CQP Foundation Level
Quality Management Systems glossary
Every term this guide defines, A to Z, each with the chapter that teaches it. Open it when a word in a question is unfamiliar, and test yourself on it in the last week: cover the definition and say it in one sentence.
8 terms from the free first chapter
D
- Degree
Quality is a matter of more or less, not of yes or no. A product either conforms to its specification or does not, but the specification itself may be set high or low.
G
- Grade
A category assigned to objects having the same functional use but different requirements. A three-star and a five-star hotel in Diani are different grades; either can be poor quality if it fails its own grade's requirements.
I
- Inherent
Belonging to the thing itself, not assigned to it. The tensile strength of a steel bar is inherent; its price is not, so price is not a quality characteristic.
Q
- Quality assurance (QA)
The part focused on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled. It is prevention: procedures, competence, audits and documented evidence applied before and during the work.
- Quality control (QC)
The part of quality management focused on fulfilling quality requirements. It is detection: inspection, testing and measurement applied to output that already exists.
- Quality management
Coordinated activities to direct and control an organisation with regard to quality: setting the policy and objectives, then planning, controlling, assuring and improving.
- Quality management system (QMS)
The part of a management system that deals with quality: the processes, the people, the documented information and the resources, taken together as one interacting whole rather than as separate departments.
R
- Requirements
A need or expectation that is stated, generally implied, or obligatory. A customer states delivery in seven days; the market generally implies that packaged milk will not be sour; the Standards Act makes a KEBS compulsory standard obligatory.
The full glossary adds every term from the other 12 chapters, A to Z, each with the chapter that teaches it.