers to improve the quality of submitted product. Note: The criteria for determining when quality is "sufficiently poor" must be defined in objective terms for any given inspection system.

Instant pudding: A term used to illustrate an obstacle to achieving quality or the supposition that quality and productivity improvement are achieved quickly through an affirmation of faith rather than through sufficient effort and education. W. Edwards Deming used this term, which was initially coined by James Bakken of Ford Motor Co., in his book Out of the Crisis.

Intermediate customers: Organizations or individuals who operate as distributors, brokers or dealers between the supplier and the consumer/end user.

Internal customer: The recipient (person or department) within an organization of another person's or department's output (product, service or information) (see also "external customer").

Internal failure: A product failure that occurs before the product is delivered to external customers.

International Aerospace Quality Group: A cooperative organization of the global aerospace industry that is mainly involved in quality, cost reduction and process improvement efforts.

International Organization for Standardization, known as ISO: A network of national standards institutes from 140 countries working in partnership with international organizations, governments, industry, and business and consumer representatives to develop and publish international standards. Acts as a bridge between public and private sectors.

Interrelationship digraph: A management tool that depicts the relationship among factors in a complex situation. Also called a "relations diagram."

Intervention: The action of a team facilitator when interrupting a discussion to state observations about group dynamics or the team process.

ISO 14000: An environmental management standard related to what organizations do that affects their physical surroundings. In the process of being made compatible with ISO 9000.

ISO 9000 series standards: A set of international standards on quality management and quality assurance developed to help companies effectively document the quality system elements to be implemented to maintain an efficient quality system. The standards, initially published in 1987, are not specific to any particular industry, product or service. The standards were developed by the International Organization for Standardization, known as ISO, a specialized international agency for standardization composed of the national standards bodies of 91 countries. The standards underwent major revision in 2000 and now include ISO 9000:2000 (definitions), ISO 9001:2000 (requirements) and ISO 9004:2000 (continuous improvement).

JIS Q 9100: An international quality management standard for the aerospace industry (see AS 9100).

Joint Committee for the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO): JCAHO sets standards for, evaluates and accredits nearly 18,000 healthcare organizations and programs in the United States.

Juran, Joseph M.: The chairman emeritus of the Juran Institute and an ASQ Honorary Member. Since 1924, Juran has pursued a varied career in management as an engineer, executive, government administrator, university professor, labor arbitrator, corporate director and consultant. Specializing in managing for quality, he has authored hundreds of papers and 12 books, including Juran's Quality Control Handbook, Quality Planning and Analysis (with F. M. Gryna) and Juran on Leadership for Quality.

Juran trilogy: Three managerial processes identified by J.M. Juran for use in managing for quality: quality planning, quality control and quality improvement.

Just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing: An optimal material requirement planning system for a manufacturing process in which there is little or no manufacturing material inventory on hand at the manufacturing site and little or no incoming inspection.

Just-in-time training: The provision of training only when it is needed to all but eliminate the loss of knowledge and skill caused by a lag between training and use.  

Kaizen: A Japanese term that means gradual unending improvement by doing little things better and setting and achieving increasingly higher standards. Masaaki Imai made the term famous in his book, Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success.

Kanban: A Japanese term for one of the primary tools of a just-in-time system. It maintains an orderly and efficient flow of materials throughout the entire manufacturing process. It is usually a printed card that contains specific information such as part name, description and quantity.

Key performance indicator (KPI): A statistical measure of how well an organization is doing. A KPI may measure a company's financial performance or how it is holding up against customer requirements.

Key process: A major system level process that supports the mission and satisfies major consumer requirements.

Key results area: A major category of customer requirements that is critical for the organization's success.

Leader: An individual who is recognized by others as a person they will follow.

Leadership: An essential part of a quality improvement effort. Organization leaders must establish a vision, communicate that vision to those in the organization and provide the tools and knowledge necessary to accomplish the vision.

Lean manufacturing: Initiative focused on eliminating all waste in manufacturing processes. Principles of lean include zero waiting time, zero inventory, scheduling (internal customer pull instead of push system), batch to flow (cut batch sizes), line balancing and cutting actual process times.

Life cycle stages: Design, manufacturing, assembly, installation, operation and shutdown of product.

Listening post: An individual who, by virtue of his or her potential for having contact with customers, is designated to collect, document and transmit pertinent feedback to a central collection authority within the organization.

