Quality Management Glossary

A statistical method of inspecting a random sample from a lot to decide whether to accept or reject the entire lot.

Costs associated with measuring, evaluating, and auditing products or services to ensure conformance to quality standards.

Comparing organizational processes and performance metrics to industry bests or best practices from other industries.

An ongoing effort to improve products, services, or processes incrementally or through breakthrough improvements.

A statistical tool that plots data over time with upper and lower control limits to monitor process stability.

Action taken to eliminate the root cause of a detected nonconformity or undesirable situation to prevent recurrence.

The total cost incurred to prevent defects, appraise quality, and address internal and external failures.

A five-phase Six Sigma methodology: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control, used to improve existing processes.

Costs arising from defects found after delivery to the customer, including warranty claims, returns, and reputation damage.

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis. A proactive method to identify potential failure modes, their causes, and effects to prioritize risk mitigation.

A Japanese term meaning 'the real place,' referring to the location where value-creating work actually occurs.

Costs resulting from defects found before delivery to the customer, such as scrap, rework, and reinspection.

The international standard that specifies requirements for a quality management system focused on customer satisfaction and continual improvement.

A Japanese philosophy of continuous improvement through small, incremental changes involving all employees.

A systematic method for waste minimization within a manufacturing system without sacrificing productivity, based on the Toyota Production System.

The Japanese term for waste; any activity that consumes resources without adding value for the customer.

A deviation from specified requirements, standards, or expectations in a product, service, or process.

A bar chart that displays factors in decreasing order of frequency or impact, combined with a cumulative line, used to identify the vital few causes.

Plan-Do-Check-Act. An iterative four-step management method for continuous improvement of processes and products.

Mistake-proofing mechanisms designed into processes or products to prevent or detect errors before they result in defects.

Costs incurred to prevent defects from occurring, including training, process planning, and quality engineering.

A systematic and independent examination to determine whether quality activities comply with planned arrangements.

A formalized system of policies, processes, procedures, and responsibilities for achieving quality objectives.

A set of techniques and tools for process improvement aimed at reducing defects to 3.4 per million opportunities using statistical methods.

A management approach in which all members of an organization participate in improving processes, products, services, and culture.