When working in a specialized field, it’s vital to understand the industry jargon. We decided to pull out some of the most important key terms that everyone needs to know in order to be successful in the auto-industry.

Today we’re tackling a few business processes that focus on quality.

First, we’ll look at Quality Management Systems.

Definition:A collection of business processes focused on achieving quality policy and quality objectives to meet customer requirements. This definition covers the fact that there are many quality management systems in place to make sure every part used in the production of a car meets regulated standards for safety and quality. To go more in depth, get more info on Quality Management Systems.

An example of one of these processes is the Production Part Approval Process (PPAP)

Definition: A generic part qualification process used to determine if all customer requirements are understood by a supplier and if the process has the potential to produce product meeting requirements on a production basis.

More simply, this term is describing the process for any part to be approved on a general level. This is the first step checking for quality of parts, but this is not the only step. There are a lot more quality assurance measures in place, which we’ll delve into in later posts.

The last term we’ll be talking about is Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA).

Definition: The continuous four step quality problem-solving process cycle of planning, doing the planned activity, checking/verifying the results met expectations and the action of implementing the improvement.

This step in the quality process is all about making sure your first check of the product was right. It focuses on the idea that products can wear out sooner than expect and things can go wrong, even if it meets all the standards at one point in time, it may not continue to meet them.

So, why are these processes so important? They are all in place so the End User (the individual who uses a product after it has been fully developed and marketed) are safe. All automobiles come with great risk and the first priority must be safety.

Looking for more terms? Get the full Core Tools Key Terms Document and get ready to take the Core Tools Self Assessment.

photo credit: Ford Europe via photopin cc