Quality Terms and their Meanings

The L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z of Quality Terms

L

Layout Inspection

Layout Inspection is the complete measurement of all part dimensions shown on the design record. A layout inspection may be required by some customers for all products annually unless another frequency is established in a customer approved control plan. Results shall be available for customer review upon request.
Lean

a process of eliminating waste with the goal of creating value.
Lot

A collection of output(s) from which a sample is to be drawn and inspected to determine conformance with the standard.

M

3M

Muda (waste), Mura (irregular, uneven or inconsistent) and Muri (unreasonable or excessive strain)
Machine Capability (Cmk)

capability of a machine to produce a measurable characteristic under short term influences. The minimum requirement is xbar ?5s within tolerance, i.e., 99.99998% of manufactured parts are expected to be within the tolerance. This corresponds to a Cmk factor of 1.67. The ultimate target is a Cmk factor of 2.00. (also ongoing capability)
Maintainability

The probability that a failed system can be made operable in a specified interval or downtime.
Markov Model

A probabilistic model that can accurately capture the effects of component failure rates and changing failure rates over time resulting from stress in other factors.
Method 653

is a variation of brainstorming developed by B Rohrbach. This method involves '6' people generating and writing down '3' potential solutions after studying a problem. After a set period of time, the solutions are handed to the next participant, who then either further develops the original three solutions ideas or provides three new ones. The handing over of potential solutions to the next person continues until everyone in the group gets a chance to see each of the original three solutions and contribute to the document. This method may generate less creative solutions because mostly individual nature of the contributions does not take advantage of group discussions.

N

Nemawashi

Preliminary work (prepare or plan) to involve other sections/departments in discussions to seek input, information and/or support for a proposal or change (policy, etc.) that would affect them.
Nominal Group Technique (NGT)

A technique similar to brainstorming, used by teams to generate ideas on a particular subject. Team Members are asked to 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.
Nonconformance

Nonconformance is product or material which does not conform to the customer requirements or specifications.
Nonconformity

Nonconformity is a process which does not conform to a quality system requirement.
Nou-hau-shu

know-how document

O

Obeya (Japanese word)

Big Room - nerve center for team activity
Ongoing Process Capability

Ongoing Process Capability is a long term measure of statistical process control or process performance. It differs from preliminary process capability by utilizing data from a longer time period so as to include all common causes of variation, in particular, those common causes that may result in process shifts affecting a number of sample intervals. Systematic or repetitive patterns of special cause may also be included if the underlying reasons for these special causes are understood. The time required for ongoing capability evaluation depend on the time required for the sources of variation to vary throughout their full ranges, but will typically be three to six months. (also machine capability)

P

Parts Per Million (PPM)

PPM is a way of stating the performance of a process in terms of actual or projected defective material. PPM data can be used to indicate areas variation requiring attention.
Parametera component of technology, product or process that can assume a nominal value that defines it.
Paynter Charta

matrix of problems, faults, failure types vs. occurrence frequency (days / weeks / months) - named after Marvin (Marv) Paynter (Ford Motor Company).
Percentage of Inspection points Satisfying Tolerance (PIST)

the percentage of inspection points that are within the tolerances indicated on the design.
PFMEA

Process Failure Mode and Effects Analysis.
Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)

based upon work by W.A. Shewhart (in the 1930s at Bell Labs) and made popular by W.E. Deming (in the 1950s and on), PDCA (also known as the Deming Cycle, Shewhart cycle, or Deming Wheel) is an iterative four-step quality control strategy is based on the principles of - customer satisfaction, management by fact and respect for people.
PIP

Product Improvement Program, Performance Improvement Planresults-oriented approach to project review that involves stakeholders in a process of evaluation and planning to improve product/project performance
P.I.S.M.O.E.A Error Model

