| affinity diagram | A tool used to organize data into logical categories.
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| appraisal costs | Costs of activities designed to ensure quality or uncover defects
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| Baldrige Award | Annual award given by the U.S. government to recognize quality achievements of U.S. companies.
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| benchmarking | Process of measuring performance against the best in the same or another industry.
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| brainstorming | Technique for generating a free flow of ideas in a group of people.
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| cause-and-effect diagram | A diagram used to search for the cause(s) of a problem; also called fishbone diagram.
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| check sheet | A tool for recording and organizing data to identify a problem.
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| continuous improvement | Philosophy that seeks to make never-ending improvements to the process of converting inputs into outputs.
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| control chart | A statistical chart of time-ordered values of a sample statistic.
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| Deming Prize | Prize established by the Japanese and awarded annually to firms that distinguish themselves with quality management programs.
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| DMAIC | A six-sigma process: define, measure, analyze, improve, and control.
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| dimensions of quality | Performance, aesthetics, special features, conformance, reliability, durability, perceived quality, and serviceability.
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| European Quality Award | European award for organizational excellence.
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| external failures | Failures discovered after delivery to the customer.
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| fail-safing | Incorporating design elements that prevent incorrect procedures.
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| failure costs | Costs caused by defective parts or products or by faulty services.
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| 5W2H approach | A method of asking questions about a process that includes what, why, where, when, who, how, and how much.
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| flowchart | A diagram of the steps in a process.
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| histogram | A chart of an empirical frequency distribution.
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| internal failures | Failures discovered during production.
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| International Asia Pacific Quality Award | An award for countries around the Pacific and Indian oceans, in recognition of contributions to quality improvement.
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| interviewing | Techniques for identifying problems and collecting information.
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| ISO 9000 | A set of international standards on quality management and quality assurance, critical to international business.
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| ISO 14000 | A set of international standards for assessing a company's environmental performance.
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| Pareto analysis | Technique for classifying problem areas according to degree of importance, and focusing on the most important.
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| plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle | A framework for problem solving and improvement activities.
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| prevention costs | Costs of preventing defects from occurring.
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| process improvement | A systematic approach to improving a process.
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| quality | The ability of a product or service to consistently meet or exceed customer expectations.
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| quality at the source | The philosophy of making each worker responsible for the quality of his or her work.
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| quality circles | Groups of workers who meet to discuss ways of improving products or processes.
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| quality of conformance | The degree to which goods or services conform to the intent of the designers.
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| quality of design | Intention of designers to include or exclude features in a product or service.
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| return on quality | An approach that evaluates the financial return of investments in quality.
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| run chart | Tool for tracking results over a period of time.
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| scatter diagram | A graph that shows the degree and direction of relationship between two variables.
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| six sigma | A business process for improving quality, reducing costs, and increasing customer satisfaction.
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| total quality mangement (TQM) | A philosophy that involves everyone in an organization in a continual effort to improve quality and achieve customer satisfaction.
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