Lost customer analysis: Analysis conducted to determine why a customer or a class of customers was lost.

Lot: A defined quantity of product accumulated under conditions considered uniform for sampling purposes.

Lot quality: The value of percentage defective or of defects per hundred units in a lot.

Lot size (also referred to as N): The number of units in the lot.

Maintainability: The probability that a given maintenance action for an item under given usage conditions can be performed within a stated time interval when the maintenance is performed under stated conditions using stated procedures and resources. Maintainability has two categories: serviceability (the ease of conducting scheduled inspections and servicing) and reparability (the ease of restoring service after a failure).

Management review: A periodic meeting of management at which it reviews the status and effectiveness of the organization's quality management system.

Manager: An individual charged with the responsibility for managing resources and processes.

Master Black Belt (MBB): Six Sigma or quality experts responsible for strategic implementations within the business. The Master Black Belt is qualified to teach other Six Sigma facilitators the methodologies, tools and applications in all functions and levels of the company and is a resource for utilizing statistical process control within processes.

Matrix: A planning tool for displaying the relationships among various data sets.

Mean: A measure of central tendency; the arithmetic average of all measurements in a data set.

Measure: The criteria, metric or means to which a comparison is made with output.

Measurement: The act or process of quantitatively comparing results with requirements.

Median: The middle number or center value of a set of data in which all the data are arranged in sequence.

Metric: A standard for measurement.

Metrology: The science of weights and measures or of measurement. A system of weights and measures.

MIL-Q-9858A: A military standard that describes quality program requirements.

MIL-STD-45662A: A military standard that describes the requirements for creating and maintaining a calibration system for measurement and test equipment.

MIL-STD-105E: A military standard that describes the sampling procedures and tables for inspection by attributes.

Mission: An organization's purpose.

Mode: The value occurring most frequently in a data set.

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST): An agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce that develops and promotes measurements, standards and technology. NIST manages the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

Natural team: A team of individuals drawn from a single work group; similar to a process improvement team except that it is not cross-functional in composition and it is usually permanent.

Next operation as customer: The concept of internal customers in which every operation is both a receiver and a provider.

Nominal group technique: A technique, similar to brainstorming, used by teams to generate ideas on a particular subject. Team members are asked to silently come up with as many ideas as possible, writing them down. Each member is then asked to share one idea, which is recorded. After all the ideas are recorded, they are discussed and prioritized by the group.

Nonconformity: The nonfulfillment of a specified requirement (see also "blemish," "defect" and "imperfection").

Non-destructive testing and evaluation (NDT, NDE): Testing and evaluation methods that do not damage or destroy the product being tested.

Nonvalue added: A term that describes a process step or function that is not required for the direct achievement of process output. This step or function is identified and examined for potential elimination.

Objective: A specific statement of a desired short-term condition or achievement; includes measurable end results to be accomplished by specific teams or individuals within time limits.

Operating characteristic curve (OC curve): A graph to determine the probability of accepting lots as a function of the lots' or processes' quality level when using various sampling plans. There are three types: type A curves, which give the probability of acceptance for an individual lot coming from finite production (will not continue in the future); type B curves, which give the probability of acceptance for lots coming from a continuous process; and type C curves, which (for a continuous sampling plan) give the long run percentage of product accepted during the sampling phase.

Original equipment manufacturer's (OEM): A company that uses product components from one or more other companies to build a product that it sells under its own company name and brand. Sometimes mistakenly used to refer to the company that supplies the components.

Out-of-control process: A process in which the statistical measure being evaluated is not in a state of statistical control. In other words, the variations among the observed sampling results can be attributed to special circumstances that have affected the process in an unusual manner (see also "in-control process").

Pareto chart: A graphical tool for ranking causes from most significant to least significant. It is based on the Pareto principle, which was first defined by J. M. Juran in 1950. The principle, named after 19th century economist Vilfredo Pareto, suggests most effects come from relatively few causes; that is, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the possible causes. The Pareto chart is one of the "seven tools of quality."

Partnership/alliance: Both a strategy and a formal relationship between a supplier and a customer that engenders cooperation for the benefit of both parties.

Plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle: A four-step process for quality improvement. In the first step (plan), a plan to effect improvement is developed. In the second step (do), the plan is carried out, preferably on a small scale. In the third step (check), the effects of the plan are observed. In the last step (act), the results are studied to determine what was learned and what can be predicted. The plan-do-check-act cycle is sometimes referred to as the Shewhart cycle, because Walter A. Shewhart discussed the concept in his book Statistical Method From the Viewpoint of Quality Control, and as the Deming cycle, because W. Edwards Deming introduced the concept in Japan. The Japanese subsequently called it the Deming cycle. Also called the plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle.

Policy: An overarching plan (direction) for achieving an organization's goals.

Precision: The aspect of measurement that addresses repeatability or consistency when an identical item is measured several times.

Preventive action: Action taken to remove or improve a process to prevent potential future occurrences of a non-conformance.

Prevention cost: The cost incurred by actions taken to prevent a non-conformance from occurring.

Prevention vs. detection: A term used to contrast two types of quality activities. Prevention refers to activities designed to prevent non-conformances in products and services. Detection refers to activities designed to detect non-conformances already in products and services. Another phrase to describe this distinction is "designing in quality vs. inspecting in quality."

Problem solving: The act of defining a problem; determining the cause of the problem; identifying, prioritizing and selecting alternatives for a solution; and implementing a solution.

Procedure: The steps in a process and how these steps are to be performed for the process to fulfill customer's requirements.

Process: A set of interrelated work activities characterized by a set of specific inputs and value added tasks that make up a procedure for a set of specific outputs.

Process average quality: Expected or average value of process quality.

Process capability: A statistical measure of the inherent process variability for a given characteristic. The most widely accepted formula for process capability is six sigma.

Process control: The methodology for keeping a process within boundaries; minimizing the variation of a process.

Process improvement: The application of the plan-do-study-act (PDSA) philosophy to processes to produce positive improvement and better meet the needs and expectations of customers (see "plan-do-check-act cycle").

Process improvement team: A structured environment often made up of cross-functional members who work together to improve a process or processes.

Process management: The pertinent techniques and tools applied to a process to implement and improve process effectiveness, hold the gains and ensure process integrity in fulfilling customer requirements.

Process map: A type of flowchart depicting the steps in a process, with identification of responsibility for each step and the key measures.

Process owner: The person who coordinates the various functions and work activities at all levels of a process, has the authority or ability to make changes in the process as required and manages the entire process cycle to ensure performance effectiveness.

Process performance management (PPM): The overseeing of process instances to ensure their quality and timeliness. Can also include proactive and reactive actions to ensure a good result.

Process quality: The value of percentage defective or of defects per hundred units in product from a given process. Note: The symbols "p" and "c" are commonly used to represent the true process average in fraction defective or defects per unit; and "l00p" and "100c" the true process average in percentage defective or in defects per hundred units.

Process reengineering: A strategy directed toward major rethinking and restructuring of a process; often referred to as the "clean sheet of paper" approach.

Product or service liability: The obligation of a company to make restitution for loss related to personal injury, property damage or other harm caused by its product or service.

Product warranty: An organization's stated policy that it will replace, repair or reimburse a buyer for a product in the event a product defect occurs under certain conditions and within a stated period of time.

Profound knowledge, system of: Defined by W. Edwards Deming, a system that consists of an appreciation for systems, knowledge of variation, theory of knowledge and understanding of psychology.

Project management: The application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to a broad range of activities to meet the requirements of the particular project. Project management knowledge and practices are best described in terms of their component processes. These processes can be placed into five process groups (initiating, planning, executing, controlling and closing) and nine knowledge areas (project integration management, project scope management, project time management, project cost management, project quality management, project human resource management, project communications management, project risk management and project procurement management).

Project team: Manages the work of a project. The work typically involves balancing competing demands for project scope, time, cost, risk and quality, satisfying stakeholders with differing needs and expectations and meeting identified requirements.

concerned with the development and effective use of generic and sector specific standards on quality control, assurance and management; environmental management systems and auditing, dependability and the application of statistical methods.

Q9000 series: Refers to ANSI/ISO/ASQ Q9000 series of standards, which is the verbatim American adoption of the 2000 edition of the ISO 9000 series standards.

QS-9000: A quality management standard developed by the Big Three Automakers for the automotive sector. Currently largely replaced by Technical Specification 16949 (ISO/TS 16949, see listing).