P.I.S.M.O.E.A (Part, Instrument, Standard, Method, Operator, Environment & Assumptions) was originally developed by Mr. Gordon Skattum, Senior ASQ CQE, metrologist and Director of Integrated Manufacturing for Rock Valley College Technology Center. The typical statistical assumptions of a Gage R&R study, include: normal process, random and independent trials, stable, and test-retest criteria. When one or more assumption is violated (e.g., non-normal measurement process, operator bias) the tool and analysis ultimately become unstable, confusing, and misleading. %GRR evaluations for product and process control can be overestimated. There are also nonstatistical assumptions related to measurement systems (e.g., calibration, operational, coefficients and rates of expansion, physical laws and constants). The measurement planner should be able to identify, control, correct, or modify the MSA method to accommodate significant violations for the assumptions in the measurement process. Similar to all processes, a measurement system is impacted by random and systematic sources of variation. These sources of variation are due to common and special (chaotic) causes. In order to understand, control and improve a measurement system, the potential sources of variation ought to first be identified. Although the specific causes will depend on the situation, a general error model can be used to categorize sources of variation for any measurement system. There are various methods of presenting and categorizing these sources of variation using simple cause & effect, matrix, or tree diagrams. (source: AIAG's MSA Manual)
PLEX

Plant Experiments - a process improvement tool, uses simple factorial designs, two-level designs in two or three factors. Goal is to minimize disruption of production while making big enough changes to realize the benefits.
Packaging

A unit that provides protection and containment of items plus ease of handling by manual or mechanical means.
Pareto Analysis

80/20 rule - focus on the important stuff....
Population

A theoretical, infinitely large sample
Precision

The closeness of agreement between randomly selected individual measurements or test results. Also see Accuracy.
Preliminary Bill of Material

An initial Bill of Material completed prior to design and print release.
Prerequisite Tree (PRT)

(part of the Theory of Constraints Thinking Process) a structure describing all of the obstacles to achieving an objective, as well as the responses needed to overcome them, and the sequence in which they must be addressed. It identifies the minimum necessary conditions to achieving a specified objective.
Probability Density Function

use in defining a distribution - indicates when a new item is likely to fail.
Process Capability Studies

Process Capability Studies are short-term studies conducted to obtain early information on the performance of new or revised processes relative to internal or customer requirements. In many cases, preliminary studies should be conducted at several points in the evolution of new processes (e.g., at the equipment or tooling subcontractor's plant, after installation at the supplier's plant) These studies should be based on as many measurements as possible. When X-Bar (Xbar) and R charts, at least twenty subgroups (typically three to five pieces, when taking sub-groups) are required to obtain sufficient data for decision making. When this amount of data is not available, control charts should be started with whatever data is available.

Formulae:

Cp=(USL-LSL)/6s

Cpu=(USL-Xbar)/3s

Cpl=(Xbar-LSL)/3s

Cpk=Minimum of (Cpu,Cpl)

Process Capability, Cpk uses 's' or the population standard deviation which is estimated using (Rbar/d2) or (Sbar/C2). Potential Process Capability, Ppk uses the 's' or the sample standard deviation from individual data. Ppk attempts to answer the question "does my 'sample' meet specification?" Cpk attempts to answer the question "does my process meet specification?"
Procedures

Documented processes that are used when work affects more than one function or department of an organization.
Process

Is a combination of people, equipment, methods, materials and environment that produces output, - a given product or service. A process can involve any aspect of a business.
Process Flow Diagram

Depicts the flow of material through the process, including any rework or repair operations.
Product Assurance Plan

A part of the Product Quality Plan. It is a prevention-oriented management tool that addresses product design, process design, and when applicable software design.
Production Part Approval Submissions

The submissions are based on small quantities of parts taken from a significant production run made with production tooling, processes, and cycle times. Parts for production part approval are checked by the supplier to all engineering requirements. 18 Elements of PPAP
Production Trial Run

Product made using all production tools, processes, equipment, environment, facility, and cycle time.

