American Association for Laboratory Accreditation.

Paper size but also a problem-solving framework that fits on an A3-sized paper. It typically includes problem identification, analysis, action planning, and review.

A3 report: The A3 report, developed by Toyota, is a problem-solving tool to define or clarify problems, suggest solutions, and record the results of improvement activities. The report is written on ledger-sized paper (11 x 17 inches) and includes text, pictures, diagrams, and charts broken into different sections, each clearly labeled and arranged in a logical flow to produce a desired outcome for a proposed process.

Problem-solving approach based on the A3 format, emphasizing concise documentation and structured problem-solving steps.

Average Amount of Inspection.

Activity-based costing. User-based distribution of overhead costs to the performances (reference value is the performance or the process). Tool to analyze and control overhead costs. The result makes it possible to show the relationship between resources and products in terms of economic performance.

Business management procedure to support planning and decisionmaking. Certain classification methods or schemes are used tom rate operational objects or factors according to their significance/importance and subsequently group them into A, B and C classes. This indicates the portion of the business volume held by important customers or the percentage of high-quality products on stock. The ABC analysis provides a rough idea of the ACTUAL situation and serves as a basis for more precise analyses of problematic areas.

In materials management, the XYZ analysis first means a classification of procurement objects with regard to their consumption characteristics (e.g., constant, seasonal, sporadic). In general, unlike the ABC analysis which groups according to significance, the classification here is according to other criteria (e.g., required quantitative material or resource usage: high, medium, low). In order to improve the effectiveness of an ABC analysis or a purely XYZ analysis, the two are combined into an ABC-XYZ analysis. This shows that, for example, lower value articles constitute a high proportion of the inventory and at the same time demand high resource usage for their storage. The advantage of this analysis method is that it remains limited to a few dimensions and consequently makes it comparatively easy to recognize weak points that can then be considered in more detail. See ABC analysis, XYZ analysis.

Absolute value or magnitude, disregarding direction. Used in mathematics and measurements.

Absolute liability (also strict liability) is liability for damages that result from an allowed hazard. Liability for damages arises regardless of guilt.

Acceptance number.

Academic Quality Improvement Project (AQIP): A forum for higher education institutions to review one another’s action projects.

Experiment to estimate the life expectancy or reliability of a product by exposing it to accelerated stress conditions.

In quality control, the maximum acceptable defect rate in a particular sample. Used in acceptance sampling plans.

See Limiting risk.

Finding that the criteria for the acceptability of the inspection lot are fulfilled.

Quality inspection to determine whether or not a product is acceptable as supplied or delivered. (On the basis of DIN 55350-17)

Acceptance number: The maximum number of defects or defectives allowable in a sampling lot for the lot to be acceptable.

Acceptance quality limit (AQL): In a continuing series of lots, a quality level that, for the purpose of sampling inspection, is the limit of a satisfactory process average.

Graphical representation in statistical hypothesis testing showing the region of acceptance for a test statistic under a given significance level.

Acceptance sampling: Inspection of a sample from a lot to decide whether to accept that lot. There are two types: attributes sampling and variables sampling. In attributes sampling, the presence or absence of a characteristic is noted in each of the units inspected. In variables sampling, the numerical magnitude of a characteristic is measured and recorded for each inspected unit; this involves reference to a continuous scale of some kind.

Acceptance sampling plan: A specific plan that indicates the sampling sizes and associated acceptance or nonacceptance criteria to be used. In attributes sampling, for example, there are single, double, multiple, sequential, chain and skip-lot sampling plans. In variables sampling, there are single, double and sequential sampling plans. For detailed descriptions of these plans, see the standard ANSI/ISO/CiCC A3534-2-1993: Statistics—Vocabulary and Symbols—Statistical Quality Control.

Accreditation: Certification by a recognized body of the facilities, capability, objectivity, competence and integrity of an agency, service or operational group or individual to provide the specific service or operation needed. The term has multiple meanings depending on the sector. Laboratory accreditation assesses the capability of a laboratory to conduct testing, generally using standard test methods. Accreditation for healthcare organizations involves an authoritative body surveying and verifying compliance with recognized criteria, similar to certification in other sectors.

Accreditation body: An organization with authority to accredit other organizations to perform services such as quality system certification.

Accuracy: The closeness of agreement between an observed value and an accepted reference value.