Quality: A subjective term for which each person has his or her own definition. In technical usage, quality can have two meanings: 1. the characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs. 2. a product or service free of deficiencies.

Quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC): Two terms that has many interpretations because of the multiple definitions for the words "assurance" and "control." For example, "assurance" can mean the act of giving confidence, the state of being certain or the act of making certain; "control" can mean an evaluation to indicate needed corrective responses, the act of guiding or the state of a process in which the variability is attributable to a constant system of chance causes. (For a detailed discussion on the multiple definitions, see ANSI/ISO/ASQ A3534-2, Statistics--Vocabulary and Symbols--Statistical Quality Control.) One definition of quality assurance is: all the planned and systematic activities implemented within the quality system that can be demonstrated to provide confidence a product or service will fulfill requirements for quality. One definition for quality control is: the operational techniques and activities used to fulfill requirements for quality. Often, however, "quality assurance" and "quality control" are used interchangeably, referring to the actions performed to ensure the quality of a product, service or process.

Quality audit: A systematic, independent examination and review to determine whether quality activities and related results comply with planned arrangements and whether these arrangements are implemented effectively and are suitable to achieve the objectives.

Quality circles: Quality improvement or self-improvement study groups composed of a small number of employees (10 or fewer) and their supervisor. Quality circles originated in Japan, where they are called quality control circles.

Quality engineering: The analysis of a manufacturing system at all stages to maximize the quality of the process itself and the products it produces.

Quality function deployment (QFD): A structured method in which customer requirements are translated into appropriate technical requirements for each stage of product development and production. The QFD process is often referred to as listening to the voice of the customer.

Quality loss function: A parabolic approximation of the quality loss that occurs when a quality characteristic deviates from its target value. The quality loss function is expressed in monetary units: the cost of deviating from the target increases quadratically the further the quality characteristic moves from the target. The formula used to compute the quality loss function depends on the type of quality characteristic being used. The quality loss function was first introduced in this form by Genichi Taguchi.

Quality management (QM): The application of a quality management system in managing a process to achieve maximum customer satisfaction at the lowest overall cost to the organization while continuing to improve the process.

Quality management system (QMS): A formalized system that documents the structure, responsibilities and procedures required to achieve effective quality management.

Quality plan: A document or set of documents that describe the standards, quality practices, resources and processes pertinent to a specific product, service or project.

Quality policy: An organization's general statement of its beliefs about quality, how quality will come about and what is expected to result.

Quality score chart: A control chart for evaluating the stability of a process. The quality score is the weighted sum of the count of events of various classifications in which each classification is assigned a weight.

Quality tool: An instrument or technique to support and improve the activities of process quality management and improvement.

Quality trilogy: A three-pronged approach to managing for quality. The three legs are quality planning (developing the products and processes required to meet customer needs), quality control (meeting product and process goals) and quality improvement (achieving unprecedented levels of performance).

Random cause: A cause of variation due to chance and not assignable to any factor.

Random sampling: A commonly used sampling technique in which sample units are selected so that all combinations of n units under consideration have an equal chance of being selected as the sample.

Red bead experiment: An experiment developed by W. Edwards Deming to illustrate it is impossible to put employees in rank order of performance for the coming year based on their performance during the past year because performance differences must be attributed to the system, not to employees. Four thousand red and white beads in a jar, 20% red, and six people are needed for the experiment. The participants' goal is to produce white beads because the customer will not accept red beads. One person begins by stirring the beads and then, blindfolded, selects a sample of 50 beads. That person hands the jar to the next person, who repeats the process and so on. When everyone has his or her sample, the number of red beads for each is counted. The limits of variation between employees that can be attributed to the system are calculated. Everyone will fall within the calculated limits of variation that could arise from the system. The calculations will show that there is no evidence one person will be a better performer than another in the future. The experiment shows that it would be a waste of management's time to try to find out why, say, John produced four red beads and Jane produced 15; instead, management should improve the system, making it possible for everyone to produce more white beads.

Reengineering: A breakthrough approach involving the restructuring of an entire organization and its processes.

Registrar Accreditation Board (RAB): A board that evaluates the competency and reliability of registrars (organizations that assess and register companies to the appropriate ISO 9000 series standards and to the ISO 14000 environmental management standard). RAB provides ISO course provider accreditation. Formed in 1989, RAB is governed by a board of directors from industry, academia and quality management consulting firms and by a joint oversight board for those programs operated with the American National Standards Institute (see listing).

