Glossary Terms Archive - Page 3 of 5

Judgment sampling

August 5th, 2013

Approach that involves making educated guesses about which items or people are representative of a whole, generally to be avoided.

A decision making using criteria and facts; supporting “intuition” with data; tools used include process measurement, process management techniques, and rational decision-making tools (e.g., criteria matrix).

Measure

August 5th, 2013

DMAIC phase M, where key measures are identified, and data are collected, compiled, and displayed 2. A quantified evaluation of specific characteristics and/or level of performance based on observable data.

Moment of truth

August 5th, 2013

Any event or point in a process when the external customer has an opportunity to form an opinion (positive, neutral, or negative) about the process or organization.

Multivoting

August 5th, 2013

Narrowing and prioritization tool. Faced with a list of ideas, problems, causes, etc., each member a group is given a set number of “votes.” Those receiving the most votes get further attention/consideration.

Non-value-adding activities

August 5th, 2013

Steps/tasks in a process that do not add value to the external customer and do not meet all three criteria for value-adding; includes rework, handoffs, inspection/control, wait/delays, etc.See also Value-Adding Activities.

Operational definition

August 5th, 2013

A clear, precise description of the factor being measured or the term being used; ensures a clear understanding of terminology and the ability to operate a process or collect data consistently.

Output

August 5th, 2013

Any product, service, or piece of information coming out of, or resulting from, the activities in a process.

Output measures

August 5th, 2013

Measures related to and describing the output of the process; total figures/overall measures.

Pareto Chart

August 7th, 2013

Quality tool based on Pareto Principle; uses attribute data with columns arranged in descending order, with highest occurrences (highest bar) shown first; uses a cumulative line to track percentages of each category/bar, which distinguishes the 20 percent of items causing 80 percent of the problem.

Pareto Principle

August 7th, 2013

The 80/20 rule; based on Vilfredo Pareto’s research stating that the vital few (20 percent of causes have a greater impact than the trivial many (80 percent) causes with a lesser impact.

Pilot

August 7th, 2013

Trial implementation of a solution, on a limited scale, to ensure its effectiveness and test its impact; an experiment verifying a root cause hypothesis.

Plan-Do-Check-Act, or PDCA

August 7th, 2013

Basic model or set of steps in continuous improvement; also referred to as “Shewhart Cycle” or “Deming Cycle.”

Precision

August 7th, 2013

The ability of the measurement to measure consistently. This links to the type of scale or detail of your operational definition, but it can have an impact on your sample size, too.

Problem/Opportunity statement

August 7th, 2013

Description of the symptoms or the “pain” in the process; usually written in noun-verb structure: usually included in a team charter and supported with numbers and more detail once data have been obtained. See also Charter.

Process capability

August 7th, 2013

Determination of whether a process, with normal variation, is capable of meeting customer requirements; measure of the degree a process is/is not meeting customer requirements, compared to the distribution of the process. See also Control; Control Charts.

Glossary Terms

Judgment sampling

Management-by-fact

Measure

Moment of truth

Multivoting

Non-value-adding activities

Operational definition

Output

Output measures

Pareto Chart

Pareto Principle

Pilot

Plan-Do-Check-Act, or PDCA

Precision

Problem/Opportunity statement

Process capability

Process design

Process improvement

Process map, or flowchart

Process management

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