Quality Assurance Terms Glossary/I

From Elsmar Cove Quality Assurance and Business Standards Wiki

I

IAF - International Accreditation Forum

IBNR - Sometimes used to make the point that some information or data may be "interesting, but not relevant". Management needs to know "what are we trying to learn from these data (what is the purpose of these data)?" "What do we know about how the data were obtained?" "What do the data tell us?" "What do the data not tell us that we need to know?"

See also: Fishing Expedition

Ideal Quality - A reference point identified by Taguchi for determining the quality level of a product or service.

ILAC - The International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation

Imagineering - A term used to describe creating a vision of a process or system as it would be in an ideal state.

IMDS - International Material Data System

Independent Variable - Variables (x’s) that influence the response of the dependent (or output) variable.

Individual Needs Assessment - A method for determining training needs at the worker level prior to developing and implementing training programs. Often associated with company literacy programs.

Induction - An approach to theory development based on observation and description. Although the process of induction is useful, it is subject to observer bias and misperception.

Infrastructure - System of facilities, equipment and services needed for the operation of an organization - acc ISO 9000:2005 3.3.3

Initiator Firm - The firm that is interested in benchmarking and initiates contact with benchmark firms.

In-Process Inspection - The practice of inspecting work, by the workers themselves, at each stage of the production process.

Inspection – (1) Functional Inspection: testing products in real or simulated conditions to see whether they work as intended. (2) Mass (100%) Inspection: looking at all products to screen out those that may be defective. (3) Sampling Inspection: looking at a fraction (a sample) of all the output to determine disposition of that output.

Instant Pudding - A term used to illustrate an obstacle to achieving quality: the supposition that quality and productivity improvement is achieved quickly through an affirmation of faith rather than through sufficient effort and education. W. Edwards Deming used this term in his book out of the crisis.

Intangible - A characteristic of services that means that services (unlike manufactured goods) cannot be inventoried or carried in stock over a long period of time.

Interference - Checking a feasibility test for product designs to make sure that wires, cabling, and tubing in products such as airplanes don’t conflict with each other.

Interchangability

Interested Party - person or group having an interest in the performance or success of an organization - acc to ISO 9000:2005 3.3.7

Internal Assessment - The act of searching for strengths and areas for improvement in quality deployment.

Internal Customer - Individuals within the organization that receive the work that other individuals within the same organization do.

Internal Failure Costs (1) Losses that occur while the product is in possession of the producer. These include rework and scrap costs. (2) Costs associated with defects found before the customer receives the product or service.

Internal Services - Services that are provided by internal company personnel. For example, data processing personnel are often considered providers of internal services.

Internal Validation - Method of studying the quality system to find gaps in quality deployment.

Interrelationship Digraph - A tool designed to help identify the causal relationships between the issues affecting a particular problem.

Intrinsic Motivation - Actions taken because of internal desires or needs for such things as satisfaction with doing a job well, engaging in meaningful work, feeling challenged, achieving a personal goal, growing in skill or gaining knowledge.

Investigation - Ability to find sources of competitive advantage in generic internal assessment.

Involuntary Services - a classification for services that are not sought by customers. These include hospitals, prisons, and the internal revenue service.

ISO 9000 Series of Documents including ISO 9001 - Consists of individual but related international standards on quality management and quality assurance. Developed to help companies effectively document the elements to be implemented in order to maintain an efficient quality system. It is a requirement often placed on manufacturing companies. The basic idea behind ISO 9000 methodology is that you document what you do, then you do what you described in the documentation. During an ISO 9000 certification process, the examining registrar will audit your company to confirm that you are following the standard. If you re, you can be certified. An updated version is ISO 9001:2000, which requires that you demonstrate improvements are being made within your processes. ISO is Greek for Equal.

ISO 9001 - Quality management systems - Requirements

ISO 14001 - Environmental management systems -- Requirements with guidance for use

ISO 10013 - Guidelines for quality management system documentation

ISO 10019 - Guidelines for the selection of quality management system consultants and use of their services

ISO 14001 - Environmental management systems -- Requirements with guidance for use

ISO 13485 - Medical devices -- Quality management systems -- Requirements for regulatory purposes

ISO 19011 - Guidelines for Quality and Environmental Management Systems Auditing

ISO 22000 - Food safety management systems – Requirements for any organization in the food chain

ISO 29001 - ISO/TS 29001:2003 - Petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries — Sector-specific quality management systems — Requirements