Registration: The act of including an organization, product, service or process in a compilation of those having the same or similar attributes.

Registration to standards: A process in which an accredited, independent third-party organization conducts an on-site audit of a company's operations against the requirements of the standard to which the company wants to be registered. Upon successful completion of the audit, the company receives a certificate indicating that it has met the standard requirements.

Rejection number: The smallest number of defectives (or defects) in the sample or samples under consideration that will require the rejection of the lot.

Reliability: The probability of a product's performing its intended function under stated conditions without failure for a given period of time.

Requirements: The ability of an item to perform a required function under stated conditions for a stated period of time.

Results: The effects that relate to what is obtained by an organization at the conclusion of a time period.

Robustness: The condition of a product or process design that remains relatively stable, with a minimum of variation, even though factors that influence operations or usage, such as environment and wear, are constantly changing.

Sample: In acceptance sampling, one or more units of product (or a quantity of material) drawn from a lot for purposes of inspection to reach a decision regarding acceptance of the lot.

Sample size: [n] The number of units in a sample.

Sample standard deviation chart (S chart): A control chart in which the subgroup standard deviation, s, is used to evaluate the stability of the variability within a process.

Sampling at random: As commonly used in acceptance sampling theory, the process of selecting sample units so all units under consideration have the same probability of being selected. Note: Actually, equal probabilities are not necessary for random sampling--what is necessary is that the probability of selection be ascertainable. However, the stated properties of published sampling tables are based on the assumption of random sampling with equal probabilities. An acceptable method of random selection with equal probabilities is the use of a table of random numbers in a standard manner.

Sampling, double: Sampling inspection in which the inspection of the first sample leads to a decision to accept a lot, reject it or take a second sample; the inspection of a second sample, when required, then leads to a decision to accept or to reject the lot.

Sampling, multiple: Sampling inspection in which, after each sample is inspected, the decision is made to accept a lot, reject it or to take another sample; but there is a prescribed maximum number of samples, after which a decision to accept or reject the lot must be reached. Note: Multiple sampling as defined here has sometimes been called "sequential n sampling" or "truncated sequential e sampling." The term "multiple sampling" is recommended by this standard.

Sampling, single:  Sampling inspection in which the decision to accept or to reject a lot is based on the inspection of a single sample.

Sampling, unit: Sequential sampling inspection in which, after each unit is inspected, the decision is made to accept a lot, reject it or to inspect another unit.

Satisfier: A term used to describe the quality level received by a customer when a product or service meets expectations.

Scientific management/approach: A term referring to the intent to find and use the best way to perform tasks to improve quality, productivity and efficiency.

Scorecard: A scorecard is an evaluation device, usually in the form of a questionnaire that specifies the criteria customers will use to rate your business's performance in satisfying their requirements.

Self-directed work team (SDWT): A type of team structure in which much of the decision making regarding how to handle the team's activities is controlled by the team members themselves.

Service level agreement: A formal agreement between an internal provider and an internal receiver (customer).

Seven tools of quality: Tools that help organizations understand their processes to improve them. The tools are the cause and effect diagrams, check sheet, control chart, flowchart, and histogram, Pareto chart and scatter diagram (see individual entries).

Six Sigma: A methodology that provides businesses with the tools to improve the capability of their business processes. This increases in performance and decrease in process variation lead to defect reduction and improvement in profits, employee morale and quality of product.

Six Sigma quality: A term generally used to indicate a process is well controlled, (±6 sigma from the ulfiline in a control chart). The term is usually associated with Motorola, which named one of its key operational initiatives "Six Sigma quality."

Software quality assurance (SQA): A planned and systematic approach to the evaluation of the quality of and adherence to software product standards, processes and procedures. SQA includes the process of assuring that standards and procedures are established and are followed throughout the software acquisition life cycle.

Special causes: Causes of variation that arise because of special circumstances. They are not an inherent part of a process. Special causes are also referred to as assignable causes (see also "common causes").

Specification: A document that states the requirements to which a given product or service must conform.

Sponsor: The person who supports a team's plans, activities and outcomes; the team's "backer."