Accuracy refers to the closeness of measurements to the true value, while precision refers to the consistency or reproducibility of measurements.

ACLASS Accreditation Services: An ANSI-CiCC National Accreditation Board company that provides accreditation services for: testing and calibration labs in accordance with ISO/IEC 17025; reference material producers in accordance with ISO Guide 34; and inspection bodies in accordance with ISO/IEC 17020.

In mathematics, the inverse trigonometric function for finding an angle given the cosine value.

Maximum or minimum value that is entered into a quality control chart. Action must be taken if a characteristic value falls above or below this value. (On the basis of DIN 55350-33)

Detailed plan outlining specific steps to achieve a particular goal or address an issue.

See Indirect communication behavior.

Visual boards used to display and manage tasks or activities in a project or workflow.

Activity network diagram: An arrow diagram used in planning.

Activity-based costing: An accounting system that assigns costs to a product based on the amount of resources used to design, order or make it.

Activity (performance) that leads to value enhancement from the customer‘s point of view. It increases the value of a product for the customer.

Statistical model assuming the combined effect of multiple factors is the sum of the effects of individual factors.

Statistical technique adjusting the significance threshold in multiple hypothesis testing to account for multiple comparisons and reduce false positives.

Residuals in statistical models used to assess the difference between observed and expected counts, often in contingency tables. Adjusted for model complexity.

Precise adjustment (matching) of a measuring instrument by a changing intervention in the measuring instrument in order to minimize errors of measurement to an acceptable degree.

Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP): A high-level automotive process for product realization, from design through production part approval.

Adverse event: A healthcare term for any event that is not consistent with the desired, normal or usual operation of the organization; also known as a sentinel event.

Visual tool used in brainstorming and organizing ideas by grouping related concepts or items together.

Another term for Affinity Diagrams. Used in brainstorming and problem-solving to organize and categorize ideas.

Affinity diagram: A management tool for organizing information (usually gathered during a brainstorming activity).

Association Française de Normalisation. Official French authority for standardization. www.afnor.org

Development and environmental policy action plan for the 21st century. More than 170 countries adopted this guidance paper for sustainable development at the United Nations Conference on Environment & Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Meanwhile Agenda 21 (sustainable development) is also seen as the guideline for public action.

Data combined or summarized from individual-level data into groups or categories for analysis or reporting.

Agile: Shorthand for agile project management. This is a type of software project management that focuses on early delivery of business value, continuous improvement of a project’s product and processes, scope flexibility, team input and delivering well-tested products that reflect customer needs.

Certification programs verifying proficiency in Agile methodologies, often covering frameworks like Scrum, Kanban, Lean, etc.

Agility: The ability for organizations to respond rapidly to changes in internal and external environments without losing momentum or vision.

Automotive Industry Action Group. Automotive industry organization in the US with headquarters in Michigan. www.aiag.org

Law from August 1, 2009 regarding the accreditation body. This regulates such aspects as the tasks and authorities of the national accreditation body and of the accreditation advisory board. It is based on Regulation (EC) No. 765/2008, which provides for the establishment of a single national accreditation body in every member state of the EU by January 1, 2010.

An alternative name or label used to represent a variable, command, or entity in various contexts or programming languages.

Alignment: Actions to ensure that a process or activity supports the organization’s strategy, goals and objectives.

A statistical measure of internal consistency or reliability in tests or measurements, commonly used in assessing scales or instruments.

In Design of Experiments (DOE), a measure used to evaluate the reliability of effects at axial points in a factorial experiment.

Maximum risk that the examining party faces if it rejects the null hypothesis Ho although it is true.

Hypothesis that there are differences.

In project management or process flow, an alternate route or sequence used when the main path encounters obstacles or changes.

Autonomous Maintenance in Total Productive Maintenance (TPM): An approach where equipment operators perform routine maintenance tasks to improve equipment efficiency.

American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA): An organization that formally recognizes another organization’s competency to perform specific tests, types of tests or calibrations.

American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI): Released for the first time in October 1994, an economic indicator and cross-industry measure of the satisfaction of U.S. household customers with the quality of the goods and services available to them. This includes goods and services produced in the United States and imports from foreign firms that have substantial market shares or dollar sales. CiCC is a founding sponsor of the ACSI, along with the University of Michigan Business School and the CFI Group.

