Client:
the beneficiary of a product or service supplied by the company.
Based on this definition, companies may be seen each time as suppliers and
clients, depending on the side they are. This concept may be extended for instance
to employees. An employee receives something from someone else, playing in this case
the role of a client, and this employee is supplying something to someone else,
playing in this case the role of a supplier.
Process:
transformation of inputs into outputs under correlated activities.
Understanding previous definition and linking it to the current one, we may
reach the conclusion that processes may be seen as supplier processes and
client processes. Extending this concept, we can understand that an overall
process is an assembly of smaller processes.
Product:
is the output of a process. Usually, the term product is used for
tangible things like a car, furniture, pen, etc. However, the ISO 9000:2000
standard identifies four classes of products such as services (communication
services), software (computer program), hardware (car, furniture, pen),
and processed materials (paint thinner). Understanding these classes, it’s easy
to find out that many products contains incorporated some of these classes.
Quality Managament System:
a management system in which an organization is oriented and controlled regarding quality.
Quality management system is part of the overall management system of the company, along
with other management systems like human resource management system, supplier management
system, environmental management system, health and safety management system, etc.
In every single company such system exists, even if they are not well known. As an example,
every company has some sort of prevention methods for safety of employees, also is concerned
of reducing the consumptions. A certain level of product quality is achieved most of the
time, either is lower or higher. This is an example of co-existence of three management
systems in a company.
Requirement:
the need or expectation which is declared to be achieved. Most of the time requirements are
mandatory. When a customer says that wants a metal bar with a certain metal specification,
having certain dimensions, we understand what a requirement is. It’s unlikely that the
customer with accept a metal with other specification or with other dimensions. In this
example is possible however that alternate materials or dimensions to be accepted by the
client, but the goal of the client is to get something that is useful for further use.
Quality Assurance:
is part of the quality management system which is concerned with the supplying of
full confidence that requirements related to quality will be achieved. As an example,
the quality control intention is to determine either if a product is within specification
limits or not.
Conformity:
is the fulfillment of a requirement. Returning to that example with metal bar,
if the client will be provided by the company with the exact specification of
material and requested dimensions, is obviously that the company achieved the
conformity in supplying that product, in accordance with requirements stated initially.
Nonconformance:
non fulfillment of a requirement. Once again we go back to the example given in
the requirement definition. If the company accepted the client order initially
and will fail to deliver the metal bar with that specification and dimensions,
there is a nonconformance. The client is provided with a product that is for no
further use. Please note that nonconformance is a wide term, which refer to product
especially (non fulfillment of a requirement). But for instance, when an
objective was set for a process, like x% rejection rate and that percentage is
exceeded, there is a nonconformance related to that initially set
objective. Another example of nonconformance may be encountered when a process
is operating without complying with the documentation set for it. In this
case, the requirement is: the process must follow the applicable documentation.
Corrective Action:
is the action taken to eliminate the cause of the nonconformance. Every problem
has a cause that lead to emergence of the problem. Identifying the primary
cause is the aim of analyze for fully solving a problem. It’s not enough just
to rework the product for instance; is needed also a method for preventing the
recurrence of the problem. Usually, the Analyze of Multiple Cause method should
be used in order to determine the primary cause of a problem. It’s useless to
apply a corrective action to an apparent cause. The main cause still exists, and
will generate the same problem again, meaning that resources were provided without
a good result. Valuable companies understands the true value of the corrective action
and spends quite amounts of time to identify the primary cause of problems.
Preventive Action:
it's similar in concept with the corrective action but in this case is applied
to potential nonconformance. The first difference comes from the apparition or
not of the nonconformance. Corrective action is strictly applied to nonconformances
that appear, while preventive action is applied to problems that might appear, in
order to prevent them. As an example, many preventive actions appear in the design
and development phase of a product, when are analyzed the characteristics of the
product and is made an analyze regarding what might go wrong. Another difference
in our opinion regarding corrective and preventive action comes up usually from
the amount of information needed to establish adequate actions. While usually for
corrective action is needed a smaller amount of information, for a good preventive
action is needed a lot of information.
Correction:
action needed to eliminate a nonconformance that occurred. Based on this
definition, the following example will clarify this term. When a product
is found as nonconforming, let’s say the length of a metal bar is exceeding
given specification, the correction needed for that is to cut the bar to
specified length. Correction is the action needed to comply with stated requirement.
Some time a correction may be applied, other times is not possible.
Document:
is the information along with its support, which may be a paper
or electronic format. Various documents are used daily. Examples of documents
are: a standard, a drawing, a written procedure, etc.
Record: a
document that states the achieved results. Correlating these two definitions,
result that a record may be on paper or in electronic format. A good quality
management system contains enough amounts of records which prove the conformance
with stated requirements. This should not lead to an extended bureaucracy, however.
Effectiveness:
it’s simply the achievement of established objectives.
Efficiency:
is the level of resources used to achieve established objectives. Having these
definitions is clear that in good quality management systems, these two terms
has to be used in conjunction. Obviously, it’s important to discuss about
achievement of objectives; a company that achieved planned objectives is happy,
but it has also to take into consideration how much resources were used for
that. Achieving a small objective with high amounts of resources can’t lead
the company to good performance (most of the time when such situations occur
there are only few steps until bankruptcy). Valuable companies achieve important
objectives managing needed resources in an intelligent manner. After all, every
company has a goal of maximizing the profit, by cutting down the costs and to
be better compared to previous moments.
Quality Policy:
is the orientation of the company regarding the quality. Quality policy is decided
by the top management of the company, in accordance with its vision and mission.
Quality Objectives:
more precised identification of what is to be achieved within quality policy.
These two definitions shouldn’t be used separately. Valuable companies have
very good visions for the future and decide adequate missions. As part of the
vision and mission, quality policy usually set the long term orientation of the
company regarding quality. Setting the path (needed steps) to fulfill the policy
is made using quality objectives. As an example, a company decides to achieve an
increased solidity of the quality of the products, within next 3 years, so that
to beat the competition. This is a quality policy. To achieve that, the company
will constantly monitor competitor’s performance regarding quality and will set, from
time to time, new quality objectives such: in the first year, the maximum number
of defective products returned to us will be that amount, in the second year will
be that amount, and so on. These are quality objectives. The above example is
a very simple one. Just think to quality of a product: is influenced by many,
many factors, like supplier performance, adequacy of processes inside the company,
the quality of human resource, the quality of managers, the infrastructure used to
make the product, etc. For each of these items quality objectives may be set,
which will be in concordance with the quality policy. New example for quality
objective: periodical training of workers so that the capability of product to
increase from actual 1.21 to minimum 1.44. As you can see, the quality policy is
more general, setting a main target for quality. The quality objectives set to approach
the policy are focused on more detailed items and are quantified, so that to allow
comparison of results with established objectives.
