Acronyms abound in today's business world and the Quality Assurance section is no exception. Although many acronyms are self-evident here are a few examples.
QHSE: Quality Assurance, Health & Safety and Environment. Sometimes SHEQ, HESQ, even EHSQ, according to which disciplines are the stronger within that business).
QUENSH: Quality - QU, the Environment - EN, and Health Safety - SH.
QAM: Quality Assurance Manager.
QE: Quality Engineer.
SQE: Supply Quality Engineer or Senior Quality Engineer.
CI: Continuous Improvement.
JIT: Just in Time.
DMAIC: Design, Measure, Analyse, Improve, Control. These are the five stages of six sigma Quality Improvement and Assurance. The sequence is closely related to W Edwards Deming's methodology and '14 principles'. See below.
DOE: Design of Experiments.
FMEA: Failure Mode and Effects Analysis.
SPC: Statistical Process Control.
APQP: Advanced Product Quality Planning.
SMED: Single Minute Exchange of Dies.
TQM: Total Quality Management.
EFQM: European Foundation of Quality Management.
UKAS: United Kingdom Accreditation Service.
ISO: International Standards Organisation.
BSI: British Standards Institute.
CQI: Chartered Quality Institute.
IOSH: Institute of Occupational Safety & Health.
CIEH: Chartered Institute of Environmental Health.
As outlined above DMAIC is of particular widespread application and justifies further expansion.
D: Define: the problem setting out the customers needs.
M: Measure: the key aspects of the current process collecting relevant data.
A: Analyze: the data to investigate, determine and verify cause-and-effect relationships.
I: Improve: the current process using proved quality tools.
C: Control: the future process to ensure all deviations from target are corrected.