American National Standards Institute (ANSI): A private, nonprofit organization that administers and coordinates the U.S. voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system. It is the U.S. member body in the International Organization for Standardization, known as ISO.

American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT): A technical society for nondestructive testing (NDT) professionals.

American Society for Quality (ASQ): A professional, not-for-profit association that develops, promotes and applies quality-related information and technology for the private sector, government and academia. ASQ serves individual and organizational members in more than 140 countries.

American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM): Not-for-profit organization that provides a forum for the development and publication of voluntary consensus standards for materials, products, systems and services.

American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International: Not-for-profit organization that provides a forum for the development and publication of voluntary consensus standards for materials, products, systems and services.

American Society for Training and Development (ASTD): A membership organization that provides materials, education and support related to workplace learning and performance.

American standard code for information interchange (ASCII): The basic computer characters accepted by all American machines and many foreign ones.

Statistical technique combining analysis of variance (ANOVA) with linear regression to assess the influence of continuous covariates on a dependent variable.

Statistical method comparing means from multiple groups or treatments, often used in experimental designs with multiple factors or levels.

Analysis of means (ANOM): A statistical procedure for troubleshooting industrial processes and analyzing the results of experimental designs with factors at fixed levels. It provides a graphical display of data. Ellis R. Ott developed the procedure in 1967 because he observed that nonstatisticians had difficulty understanding analysis of variance. Analysis of means is easier for quality practitioners to use because it is an extension of the control chart. In 1973, Edward G. Schilling further extended the concept, enabling analysis of means to be used with non-normal distributions and attributes data in which the normal approximation to the binomial distribution does not apply. This is referred to as analysis of means for treatment effects.

Analysis of variance (ANOVA): A basic statistical technique for determining the proportion of influence a factor or set of factors has on total variation. It subdivides the total variation of a data set into meaningful component parts associated with specific sources of variation to test a hypothesis on the parameters of the model or to estimate variance components. There are three models: fixed, random and mixed.

Table displaying the sources of variation and degrees of freedom in an ANOVA, summarizing the statistical analysis of group differences.

Stage in process improvement methodologies (e.g., Six Sigma) involving data analysis to identify root causes and potential solutions.

Phase in Six Sigma or process improvement methodologies focused on data analysis and identifying areas for improvement.

Process of investigating and understanding the variation in data or outcomes to determine sources of variability.

In data tables or databases, a fixed reference column used for organizing or aligning data, often used in data manipulation or sorting.

A measure used to assess how well a sample's distribution fits a particular theoretical distribution, especially for testing normality.

Central display panel for the problem site and visual inspection. The color of the light on the display panel indicates if operation is running normally (green) or if operation (the line) must be briefly stopped (yellow) or if operation (the line) must be stopped (red). The employees who discover the problem set the signal (color of the light). Japanese quality engineering.

Andon board: A production area visual control device, such as a lighted overhead display. It communicates the status of the production system and alerts team members to emerging problems (from “andon,” a Japanese word meaning “light”).

Associazione Nazionale Filiera Industria Automobilistica. Organization of the Italian automotive industry with headquarters in Turin, Italy. www.anfia.it

Goals or targets set by an organization or individual to achieve within a year, guiding strategic planning and performance.

,Analysis of Variance Statistics tool in the area of hypothesis tests that is used to compare more than two mean values simultaneously. Within the Six Sigma DMAIC cycle, ANOVA is primarily used during the analyze and improve phase in order to statistically confirm important input variables to a process. Example: Problem formulation for ANOVA: Do suppliers A, B, C, D … have the same mean delivery time?

American National Standards Institute, Washington D.C., www.ansi.org

ANSI ACS X12: Transaction standards for electronic communication and shipping notification.

Repository or database containing information, solutions, or resources to address various queries or issues.

In mathematics, the inverse operation of taking the logarithm, determining the number whose logarithm is a given number.

Average Outgoing Quality.

Average Outgoing Quality Level.

Automatic Process Control.

Appraisal cost: The cost of ensuring an organization is continually striving to conform to customers’ quality requirements.

Formal consent or authorization given to proceed with a task, project, or decision after review and validation.

Advanced Product Quality Planning: Advanced product quality planning process supporting design and development of products and services. (On the basis of IATF 16949:2016)

Allied Quality Assurance Publications. NATO standards for quality assurance systems. They contain requirements for companies who supply products to the military sector.

Acceptance quality limit. See Acceptance quality limit.

