Terminology that you can find in ISO management system standards
explained in a simple manner
Organization: a business organization, company, business partnership, public service, a part of the organization where you work. You can be considered an organization (individual worker).
Every organization has persons, processes, responsibilities, resources (not only money), and objectives that must be met. An organization may also be non-for profit.
Top management: the person(s) who direct the organization, those who take the transcendent decisions and define the strategies.
Engagement: someone’s participation to achieve the objectives of the organization. Engagement derives from awareness.
Context of the organization: the internal or external issues that can affect the achievement of the company objectives. These issues can be positive or negative.
Examples:
(a) Do you think that the company culture can affect the achievement of the objectives (of the organization)? Yes? How? No? – This is an internal issue.
(b) Do you think that the exchange rate could affect your organization? – This is an external issue.
Interested party: clients, suppliers, workers, stakeholders, managers, owners, legislators, etc.; these are all interested parties of an organization. They can affect or be affected by your organization.
Relevant interested parties: those interested parties that are directly related to your organization. These relevant interested parties may have relevant requirements (and non-relevant requirements). You need to pay attention to the relevant requirements of the relevant interested parties.
Risk: is the effect produced by the uncertainty of something. Analyzing risks may lead to undesirable situations (risk, per se) or desirable situations (opportunities for something better).
Client: an organization or a person that receives a product or a service ("the one who receives").
Supplier: an organization or a person that provides a product or a service ("the one who delivers").
Continual improvement: an activity that is done at a certain frequency to improve performance.
Performance: a result that can be measured. For example, you can measure the process of an organization (using indicators) to verify if its performance has improved. The results of auto evaluations or external assessments (e.g. audits) can also help with continual improvement.
Process: a process consists of the following:
That which is put in (input), interacting activities (most of the times these are sequential activities), and
that which is produced as a result of the activities (output).
A service can also be considered a type of product, meaning, ‘product’ is a generic term.
Most of time the product of a process becomes the input for another process.
This is how it comes to multiple interactions between processes.
For example, a bicycle: the welding of metals creates a structure (‘frame’) which then gets painted (this is a different process), and then continues to another process, for example the mounting of the tires.
Management system: structure of the organization + roles + responsibilities + planning + processes + operation + policies + processes + objectives.
A quality management system always contains a quality policy and processes to achieve the quality objectives. This helps to proceed in an appropriate and systematic manner.
ISO 9001 is the quality management system requirements standard.
Quality policy: this is the policy that refers to quality. The idea is that this policy relates to other policies of the organization. The quality policy serves as reference for determining the quality objectives.
Quality: quality can be achieved when the inherent characteristics of an object (for example an engine, a system, a service, etc.) meet the requirements (that which is mandated).
Characteristic: that which makes the difference. For example, punctuality, maximum speed of an airplane, flavor. An engine has various characteristics that differ from those of a different engine. Customers want that the characteristics of the products they buy meet their requirements. They want quality!
Quality objectives: a result we want to achieve with respect to quality (the relation between characteristics and requirements).
Customer satisfaction: a customer’s perception of a product/service. Have the requirements been met or not?
Nonconformity: a nonconformity appears when one or several requirements have not been met (e.g. the packaging was damaged). Conformity is the contrary, that is, when a requirement has been met.
Work environment: physical factors (e.g. ergonomics), social factors (e.g. work and personal relationships), sociologic factors (e.g. pressure), and environmental factors (e.g. temperature) that are present at work.
Traceability: to follow the track in order to know how something was made (e.g. an engine, a service, etc.). This way we can know the origin of something and every important step until its completion. Traceability is used, for example, to investigate what has caused food intoxication.
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Every organization has persons, processes, responsibilities, resources (not only money), and objectives that must be met. An organization may also be non-for profit.
Top management: the person(s) who direct the organization, those who take the transcendent decisions and define the strategies.
Engagement: someone’s participation to achieve the objectives of the organization. Engagement derives from awareness.
Context of the organization: the internal or external issues that can affect the achievement of the company objectives. These issues can be positive or negative.
Examples:
(a) Do you think that the company culture can affect the achievement of the objectives (of the organization)? Yes? How? No? – This is an internal issue.
(b) Do you think that the exchange rate could affect your organization? – This is an external issue.
Interested party: clients, suppliers, workers, stakeholders, managers, owners, legislators, etc.; these are all interested parties of an organization. They can affect or be affected by your organization.
Relevant interested parties: those interested parties that are directly related to your organization. These relevant interested parties may have relevant requirements (and non-relevant requirements). You need to pay attention to the relevant requirements of the relevant interested parties.
Risk: is the effect produced by the uncertainty of something. Analyzing risks may lead to undesirable situations (risk, per se) or desirable situations (opportunities for something better).
Client: an organization or a person that receives a product or a service ("the one who receives").
Supplier: an organization or a person that provides a product or a service ("the one who delivers").
Continual improvement: an activity that is done at a certain frequency to improve performance.
Performance: a result that can be measured. For example, you can measure the process of an organization (using indicators) to verify if its performance has improved. The results of auto evaluations or external assessments (e.g. audits) can also help with continual improvement.
Process: a process consists of the following:
That which is put in (input), interacting activities (most of the times these are sequential activities), and
that which is produced as a result of the activities (output).
A service can also be considered a type of product, meaning, ‘product’ is a generic term.
Most of time the product of a process becomes the input for another process.
This is how it comes to multiple interactions between processes.
For example, a bicycle: the welding of metals creates a structure (‘frame’) which then gets painted (this is a different process), and then continues to another process, for example the mounting of the tires.
Management system: structure of the organization + roles + responsibilities + planning + processes + operation + policies + processes + objectives.
A quality management system always contains a quality policy and processes to achieve the quality objectives. This helps to proceed in an appropriate and systematic manner.
ISO 9001 is the quality management system requirements standard.
Quality policy: this is the policy that refers to quality. The idea is that this policy relates to other policies of the organization. The quality policy serves as reference for determining the quality objectives.
Quality: quality can be achieved when the inherent characteristics of an object (for example an engine, a system, a service, etc.) meet the requirements (that which is mandated).
Characteristic: that which makes the difference. For example, punctuality, maximum speed of an airplane, flavor. An engine has various characteristics that differ from those of a different engine. Customers want that the characteristics of the products they buy meet their requirements. They want quality!
Quality objectives: a result we want to achieve with respect to quality (the relation between characteristics and requirements).
Customer satisfaction: a customer’s perception of a product/service. Have the requirements been met or not?
Nonconformity: a nonconformity appears when one or several requirements have not been met (e.g. the packaging was damaged). Conformity is the contrary, that is, when a requirement has been met.
Work environment: physical factors (e.g. ergonomics), social factors (e.g. work and personal relationships), sociologic factors (e.g. pressure), and environmental factors (e.g. temperature) that are present at work.
Traceability: to follow the track in order to know how something was made (e.g. an engine, a service, etc.). This way we can know the origin of something and every important step until its completion. Traceability is used, for example, to investigate what has caused food intoxication.
Would you like to know about any other definition you have read in a standard somewhere? Write us a message