Stages of team growth: Four stages that team move through as they develop maturity over time: forming, storming, norming and performing.

Stakeholder: Any individual, group or organization that will have a significant impact on or will be significantly impacted by the quality of the product or service an organization provides.

Standard: The metric, specification, gage, statement, category, segment, grouping, behavior, event or physical product sample against which the outputs of a process are compared and declared acceptable or unacceptable.

Standard deviation (statistical): A computed measure of variability indicating the spread of the data set around the mean.

Standard work: A precise description of each work activity specifying cycle time, takt time (see listing), the work sequence of specific tasks and the minimum inventory of parts on hand needed to conduct the activity.

Statistical process control (SPC): The application of statistical techniques to control a process. The term "statistical quality control" is often used interchangeably with "statistical process control."

Statistical quality control (SQC): The application of statistical techniques to control quality. The term "statistical process control" is often used interchangeably with "statistical quality control," although statistical quality control includes acceptance sampling as well as statistical process control.

Statistics: A field that involves the tabulating, depicting and describing of data sets; a formalized body of techniques characteristically involving attempts to infer the properties of a large collection of data from inspection of a sample of the collection.

Strategic planning: The process by which an organization envisions its future and develops strategies, goals, objectives and action plans to achieve that future.

Stretch goals: A set of goals designed to position the organization to meet future requirements.

Structural variation: Variation caused by regular, systematic changes in output, such as seasonal patterns and long-term trends.

Supplier: A source of materials, service or information input provided to a process.

Supplier quality assurance: Confidence a supplier's product or service will ulfil its customers' needs. This confidence is achieved by creating a relationship between the customer and supplier that ensures the product will be fit for use with minimal corrective action and inspection. According to J. M. Juran, there are nine primary activities needed: 1. define product and program quality requirements, 2. evaluate alternative suppliers, 3. select suppliers, 4. conduct joint quality planning, 5. cooperate with the supplier during the execution of the contract, 6. obtain proof of conformance to requirements, 7. certify qualified suppliers, 8. conduct quality improvement programs as required and 9. create and use supplier quality ratings.

Supply chain: The series of suppliers relating to a given process.

Surveillance: The continual monitoring of a process; a type of periodic assessment or audit conducted to determine whether a process continues to perform to a predetermined standard.

Survey: The act of examining a process or of questioning a selected sample of individuals to obtain data about a process, product or service.

Symptom: An observable phenomenon arising from and accompanying a defect.

Taguchi, Genichi: Executive director of the American Supplier Institute, the director of the Japan Industrial Technology Institute and an honorary professor at Nanjing Institute of Technology in China. Taguchi is well known for developing a methodology to improve quality and reduce costs, which, in the United States, are referred to as the Taguchi Methods. He also developed the quality loss function. He is an Honorary Member of ASQ.

Taguchi Methods: The American Supplier Institute's trademarked term for the quality engineering methodology developed by Genichi Taguchi. In this engineering approach to quality control, Taguchi calls for off-line quality control, on-line quality control and a system of experimental design to improve quality and reduce costs.

Takt time: The rate of customer demand. Takt is the heartbeat of a lean system. Takt time is calculated by dividing production time by the quantity the customer requires in that time.

Tampering: Action taken to compensate for variation within the control limits of a stable system. Tampering increases rather than decreases variation, as evidenced in the funnel experiment.

Task: A specific, definable activity to perform an assigned piece of work, often finished within a certain time.

Team: A group of individuals organized to work together to accomplish a specific objective.

Theory of constraints (TOC): Also called constraints management, it is a set of tools that examines the entire system for continuous improvement. The current reality tree, conflict resolution diagram, future reality tree, prerequisite tree and transition tree are the five tools used in its ongoing improvement process.

TL 9000: A quality management standard for the telecommunications industry built on ISO 9000. Its purpose is to define the requirements for the design, development, production, delivery, installation and maintenance of products and services. Included is cost and performance based measurements that measure reliability and quality performance of the products and services.

Tolerance: The maximum and minimum limit values a product may have and still meet customer requirements.

Tooling and Equipment (TE) Supplement: An interpretation of QS-9000 (see listing) developed by the Big Three automakers for tooling and equipment suppliers.