Q

Quality

ISO 8042 defines quality as the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs. Definitions: Transcendent: excellence Product: quality of product attributes User-based: fitness for intended use Value-based: quality vs. price Manufacturing: conformance to specs
Quality Assurance

ISO 9000:2000 defines Quality Assurance as 'providing confidence that requirements will be met'. - update provided by J Broomfield; it can also be defined as 'the planned and systematic activities put in place to ensure quality requirements for a product or service will be fulfilled'.
Quality Assurance Plan

A detailed plan setting forth the process that will be used to measure supplier performance; defines what the organization must do to ensure that the supplier has performed in accordance with the performance standards.
Quality Circle

steams that follow a standard process of problem identification, root cause analysis, problem solving and implementation. In Japanese firms there is a greater focus on statistical quality control, employees meet on own time and all employees receive a bonus for the performance of the entire organization. Guide to Quality Control, Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa, English version 1986. Also recommend 'Managing; A Revival of the Quality Circle' in NY Times.
Quality Control

the observation techniques and activities used to fulfill requirements for quality.
Quality Engineering

Set of operational, managerial and engineering activities that a company uses to ensure that the quality characteristics of a product are at the nominal or required levels.
Quality Improvement

Quality is inversely proportional to variability. Quality Improvement is the reduction of variability in products and processes.
Quality Management Plan

a document describing an organization’s quality system. This document identifies the organizational structure, policy and procedures, functional responsibilities of management and staff, lines of authority, and its processes for planning, implementing, documenting, and assessing all activities conducted under the organization’s quality system.
Quality Manual

A Quality Manual is the supplier's document that describes the elements of the quality system used to assure customer requirements, needs, and expectations are met. Quality manuals shall include responsibilities and authorities for each element of the quality system.
Quality Month

Quality month is celebrated annually in October in North America. This was started by the American Society for Quality in the early 1980s. Individuals and organizations hold special events to strengthen their commitment to quality and celebrate performance excellence.
Quality Planning

Quality Planning is a structured process for defining the methods that will be used in the production of a specific product or family of products. Quality planning embodies the concepts of defect prevention and continuous improvement as contrasted with defect detection.
Quality Planning Sign-Off

A review and commitment by the Product Quality Planning Team that all planned controls and processes are being followed.
Quality Records

Quality Records are the documented evidence that the supplier's processes were executed according to the quality system documentation and records results.
QSR

Quality System Requirements.

R

3R's

The three fundamental steps of recording, recalling and reconstructing which most innovators go through when generating new product ideas.
Registered Suppliers

Registered Suppliers are suppliers who have received third party registration to a specific quality system standard for the commodity supplied.
Random Sample

A sampling method whereby each service output in a lot has an equal chance of being selected.
Random Sampling

A method of looking at a few individual items in a lot to determine the quality of that lot against a standard.
Reliability

The probability that an item will continue to function at customer expectation levels at a measurement point, under specified environmental and duty cycle conditions.# of tests to pass - Confidence Reliability Reference - Pocket Card
Reliability Apportionment

See Apportionment.
Rengi System

formal decision process
Response Surface Method

a technique to find maximum or minimum condition - the basic strategy is in considering the graph (similar to contours on a topographical map) of the yield as a function of tthe two significant factors. The higher the hill, the better the yield.
Rework

Action taken on nonconforming product so that it will meet the specified requirements.
Risk Analysis

Risk analysis has a primary purpose of answering two questions - 1. what can go wrong? and, 2. if something does go wrong, what is the probability of it happening & what are the consequences?
Robust Design

The design of products to be less sensitive to variations, including manufacturing variation, environment and abuse, increasing the probability that they will perform as intended. It is an integrated system of tools and techniques that are aimed at reducing product or process performance variability while simultaneously guiding that performance towards an optimal setting. Robustness measures are usually implemented for designs that are new so that the best values of the critical functional parameters are uncovered. Robust Design follows the methods first proposed by Genichi Taguchi.
Rolled Throughput Yield

