{mospagebreak}Is a product that is visible once the vehicle is completed. Certain customers will identify appearance items on the engineering drawings. In these cases, special approval for appearance (color, grain, texture, etc.) is required prior to production part submissions

Software designed to fill specific needs of a user; for example, software for navigation, payroll, or process control. Contrast with support software; system software

Approved Materials are materials governed either by industry standard specifications (e.g., SAE, ASTM, DIN, ISO) or by customer specifications

Another term for a PERT or CPM chart. It is a graphic description of the sequential steps that must be completed before a project can be completed

A model that represents the current stage of the organization modeled, without any specific improvements included

A logical expression specifying a program state that must exist or a set of conditions that program variables must satisfy at a particular point during program execution

Checking of user-embedded statements that assert relationships between elements of a program. An assertion is a logical expression that specifies a condition or relation among program variables. Tools that test the validity of assertions as the program is executing or tools that perform formal verification of assertions have this feature

An evaluation process including a document review, an on-site audit and an analysis and report. Customers may also include a self-assessment, internal audit results and other materials in the assessment

A source of variation which is non-random; a change in the source ("VITAL FEW" variables) will produce a significant change of some magnitude in the response (dependent variable), e.g., a correlation exists; the change may be due to an intermittent in-phase effect or a constant cause system which may or may not be highly predictable; an assignable cause is often signaled by an excessive number of data points outside a control limit and/or a non-random pattern within the control limits; an unnatural source of variation; most often economical to eliminate

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 / Or / Numerical information at the nominal level; subdivision is not conceptually meaningful; data which represents the frequency of occurrence within some discrete category, e.g., 42 solder shorts / Or / Product, process , or component data that is qualitative, rather than quantitative in nature. 2. Product, process , or component data that is measured strictly by either conforming or not

A periodic inspection to ensure that a process is conforming to its specifications / Or / An independent review conducted to compare some aspect of quality performance with a standard for that performance. (Juran, Quality Control Handbook) / Or / An independent examination of a work product or set of work products to assess compliance with specifications, standards, contractual agreements, or other criteria. (2) (ANSI) To conduct an independent review and examination of system records and activities in order to test the adequacy and effectiveness of data security and data integrity procedures, to ensure compliance with established policy and operational procedures, and to recommend any necessary changes 

The ability of a product to be in a state to perform its designated function under stated conditions at a given time. Availability can be expressed by the ratio: uptime divided by (uptime + downtime) being when the product is operative (in active use and in standby state) and downtime being when the product is inoperative time (while under repair, awaiting spare parts, and so on)

The maximum average outgoing quality over all possible levels of incoming quality for a given acceptance sampling plan and disposal specification

Variables which are of no experimental interest and are not held constant. Their effects are often assumed insignificant or negligible, or they are randomized to ensure that contamination of the primary response does not occur

A framework which translates a company's vision and strategy into a coherent set of performance measures. Developed by Robert Kaplan and David Norton (published in the Harvard Business Review in 1993), a balanced business scorecard helps businesses evaluate how well they meet their strategic objectives. It typically has four to six components, each with a series of sub-measures. Each component highlights one aspect of the business. The balanced scorecard includes measures of performance that are lagging (return on capital, profit), medium-term indicators (like customer satisfaction indices) and leading indicators (such as adoption rates for, or revenue from, new products).

An annual award given to a United States company that excels in quality management and quality achievement [Same as MBNA.]

A chart that compares different groups of data to each other through the use of bars that represent each group. Bar charts can be simple, in which each group of data consists of a single type of data, or grouped or stacked, in which the groups of data are broken down into internal categories

The current condition that exists in a situation or representation (model) of a situation. Usually used to differentiate between a current and a future representation / Or / A specification or product that has been formally reviewed and agreed upon, that serves as the basis for further development, and that can be changed only through formal change control procedures

A definite quantity of some product or material produced under conditions that are considered uniform / Or / Pertaining to a system or mode of operation in which inputs are collected and processed all at one time, rather than being processed as they arrive, and a job, once started, proceeds to completion without additional input or user interaction. Contrast with conversational, interactive, on-line, real time

The results of an investigation to determine how competitors and/or best in class companies achieve their level of performance

A method of measuring processes against those of recognized leaders to establish priorities and targets leading to process improvement. It is undertaken by identifying strategies, customers, processes and costs to benchmark and their key characteristics; determining who to benchmark; collecting and analyzing data from direct contact, survey, interviews, technical journals and advertisements; determining the "best of class" from each benchmark item identified; and evaluating the process in terms of improvement goals / Or / A technique that involves comparing one's own processes to excellent examples of similar processes in other organizations or departments. Through benchmarking, rapid learning can occur, and processes can undergo dramatic improvements

A way or method of accomplishing a business function or process that is considered to be superior to all other known methods

A systematic error, which contributes to the difference between a population mean of measurements or test results and an accepted reference value

A term used to contrast the difference between managing for quality in all business processes and products (big Q) and managing for quality in a limited capacity traditionally in only factory products and processes (little q).

A structured listing of the sequence of activities performed to produce a unit of a product or service. Similar in concept to a bill of materials (BOM), which is a structured list of the components of a product

A leadership structure for Six sigma process improvement teams. Black Belts are highly regarded, technically oriented product or line personnel who have an ability to lead teams as well as to advise management

(1)Testing that ignores the internal mechanism or structure of a system or component and focuses on the outputs generated in response to selected inputs and execution conditions. (2) Testing conducted to evaluate the compliance of a system or component with specified functional requirements and corresponding predicted results. Syn. functional testing, input/output driven testing. Contrast with white-box testing

The block diagram is a simple pictorial representation of a system/sub systems linked to illustrate the relationships between components/subsystems / Or / a diagram that shows the operation, interrelationships, and interdependencies of components in a system. Boxes, or blocks (hence the name), represent the components; connecting lines between the blocks represent interfaces. There are two types of block diagrams: a functional block diagram, which shows a system’s subsystems and lower-level products, their interrelationships, and interfaces with other systems; and a reliability block diagram, which is similar to the functional block diagram except that it is modified to emphasize those aspects influencing reliability 

A relatively homogenous set of conditions within which different conditions of the primary variables are compared. Used to ensure that background variables do not contaminate the evaluation of primary variables