Top-management commitment: Participation of the highest-level officials in their organization's quality improvement efforts. Their participation includes establishing and serving on a quality committee, establishing quality policies and goals, deploying those goals to lower levels of the organization, providing the resources and training lower levels need to achieve the goals, participating in quality improvement teams, reviewing progress organization wide, recognizing those who have performed well and revising the current reward system to reflect the importance of achieving the quality goals.

Total productive maintenance (TPM): A series of methods, originally pioneered by Nippondenso (a member of the Toyota group), to ensure every machine in a production process is always able to perform its required tasks so that production is never interrupted.

Total quality: A strategic integrated system for achieving customer satisfaction that involves all managers and employees and uses quantitative methods to continuously improve an organization's processes.

Total quality control (TQC): A system that integrates quality development, maintenance and improvement of the parts of an organization. It helps a company economically manufacture its product and deliver its services.

Total quality management (TQM): A term initially coined by the Naval Air Systems Command to describe its Japanese style management approach to quality improvement. Since then, TQM has taken on many meanings. Simply put, it is a management approach to long-term success through customer satisfaction. TQM is based on the participation of all members of an organization in improving processes, products, services and the culture in which they work. The methods for implementing this approach are found in the teachings of such quality leaders as Philip B. Crosby, W. Edwards Deming, Armand V. Feigenbaum, Kaoru Ishikawa and Joseph M. Juran.

Transaction data: The finite data pertaining to a given event occurring in a process. Examples are the data obtained from an individual checking out groceries (the grocery shopping process) and the data obtained from testing a machined component (the final product inspection step of the production process).

Tree diagram: A management tool that depicts the hierarchy of tasks and subtasks needed to complete an objective. The finished diagram bears a resemblance to a tree.

Unit: An object on which a measurement or observation can be made. Note: Commonly used in the sense of a "unit of product,"the entity of product inspected in order to determine whether it is defective or nondefective.

Validation: The act of confirming a product or service meets the requirements for which it was intended.

Validity: The ability of a feedback instrument to measure what it was intended to measure; also, the degree to which inferences derived from measurements are meaningful.

Value added: The parts of the process that add worth from the perspective of the external customer.

Value adding process: Activities that transform input into a customer usable output. The customer can be internal or external to the organization.

Values: The fundamental beliefs that drive organizational behavior and decision-making.

Value stream: All activities, both value added and no value added, required to bring a product from raw material state into the hands of the customer, bring a customer requirement from order to delivery and bring a design from concept to launch.

Value stream loops: Segments of a value stream with boundaries broken into loops are a way to divide future state implementation into manageable pieces.

Value stream manager: Person responsible for creating a future state map and leading door-to-door implementation of the future state for a particular product family. Makes change happen across departmental and functional boundaries.

Value stream mapping: A pencil and paper tool used in two stages: 1. Follow a product's production path from beginning to end and draw a visual representation of every process in the material and information flows. 2. Then draw a future state map of how value should flow. The most important map is the future state map.

Variation: A change in data, characteristic or function caused by one of four factors: special causes, common causes, tampering or structural variation (see individual entries).

Verification: The act of determining whether products and services conform to specific requirements.

Virtual team: Remotely situated individuals affiliated with a common organization, purpose or project that conduct their joint effort via electronic communication.

Vision: An overarching statement of the way an organization wants to be; an ideal state of being at a future point.

Vital few, useful many: A term used by Joseph M. Juran to describe his use of the Pareto principle, which he first defined in 1950. (The principal was used much earlier in economics and inventory control methodologies.) The principle suggests most effects come from relatively few causes; that is, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the possible causes. The 20% of the possible causes are referred to as the "vital few"; the remaining causes are referred to as the "useful many." When Juran first defined this principle, he referred to the remaining causes as the "trivial many," but realizing that no problems are trivial in quality assurance, he changed it to "useful many."

Voice of the customer: The expressed requirements and expectations of customers relative to products or services, as documented and disseminated to the members of the providing organization.

Waste: Any activity that consumes resources and produces no added value to the product or services a customer receives.

Weighed voting: A way to prioritize a list of issues, ideas or attributes by assigning points to each item based on its relative importance.

Work team: A team comprising members from one work unit. Also called a "natural team."

World-class quality: A term used to indicate a standard of excellence: best of the best.

Zero defects: A performance standard and methodology developed by Philip B. Crosby that states if people commit themselves to watching details and avoiding errors, they can move closer to the goal of zero.