Probability that a product will pass through the entire process without rework and defects. It is the product of the First Time Through (FTT) of all process steps.
Root Cause Investigation

Steps involved in conducting a good root cause analysis - 1. understand the goal of the analysis and be objective, 2. obtain a clear understanding of the failure, 3. clearly identify all possible root causes, 4. evaluate the likelihood of each root cause, 5. converge on the most likely root cause, 6. clearly identify and evaluate all possible corrective actions, 7. select the optimal corrective action, 8. verify the corrective action(s)
Run Order (vs. Standard Order)

Randomizing the standard order (to create a "run order") to determine the order in which run the combinations. (used in DOE)

S

Sangen Shugi

Experience it!
5S

Seiri (sort), Seiton (set in order), Seiso (shine), Seiketsu (standardize), Shitsuke (sustain); application in manufacturing, in office.
Sample

one or more observations from a larger collection (population) - samples need to be random, independent and unbiased.
Sampling Plan

a scheme for determining sample sizes and actions for making decisions. 'The decision, based on counting the number of defectives in a sample, can be to accept the lot, reject the lot, or even, for multiple or sequential sampling schemes, to take another sample and then repeat the decision process'.
SCAMPER

stands for a checklist that helps the creative process - substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put (to other uses), eliminate, reverse
Scatter Diagram

charts which allow the study of correlation (relationship between two variables)
Scedasticity

the relationship between the value of input variables and the variation (rather than the mean) of the output. Where variation changes with the input variable (for example, variation increases over time) then the process demonstrates hetero-scedasticity. Where variation is constant the process demonstrates homo-scedasticity.
Seigisei-gaido-risuto

manufacturability guide list
Sekkei-tejun-sho

design-procedure document
SFMEA

System Failure Mode and Effects Analysis. FMEA form
Shainin System

a proprietary problem solving methodology developed by Dorian Shainin, Shainin System is widely used in the manufacturing sector. Shainin LLC (a consulting company founded by D Shainin) offers this system under "Red X"® Strategy. The System was developed for and is best suited to problem solving on operating, medium to high volume processes where data is available and intervention into the process is difficult. The fundamental tenet of Shainin System is that, in any problem, there is a dominant cause (Red X) of variation in the process output that defines the problem. This presumption is based on an application of the Pareto principle to the causes of variation. Within the Shainin System, there is recognition that there maybe a second or third large cause (called the Pink X & Pale Pink X). For more elaborate review of the system, read "An Overview of the Shainin System for Quality Improvement, Stefan H. Steiner and R. Jock MacKay, University of Waterloo Waterloo, N2L 3G1 Canada, John S. Ramberg, Consultant, Pagosa Springs, CO 81147".
Shift

changes over time - data typically shifts 1.5 sigma levels (a key measure of process capability) between short-term and long-term.
Significant Characteristics

Product and process characteristics designated by the customer, including governmental regulatory and safety, and/or selected by the supplier through knowledge of the product and process.
Simulation

The practice of mimicking some or all of the behavior of one system with a different, dissimilar system.
Simultaneous Engineering

A way of simultaneously designing products, and the processes for manufacturing those products, through the use of cross functional teams to assure manufacturability and to reduce cycle time.
Six Sigma

a failure rate of 3.4 parts per million or 99.9997%...
Specifications

Specifications are engineering requirements for judging the acceptability of a part characteristic. For the production part approval process, every feature of the product as identified by engineering specifications must be measured. Actual measurement and test results are required. Specifications should not be confused with control limits which represent "the voice of the process".
Spider Diagram

A visual reporting tool for the performance of a number of indicators. Also known as "radar chart" this tool makes visible the gaps between the current and desired performance.
Stable Process

a process which is free of assignable causes (in statistical control - a quantitative condition which describes a process that is free of assignable / special causes of variation)
Statistical Control

Is the condition of a process from which all special causes of variation have been eliminated and only common causes remain. Statistical control is evidenced on ,a control chart by the absence of points beyond the control limits and by the absence of any non-random patterns or trends.
Stratification

