3 Definitions T 39

Terms, definitions and books related to quality and audits

The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms. Socrates

The majority of the terms and definitions of the QSEquality, safety, environment standards are identical. A small number of the terms have slightly different definitions.

Some terms specific to quality:

Customer: anyone who receives a product
Customer satisfaction: top priority objective of every quality management system related to the satisfaction of customer requirements
External provider (supplier): an entity that provides a product
Organization (company): a structure that satisfies a need
Product (or service): every result of a process or activity
Quality: aptitude to fulfill requirements
Quality objectives: quality related, measurable goal that must be achieved
Stakeholder: person, group or company that can affect or be affected by an organization

Examples of interested parties: investors, customers, external providers, employees and social, public or political organizations

Some terms specific to occupational health and safety:

Acceptable risk: risk reduced to a tolerable level
Accident: undesired event causing death or health and environmental damages
Hazard: situation that could lead to an incident
Incident: undesired event that could lead to health damages
Occupational health and safety: everything that can influence the wellbeing of the personnel in a company
Safety: aptitude to avoid an undesired event

Some terms specific to environment:

Compliance obligation: legal and other requirements
Environment: space in which any organization functions
Environmental aspect: every element of an organization that interacts with the environment
Environmental impact: every change in the environment caused by an organization
Environmental objective: environment related, measurable goal that must be achieved
Environmental performance: measurable results of the environmental management system
Environmental indicator: value of a parameter, associated with an environmental objective, allowing the objective measure of its effectiveness

Some common terms:

Audit client: everyone requesting an audit
Audit conclusions: outcome of an audit
Audit criteria: everything against which audit evidence is compared
Audit findings: every deviation from audit criteria
Auditee: everyone who is audited
Auditor: everyone who is trained to carry out audits
Competence: personal skills, knowledge and experiences
Conformity: fulfillment of a specified requirement
Corrective action: action to eliminate the causes of nonconformity or any other undesirable event to prevent their recurrence
Document: any support allowing the treatment of information
Indicator: value of a parameter, associated with an objective, allowing the objective measure of its effectiveness
Management system: integrated system allowing objectives to be achieved
Nonconformity: non-fulfillment of a specified requirement
Requirement: explicit or implicit need or expectation
Risk: likelihood of occurrence of a threat or an opportunity
Top management: group or persons in charge of the organizational control at the highest level

In the terminology of integrated management systems, do not confuse the following:

anomaly, defect, dysfunction, failure, nonconformity, reject and waste
- an anomaly is a deviation from what is expected
- defect is the non-fulfillment of a requirement related to an intended use
- dysfunction is a degraded function which can lead to a failure
- failure is when a function has become unfit
- nonconformity is the non-fulfillment of a requirement in production
- reject is a nonconforming product which will be destroyed
- waste is when there are added costs but no value
accident and incident
- an accident is an unexpected serious event
- an incident is an event which can lead to an accident
audit and inspect
- to audit is to check and improve the IMS
- to inspect is to verify the conformity of a process or product
audit, auditee and auditor
- an audit is a process of evaluating and improving the IMS
- an auditee is the one who is audited
- an auditor is the one who conducts the audit
audit program and plan
- an audit program is the annual planning of the audits
- an audit plan is the description of the audit activities
communicate and inform
- to communicate is to pass on a message, listen to the reaction and discuss
- to inform is to give someone meaningful data
control and optimization
- control is meeting the objectives
- optimization is the search for the best possible results
customer, external provider and subcontractor
- a customer receives a product
- an external provider provides a product
- a subcontractor provides a service or a product on which a specific work is done
effectiveness and efficiency
- effectiveness is the level of achievement of planned results
- efficiency is the ratio between results and resources
environmental aspect and impact
- environmental aspect is the element which reacts with the environment
- environmental impact is the change of the environment resulting from an aspect
follow-up and review
- follow-up is the verification of the obtained results of an action
- review is the analysis of the effectiveness in achieving objectives
hazard and risk
- hazard is the state, the situation, the source which can lead to an accident
- risk is the measurement, the consequence of a hazard
indicator and objective
- an indicator is the information on the difference between the achieved result and the pre-set objective
- an objective is a sought after commitment
organization and enterprise, society, company
- organization is the term used in the standard ISO 9001 as the entity between the supplier and the customer
- enterprise, society and company are examples of organizations
organizational chart and process map
- the organizational chart is the graphic display of departments and their links
- the process map is the graphic display of processes and their interaction
procedure, process, product, activity and task
- a procedure is the description of how we should conform to the rules
- a process is how we satisfy the customer using people to achieve the objectives
- a product is the result of a process
- an activity is a set of tasks
- a task is a sequence of simple operations

Remark 1: each time you use the term "improvement opportunity" instead of nonconformity, malfunction or failure, the auditee will gain a little more confidence in you.

Remark 2: the use of definitions from the ISO 19011, ISO 9000, ISO 45001 and ISO 14001 standards is recommended. The most important thing is to determine a common and unequivocal vocabulary for everyone in the company.

Remark 3: the customer can also be the user, the beneficiary, the initiator, the client, the prime contractor, the consumer.
Remark 4: ISO 19011 version 2018 uses the terms procedure ( ), record ( rec ) and documented information together. We prefer the terms document, procedure and record.