Glossary
Whether you’re new to the quality and continuous improvement arena or a seasoned expert seeking detailed information on a specific quality topic, you should find what you need in our Glossary of Terms.
Explore the concepts, tools, applications and technical terms that make up the world of continuous improvement.
c Chart
A measure of quality of a process obtained by comparing the actual process to the specification limits.
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Capability
A measure of quality that is derived by comparing the voice of the process (a distribution) to the voice of the customer (specification limits). Capability measures include sigma level, sigma capability, Cp, Cpk, and defects per million (dpm).
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Causality
The concept of Causality refers to the set of all particular "causal" or "cause-and-effect" relations. Most generally, causation is a relationship that holds between events, properties and variables and implies that at least some relationship of dependency between the Cause and the Effect exists.
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Cause and Effect Diagram
Also known as a Fishbone or Ishikawa diagram, this tool is used to categorise, display and examine potential causes or factors relating to an observed output.
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Cell
The location of process steps in close proximity to enable parts and documents to be processed either as single piece flow or in small batch sizes to increase production flow.
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Central Composite Designs (CCD)
A 3 level design that starts with a 2 level fractional factorial and some centre points. If needed, axial points can be tested to complete quadratic terms. Typically used for quantitative factors and designed to estimate all linear effects plus desired quadratics and two-way interactions.
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Central Limit Theorem (CLT)
The theorem states that the sum of a large number of independent observations from the same distribution has, under certain conditions, an approximate normal distribution. Furthermore, the approximation is proven to steadily improve as the number of observations increases.
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Central Tendency
Measures of Central Tendency are measures of the location or the middle or centre of a distribution. There are a number of measures of central tendency however the most common are the mean, median, and mode.
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Champions for Lean Six Sigma
Lean Six Sigma Project Champions play a critical role in establishing and maintaining a Lean Six Sigma Management System to ensure delivery of sustainable and breakthrough results. Champions need to understand the key concepts and methods of Lean Six Sigma. Of equal importance, they need to understand their critical role in aligning, motivating and managing all elements of the organisation to implement a Six Sigma Management System.
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Change Agent
A Change Agent in the context of business is someone who is involved in bringing about changes to an organisations culture and or the behaviour of its workforce.
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Change Management
Change Management is the process by which an organisation strategically plans to bring about change within the organisation. The objective for change is often to bring about improvements within the organisation, primarily through bringing about behavioural changes with its workforce and therefore be default with the way it conducts its business operations.
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Changeover
The process of switching from the production of one part or product to another part or product. The changeover time is measured from the time elapsed between the last good part of the previous part or product and the first good part of the next good part or product.
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Chi-square Distribution
The Chi-square Distribution is derived from the Normal Distribution and is the distribution of a sum of squared Normal distributed variables. The importance of the Chi-square distribution stems from the fact that it describes the distribution of the Variance of a sample taken from a Normal distributed population.
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CNX
CNX is a Six Sigma term used to describe purposeful change. That is to control with SOP, with noise, through experiment.
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Competitive Manufacturing
Competitive Manufacturing Training Package covers in detail many Lean and Six Sigma methodologies such as; Value Stream Mapping, 5S and Visual Controls, TPM, JIT, Mistake Proofing, Root Cause Analysis, Variance Reduction, Statistical Process Control, Change Management and much more. The aim is to ensure that the program will introduce manufacturing concepts and processes to organisations to enable them to gain world class effectiveness of operations.
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Confidence Interval
A Confidence Interval gives an estimated range of values that are likely to include an unknown population parameter, the estimated range being calculated from a given set of sample data.
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Confounding
Two samples are considered to be confounded when their test profiles contain the same pattern of test setting therefore making preventing evaluation of the two factors independently.
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Constraints Theory
Constraints Theory is founded upon the notion that in any business structure there tends to be one or more factors in play that are preventing an organisation reaching its full potential. When it is considered that a process is simply a series of interconnected steps or events, if one or more of these events are causing a constraint then this prevents the process achieving its maximum potential. Since the core objective of any company must surely be to maximize the efficiency of its overall operations, it becomes imperative that these constraints are identified and for continuous improvements practices to be implemented to reduce or at least control the impact of the constraint.
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Continuous Data
Data that is derived from measurement on a continuous scale, e.g. time, mass, speed.
Continuous Flow
Producing and moving one item (or a small batch of items) at a time through a series of processing steps as continuously as possible, with each step making just what is requested by the next step.
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Contour Plot
A Contour plot is a graphical technique for representing a 3-Dimensional surface by plotting constant z slices, called contours, on a 2-Dimensional format. For a given value for z, lines are drawn for connecting the x and y coordinates where that z value occurs.
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Control Chart
Is a graphical tool for monitoring changes that occur within a process to enable the identification of variation that is inherent in the process. Variation is denoted as a single point of change or a series of points of change. These changes are a graphical representation that something is different within the process being measured.
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Control Limits
Upper and lower bounds on a control chart that are determined by the process itself, usually plus or minus 3 standard deviations from the centreline.
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Correlation
Correlation is a statistical technique that indicates the strength and direction of a linear relationship between two Random Variables. It refers to the refers to the departure of two variables from independence, although Correlation does not imply Causality.
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Correlation Coefficient (r)
A measure of the linear relationship between two random variables.
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Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ)
The cost of (waste) associated with all processes within a business including internal and external failures, appraisal, prevention, and lost opportunities. COPQ can be described as not doing the right thing right the first time or the costs associated with the 8 wastes.
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Cp (Process Capability Potential)
A capability index that shows the process capability potential but does not consider if the process is centred. A value of 1.33 or greater is desired.
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Cpk (Process Capability)
A capability index shows the actual process capability compared to the specification limits. A value of 1.33 or greater is desired.
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Critical Path
The sequence of tasks from beginning to end that takes the longest time to complete. This is also the shortest possible time the project can be finished in.
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Critical to Quality (CTQ)
Critical to Quality are the key measurable characteristics of a product or process whose performance standards or specification limits must be met to satisfy the Voice of the Customer. They represent the product or service characteristics defined by the customer and they most often include the upper and lower specification limits or any other factors related to the product or service.
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Current State Maps
A Value Stream Map of the current or present state or conditions, which displays in pictorial form all processes, data, flows and inventory holdings.
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Customer
Groups or individuals who have a business relationship with the organisation and who receive and use or are directly affected by the products and services of the organisation. Customers include direct recipients of products and services, internal customers who produce services and products for final recipients and other organisations that interact with an organisation to produce products and services.
Cycle Time
The elapsed time for a product to progress completely through its process from the start of the first step to the end of the last step.