Glossary of excellence terms

A workplace organization method with five steps — Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain — that makes problems visible and reduces searching and motion.

A structured problem-solving approach that captures background, current condition, root cause, countermeasures and follow-up on one A3-size sheet.

A performance framework that links strategy to measures across financial, customer, internal process and learning-and-growth perspectives.

The fundamental redesign of a business process to achieve large improvements in cost, quality, service and speed.

Certified Manager of Quality / Organizational Excellence — the American Society for Quality's certification for quality leaders.

A time-ordered chart with statistical limits that separates normal (common-cause) variation from special causes that need action.

The costs caused by defects and failures — scrap, rework, complaints, warranty and lost customers — that disappear when a process works right first time.

Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control — the five-phase Six Sigma roadmap for improving an existing process with data.

A European management framework used to assess organizational excellence across direction, execution and results.

Environmental, social and governance performance — what investors, lenders and customers increasingly expect organizations to manage and report.

Failure Mode and Effects Analysis — a structured way to rank how a process or product could fail and prevent the highest risks first.

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points — a preventive food safety system based on seven principles.

A strategy-deployment method that focuses an organization on a few breakthrough objectives and cascades them into aligned plans and measures.

The international standard for quality management systems, based on the process approach, risk-based thinking and continual improvement.

The international management-system standard for responsible development and use of artificial intelligence.

Japanese for change for the better — continuous, incremental improvement made by the people who do the work.

Key Performance Indicator — a measure that shows progress toward an important objective and triggers action.

A way of working that delivers more value to customers with less waste, based on value, value stream, flow, pull and perfection.

An improvement approach combining Lean's focus on flow and waste with Six Sigma's data-driven reduction of variation.

Trained evaluators posing as customers to measure service in branches, calls and digital channels against agreed standards.

Overall Equipment Effectiveness — availability × performance × quality; the share of planned time that equipment produces good output at full speed.

Objectives and Key Results — a goal-setting method pairing an ambitious objective with a few measurable results.

Plan-Do-Check-Act — the basic cycle of learning and improvement introduced by Shewhart and popularized by Deming.

Error proofing — a device or design feature that prevents a mistake or detects it immediately.

Robotic Process Automation — software robots that perform rule-based computer tasks such as copying data between systems.

Sales and Operations Planning — a monthly process that aligns demand, supply and finance into one plan.

A measure of process capability; six sigma corresponds to about 3.4 defects per million opportunities.

Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers — a one-page, high-level process map used to agree scope.

Single-Minute Exchange of Die — a method to cut changeover time so equipment can switch products quickly.

Statistical Process Control — using control charts and capability studies to monitor and improve processes.

Total Productive Maintenance — involving operators and maintenance in eight pillars to maximize equipment effectiveness.

Total Quality Management — an organization-wide approach in which everyone takes part in improving processes, products and culture.

A one-page picture of material and information flow that shows lead time, value-added time and waste.

A Hoshin Kanri tool that links long-term goals, annual objectives, improvement priorities, KPIs and owners on a single page.