Definitions

Quality Auditing

A process of comparing the documented description of a quality control system to the way the system is actually operating. Properly done, the audit provides a management tool for improvement of the system, and hence of the product or service produced. There are no "surprise inspections" and no "witch hunting" involved. Internal audits are used to guide continuous improvement within an organization, while external audits guarantee that suppliers have the capability to deliver what they promise.

ISO 9000

An international standard for quality control systems. An organization which complies with the standard, as determined by an accredited external auditor, may advertise that it is ISO 9000 certified. This assures its customers that they may judge the organization's quality control system by the documentation that is offered, without the expense and delay of performing another audit.

Quality Manuals

The documents that describe an organization's quality control system. They take different forms depending on the nature and size of the organization. The important thing is that they paint a true picture of the quality system, including all the detail that is necessary to serve as a practical reference in the workplace. At the same time, the manual must strictly avoid unnecessary procedures. An inflated manual

• causes the workers to think of the whole system as a motivational program unrelated to the "real world."
• appears as either incompetence or dishonesty when a potential customer audits the system
• often results in unexpected obligations when the manual is included in a contract by reference.

Statistical Process Control

A way of distinguishing the normal variation in a process from changes that require special attention. It is the foundation of modern Quality Control.

Root Cause Analysis

The method of finding what must be fixed in order to prevent the recurrence of a problem, as opposed to working around the problem.

XML

The eXtensible Markup Language is a type of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) that is very similar to the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) used for most web pages. It differs from HTML in several significant ways, most notably in allowing the author to define new language elements as needed. XML elements are tied to the meaning of their contents, as opposed to the way they should appear on a page or computer screen. Layout instructions for a particular use are kept separate from the XML, and the same information can be laid out differently by using a different set of instructions. The primary reference for XML is www.w3.org/XML.

PHP

PHP is an object-oriented scripting language designed to work in an HTML environment. It can be used to generate web pages on the fly based on information in a database, and it can respond to user inputs. Since the script runs on the web server, it places no demands on the user's computer. The primary reference for PHP is www.php.net.

Heliotrope

1. (a) Any plant which turns toward the sun, as the sunflower, the marigold. (b) Any of a genus (Heliotropium, esp. H. peruvianum) of herbs of the borage family, having fragrant white or purple flowers; turnsole. (c) The common valerian (Valeriana officinalis).
2. Bloodstone, a green chalcedony sprinkled with red spots, as if of blood.
3. A color, reddish blue-red in hue, of medium saturation and low brilliance.

A piano rag by Scott Joplin and Louis Chauvin (1907). Not to be confused with Sunflower Slow Drag by Scott Joplin and Scott Hayden (1901).

Home Page