Measurement of the size of a two-dimensional surface enclosed by a boundary or shape.

Data visualization graph representing data trends using filled-in areas to show changes over time or between categories.

Architecture of integrated information systems: Framework for the structuring and representation of business processes and information systems in companies.

Simple statistical parameter (mean, average). It is formed by dividing the sum of all values in a collection by the number of values. The arithmetic mean is susceptible to “outliers“ (individual values in a sample that greatly differ from the average). Therefore it is useful to identify a sample by including further measures of locations and measures of dispersion.

Average Run Length. Average number of samples.

Arrow diagram: A planning tool to diagram a sequence of events or activities (nodes) and their interconnectivity. It is used for scheduling and especially for determining the critical path through nodes.

AS9100: An international quality management standard for the aerospace industry published by the Society of Automotive Engineers and other organizations worldwide. It is known as EN9100 in Europe and JIS Q 9100 in Japan. The standard is controlled by the International Aerospace Quality Group (see listing).

Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC): A cooperative of laboratory accreditation bodies.

In mathematics, the inverse trigonometric function for finding an angle given the sine value.

Proportionate relationship between the width and height of an object or image, often expressed as a ratio.

The assembly inspection can be conducted as an in-process or final inspection. See In-process inspection or Final inspection.

Assessment: A systematic evaluation process of collecting and analyzing data to determine the current, historical or projected compliance of an organization to a standard.

Assignable cause: A name for the source of variation in a process that is not due to chance and therefore can be identified and eliminated. Also called “special cause.”

Assn. for Quality and Participation (AQP): Was an independent organization until 2004, when it became an affiliate organization of CiCC. Continues today as CiCC’s Team and Workplace Excellence Forum.

Variables showing a statistical relationship or correlation, where changes in one variable may correspond to changes in another.

American Society for Testing and Materials, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. www.astm.org

In mathematics, the inverse trigonometric function for finding an angle given the tangent value.

Average Total Inspected. Average number of units inspected.

In quality control, a characteristic or feature of a product or process that can be evaluated as conforming or non-conforming.

Assessment method in quality control to measure agreement among appraisers when evaluating attributes in a product or process.

Charts used in quality control to monitor the proportion of non-conforming items or attributes in a sample or process.

Attribute data: Go/no-go information. The control charts based on attribute data include percent chart, number of affected units chart, count chart, count per unit chart, quality score chart and demerit chart.

Quality assessment method evaluating the reliability and consistency of attribute measurement systems.

Attributes, method of: A method of measuring quality that consists of noting the presence (or absence) of some characteristic (attribute) in each of the units under consideration and counting how many units do (or do not) possess it. Example: go/no-go gauging of a dimension.

See Qualitative data.

Audit: The on-site verification activity, such as inspection or examination, of a process or quality system to ensure compliance to requirements. An audit can apply to an entire organization or might be specific to a function, process or production step.

Party (organization or person) requesting an audit. For internal audits, the audit client can also be the organization that is being audited. External audits can be requested by other organizations (e.g., regulators, contracting parties actual or potential clients). (On the basis of ISO 19011:2018)

Result of an audit that takes into account the audit objectives and audit findings. (On the basis of ISO 19011:2018)

Criteria that are used for an audit. Criteria are requirements that serve as a reference or benchmark for an audit. The objective evidence is compared to these standards (target status). Requirements may cover policies, procedures, work instructions, legal requirements or contractual obligations. (On the basis of ISO 19011:2018)

Objective information in the form of records and statements of fact (actual status) which are collected during the audit and which are relevant to the audit criteria (target status). (On the basis of ISO 19011:2018)

Result of the comparison of the audit criteria (target status) with the audit evidence (actual status). Audit findings can either demonstrate the agreement (conformity) with the audit criteria, deviations [nonconformity], or potential improvement (conformity). (On the basis of ISO 19011:2018)

Auditor who leads the audit team. He or she has the overall responsibility for the audit. An audit (team) leader‘s fundamental tasks are: Audit planning and resource usage in the audit; representing the audit team with respect to the client and the auditee; forming the audit team and assigning the tasks; leading the audit team in order to gather objective audit results and draw audit conclusions; preventing or solving conflicts including stopping the audit if the auditee is not providing support; time management for the performance of the audit; and preparing the audit report and deviation reports.

