A process in which the statistical measure being evaluated is not in a state of statistical control, i.e., the variations among the observed sampling results can be attributed to a constant system of chance causes (see also in-control process)

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

A way of thinking about a given subject that defines how one views events, relationships, ideas, etc. within the boundaries of that subject

A point in the knowledge or structure which underlies a science or discipline changes in such a fundamental way that the belief and behavior of the people involved are changed

A graphical tool for ranking causes from most significant to least significant. It is based on the Pareto principle, which was first defined by J. M. Juran in 1950. The principle, named after 19th-century economist Vilfredo Pareto, suggests that most effects come from relatively few causes; that is, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the possible causes. The Pareto chart is one of the seven tools of quality

The idea that a few root problems are responsible for the large majority of consequences. The Pareto principle is derived from the work of Vilfredo Pareto, a turn-of-the-century Italian economist who studied the distributions of wealth in different countries. He concluded that a fairly consistent minority about 20% of people controlled the large majority about 80% of a society's wealth. This same distribution has been observed in other areas and has been termed the Pareto principle. It is defined by J.M. Juran as the idea that 80% of all effects are produced by only 20% of the possible causes

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

A control chart that determines the stability of a process by finding what percentage of total units in a sample are defective

An indicator that can be used to evaluate quality, cost, or cycle time characteristics of an activity or process usually against a target or standard value

Expectation of how often a job or task should be done right. An attitude that "I will do my job right the first time, every time" is such a standard

Process Failure Mode Effects Analysis: An analytical technique used to assure that potential process failure modes and associated causes have been considered and addressed

A chart that compares groups of data to the whole data set by showing each group as a "slice" of the entire "pie." Pie charts are particularly useful for investigating what percentage each group represents

(PDSA or PDCA) Originally Shewhart's Plan Do Check Act or the application of the scientific method to engineering and management. Deming later changed Check to Study. A look before you leap approach to standardization or maintenance (Standardize Do Check Act), solving problems and improvement or reactive mode (Check Act Plan Do) and achieving opportunities and new developments or proactive mode (Plan Do Check Act). . 

(PDCA) cycle A four-step improvement process originally conceived of by Walter A. Shewhart. The first step involves planning for the necessary improvement; the second step is the implementation of the plan; the third step is to check the results of the plan; the last step is to act upon the results of the plan. It is also known as the Shewhart cycle, the Deming cycle, and the PDCA cycle

Japanese approach to mistake proofing. Primarily activities for front line employees empowered to make changes to their work processes to enhance accuracy, safety, and efficiency

A technique a CPU can use to learn if a peripheral device is ready to receive data or to send data. In this method each device is checked or polled in-turn to determine if that device needs service. The device must wait until it is polled in order to send or receive data. This method is useful if the device's data can wait for a period of time before being processed, since each device must await its turn in the polling scheme before it will be serviced by the processor. Contrast with interrupt

The probability of rejecting the null hypothesis when it is false and accepting the alternate hypothesis when it is true

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

Preliminary 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 and R charts, at least twenty subgroups (typically three to five pieces) 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

The current value of a future series of cash flow given a discount factor or interest value. Used to evaluate the alternative investments

The practice of eliminating unwanted variation a priori (before the fact), e.g., predicting a future condition from a control chart and then applying corrective action before the predicted event transpires

A term used to contrast two types of quality activities. Prevention refers to those activities designed to prevent nonconformances in products and services. Detection refers to those activities designed to detect nonconformances already in products and services. Another term used to describe this distinction is designing in quality vs. inspecting in quality

What it costs to do things wrong, resulting in losses such as time, money and opportunity. An equation for estimating PONQ is: the amount of time required to fix a defect x the number of defects x the hourly wage rate (fully burdened with overhead, overtime, benefits, etc.).

The chance of something happening; the percent or number of occurrences over a large number of trials

Causing non conformance not to happen. Problem avoidance involves planning, proofing, and regulating job processes, thereby eliminating opportunities for error

A formalized problem identification and resolution procedure developed by the Problem Elimination Coordinator and utilized by all employees