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.
Independence
When two events are statistically Independent of each other, it means that knowing whether one of them occurs makes it neither more probable nor less probable that the other occurs. In other words, the occurrence of one event does not affect the outcome of the occurrence of the other event. When we are confident that two random variables are Independent, we are stating that the value of one of them does not yield any information about the value of the other.
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Individuals Moving Range Chart (ImR)
The Individuals Moving Range Chart, also known as the Shewhart Chart is a set of variable control charts designed to enable the analysis of variation within a process and to facilitate planning and management decision making.
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Input
Input is the term used for the source of variation that may affect a process and these variations can typically be categorised using the 6 Ms.
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Input Process Output Diagram (IPO)
Input Process Output is a pictorial tool that is used to describe a process in terms of its (Inputs), such as manpower, methods, machines, materials, motion, mother nature and their (Outputs), such as product, performance, services.
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Interaction
In statistics, an Interaction is the term using in process modeling in which the effect of two, or more, variables is not simply additive. The consequence of an Interaction is determined as the effect of one variable and its dependence upon the value of another. In Design of Experiments, the implication are that it may prove misleading should factors be varied one at a time.
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Interpolation
With process applications, data collected is usually always Discrete and the meanings of the data are not always well known. To estimate the outcomes a more analytically controllable function that fits the field data is required and this process of finding the coefficients for the fitting function is called Curve Fitting. The process for estimating the outcomes in between sampled data points is called Interpolation. The process of estimating the outcomes beyond the range covered by the existing data is called Extrapolation.
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Inventory
Inventory is materials and information present between process steps within a value stream. Inventory includes those products and bills or materials in bulk storage, stacked before process points or indeed finished goods which and ready for shipment.
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Ishikawa Diagram
Also known as a Fishbone or Cause and Effect diagram, this tool is used to categorise, display and examine potential causes or factors relating to an observed output.