Control of the use of competent auditors in the different audit types and the review of the effectiveness of the audit system.

Detailed specification of the audit procedure and the activities for an audit. An audit plan is used to define the audit objectives, audit scope, auditors and areas or people to be audited. (On the basis of ISO 19011:2018)

Principles that constitute the basis for an effective audit. ISO 19011 lists the following seven principles: Integrity, fair presentation, due professional care, confidentiality, independence, evidence-based approach and risk-based approach. (On the basis of ISO 19011:2018)

One or more audits planned for a specific time frame with a specific purpose in mind. An audit program also includes the planning (including resources), organization and performance of audits. (On the basis of ISO 19011:2018)

Questioning technique in the audit. This refers to how the auditor engages people to talk. Open questions (WH questions: who, what, where, when, why and how questions) result in a great deal of information and are therefore preferable. Suggestive questions can interfere with the atmosphere of the talk, and alternative questions allow for incorrect answers. Closed questions limit the possible answers and the auditee cannot freely structure the answer. Chain questions are problematic. The person being interviewed is flooded with questions, looks for the simplest one and no longer responds to the others.

Documentation from audit: e.g., completed checklists or handwritten records.

Report that contains the outcome of an audit. As a rule, the outcome is delivered to the client after the audit. The report contains the audit objectives and audit scope, audit number with date, audited location, client, type of audit, audit basis, audit participants, audit representative, auditor, auditor team, audit findings, audit conclusions, remark about the follow-up audit, summarizing assessment, signature of the lead auditor and date.

Description of the extent and boundaries of an audit, such as physical and virtual locations, functions organizational units, processes, activities, and time period covered. (On the basis of ISO 19011:2018)

An audit team leader and one or more additional auditors constitute the audit team. Where necessary, they are supported by technical experts with specific knowledge in the sector or the subject. Auditors-in-training can also supplement the audit team. (On the basis of ISO 19011:2018)

Character of an audit. There are many types of audits that are specific to a company. The normal distinctions are between first, second and third party audits and between system, process and product audits.

Organization or parts thereof being audited. (On the basis of ISO 19011:2018)

Person who conducts an audit. (On the basis of ISO 19011:2018). Average outgoing quality. Expected number of defective parts in a lot according to a sampling inspection.

Systematic examinations or reviews conducted to evaluate processes, operations, or systems for compliance, accuracy, or efficiency.

Feature in software or applications automatically populating data into fields based on predefined patterns or previous entries.

In manufacturing, systems or processes that trigger actions or operations based on predetermined time intervals or triggers.

Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG): A global automotive trade association with about 2,600-plus member companies that focuses on common business processes, implementation guidelines, education and training.

Autonomation: A form of automation in which machinery automatically inspects each item after producing it and ceases production and notifies humans if a defect is detected. Toyota expanded the meaning of jidohka to include the responsibility of all workers to function similarly—to check every item produced and, if a defect is detected, make no more until the cause of the defect has been identified and corrected. Also see “jidohka.”

Lean manufacturing principle where machines stop or alert when abnormalities occur, enabling operators to address issues promptly.

Availability: The ability of a product to be in a state to perform its designated function under stated conditions at a given time.

The total time available for a process to operate or perform tasks within a given time frame, excluding downtime or interruptions.

Statistical measure representing the central tendency of a data set, calculated by summing values and dividing by the number of observations.

Average chart: A control chart in which the subgroup average, X-bar, is used to evaluate the stability of the process level.

Average outgoing quality (AOQ): The expected average quality level of an outgoing product for a given value of incoming product quality.

Graphical representation showing the trend of the average quality level of items leaving a process over time or quantity produced.

Average outgoing quality limit (AOQL): The maximum average outgoing quality over all possible levels of incoming quality for a given acceptance sampling plan and disposal specification.

In quality control, a measure estimating the average proportion of non-conforming items in a sample from a process.

Average run lengths (ARL): On a control chart, the number of subgroups expected to be inspected before a shift in magnitude takes place.

Average sample number (ASN): The average number of sample units inspected per lot when reaching decisions to accept or reject.

Average total inspection (ATI): The average number of units inspected per lot, including all units in rejected lots (applicable when the procedure calls for 100% inspection of rejected lots).

Graphical representation indicating the overall inspection rate or efficiency concerning the total items inspected over time.

See EFQM Excellence Award, Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award, Ludwig-Erhard-Preis.