A process of grouping data according to a common characteristic.
Submission Level

Refers to the level of evidence required for production part submissions. (Refer to the PPAP manual and/or Local PPAP Addendum)
Subsystem

A major part of a system which itself has the characteristics of a system, usually consisting of several components.
Suppliers

Suppliers are defined as providers of: a) Production materials. b) Production or Service parts. c) Heat treating, plating, painting or other finishing services directly to Ford.
SURVIVAL for Quality Professional

S Size up the issue on hand

U Use process knowledge

R Reach out to the experts

V Vanquish defensive attitudes

I Improve on old ideas

V Value the customer

A Assess the changes

L Limit the scope to the problem
SWOT Analysis

SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is a methodology used to aid strategic planning that gained popularity during the 80's. To do a SWOT analysis consider these:

Strengths: What are your advantages? What do you do well?

Weaknesses: What could be improved? What is done poorly by the company? What are the skills not covered?

Opportunities: What are the current trends?

Threats: What obstacles do you face? What is your competition doing? Are requirements changing? What are the current threats? Do you have resource problems?
Synectics

developed by W Gordon (1961), this method uses analogies and metaphors trigger idea generation. This method is based on the fact that the mind is more productive when dealing with a new or foreign environment. the analogous situation takes the individual away from the exact problem at and requires him/her to consider a related problem.
System

A combination of several components or pieces of equipment integrated to perform a specific function.
7-Step Method

Process Mapping methodology - define scope, document all tasks, categorize value-add vs. non-value add tasks, list internal and external Y's, list internal and external X's, classify X's as being control, standard operation or noise factor, identify data collection points.

U

Upper control limit
On the control chart developed by W. A. Shewhart) an upper control-limit is drawn three standard deviations above the center line.

V

Variables Data

Are quantitative results where measurements are used for analysis. Examples include the diameter of a bearing journal in millimeters, the closing effort of a door in newtons, the concentration of an electrolyte in percent, and the torque of a fastener in newton-meters.
VA/VE

Value Analysis/Value Engineering.
Value Added Activity

any action that transforms information or material into a product of value to the customer.
Value Stream Map (VSM)

a visual tool used to document the flow of products of services through a system. The VSM differentiates the value-adding activities of a system from the non-value-adding ones. Recording the time taken for each activity shows what percentage of valuable time an object or person spends in a system. Any non-value-adding time indicates an opportunity for possible improvement within the system. The VSM shows the process flow from order to delivery and includes - a) information & material flow, b) product throughput & cycle times, c) resources utilized, d) value added times and e) location of significant waste.
Voice of the Customer

Customer feedback both positive and negative including likes, dislikes, problems and suggestions.
Voice of the Process

Statistical data that is feedback to the people in the process to make decisions about the process stability and/or capability as a tool for continuous improvement.

W

Warrant

Warrant is an industry-standard document required for all newly-tooled or revised products in which the supplier confirms that inspections and tests on production parts show conformance to customer requirements.
Waiver

Written authorization to use or release a quantity of material, components, or stores already manufactured but not conforming to the specified requirements.
Waste

any activity that absorbs resources & creates no value.

X

X & R Charts

A control chart used to represent process stability and capability over time; displays the variability in the process average and range across time.
X's

Six Sigma term for variables that are independent, root causes; as opposed to Y's which are dependent outputs of a process. Six Sigma works on measuring and improving X's, to see subsequent improvement in Y's. Y=f(X)

Y

Yamazumi Board

Cycle Time mapping process to identify value-added and non-value added activities.
Yokaten

Across everywhere. Plant related activities and/or countermeasures that are communicated plant wide and with other company affiliates.

Z

Zero Defects

proposed by Philip Crosby as part of the book 'Quality is Free', is a business practice which aims to reduce and minimize the number of defects and errors in a process and to do things right the first time.

This is just a quick reference to the various terms in quality...