Glossary

1. Accuracy and bias: Accuracy is the difference between measured value and the known standard value. This is usually assessed by (i) computing the average of repeated measurement taken on a standard item and (ii) finding the difference between the standard value and average value. This difference is called the ‘bias’. It needs to be ‘zero’. (308)
2. Adaptive management: The commonly found practice of management is to ‘stay-on-course’ dictated by the past knowledge, experience, data and information. This conservative approach gives a sense of comfort and stability. But, in the present context where change is the order of the day, ‘staying-on-course’ is more likely to cause bruises and worst still, fracture a business itself. Hence, one has to blend the ‘stay-on-course’ approach with the agility to change the course at short notice as a regular on-going pattern of managing business. To accomplish this task, an enterprise has to have at its core strength the power to predict and act on the predicted pattern. This way of managing, focused on meeting the timeliness of the market need is adaptive management. (463)
3. Affinity diagram: This is a tool for creatively generating a large number of issues/ideas and then organise and summarise them into their natural groupings in order to understand the underlying problems and find their solutions. This is also called K-J method, named after Kawakita-Jiro. (240–241)
4. Analysis of variance: A method of statistical analysis to assess the statistical significance of the effect of two or more factors on any response of interest under study. It also assesses the relative importance of the factors. This technique is of fundamental relevance to DOE (design of experiment). (347–350)
5. Anchor point: This is a thought which needs to be considered while handling a problem and used if found applicable. (186–187)
6. Animal world: Man is also an animal with intelligence with sense of discretion to distinguish right and wrong, and ability to be value-based all of which are not found among other animals. Man has greedily plundered this planet threatening his own existence. Of late, man is making amendments to live in harmony with nature. In this context, animal world has a few lessons to offer to mankind. (431–435)
7. Attribute data: Attribute data are obtained by categorisation or count on the basis of the presence or absence of an attribute in question. Example: number of accidents, number passed and rejected, number of defects in a casting, etc. (285–289)
8. Box plot: This is method of graphical analysis that simultaneously describes several important features of a data such as central value, spread, departure from symmetry and identification of unusual observations or outliers. The plot comprises of display of three quartiles, the minimum, the maximum of the data on a rectangular box aligned horizontally or vertically. (259–260)
9. Brain irrigation: Enrichment of intellectual resources in an institution or country by facilitating interactions with domain experts both within the country and abroad. (447–448)
10. Brainstorming: This is a group technique for generating a wealth of ideas on a problem, proposition or issue. (225–226)
11. Breakthrough: This is attaining new levels of performance hitherto not achieved through human effort, not by chance. (19–20)
12. Cause–effect diagram: A visual map of the totality of all the causes logically linked to an ‘effect’ which may be output, defect or unfavourable situation. (230–233)
13. Checklist: Checklist, as the name itself suggests, is a ‘list’ prepared on ‘any-issue’ of relevance to facilitate systematic and orderly execution, checking or verification of a process or a product. Examples are checklist on defects, maintenance checklists, audit checklist and checklist of items for a picnic. (229–230)
14. Competitive edge: Competitive edge is the basic ability and strength that an institution/ organisation acquires, maintains and updates continually in order to be ahead of other institution/organisation. (13)
15. Continual improvement: Continual improvement is a working philosophy of an enterprise whereby every activity of the enterprise is subjected to a discipline as under: (a) transformed into a process, (b) key charecteristics of performance of every process are defined in measurable terms, (c) performance level of each characteristics is measured and monitored for timely intervention, (d) at any given time, the performance characteristics whose present level has to be improved are identified, new targets are specified and time to be taken to reach targets is stipulated, (e) people associated with the performance undertake the task of achieving the targets and (f) the cycle of activities (a) to (e) are carried out as an endless chain. (6)
16. Correction: Actions identified and implemented to set right a defect, deficiency, non-conformance already found in a product or any entity is termed as “correction”. It corrects only the situation found with such a need. Treating the sick is corection. It does not focus on cause of sickness. (192)
17. Corrective action: Actions identified and implemented prevent the occurrence of defect, non-conforming situation or deviation. Prevention of sickness is corrective action. (192)
18. Credibility gap: When one’s thought and convictions do not match with what one professes to practice, the outcome is credibility gap. This poor social pathological situation leads to lack of commitment and concern for one’s work. (18)
19. Crisis: Crisis is a situation where the very foundation of existence once thought to be stable, secure and enduring begins to crumble under the pressure of new realities. (13)
20. Critical thinking: Critical thinking is a third life skill as recommended by WHO. It is the ability to analyse situations, information or experiences in an objective manner. It helps in recognising the positive and negative aspects of behaviour, attitude, feelings, relationships, actions of self and others. It helps in taking appropriate steps to prevent unto-ward short-term as well as long-term consequences. This is critical thinking applied to oneself from human angle to facilitate appropriate corrective action, if need be. (187–188)
21. Critical to quality (CTQ): These are the characteristics/factors of a product, service or transaction that have a significant impact on the quality. (227–228)
22. Culture of continual improvement: Culture of continual improvement means people in an organisation right across its supply chain subscribe to the thought that achieving excellence has no finishing line and apply that thought in their day-to-day work. This process has already emerged in today’s flat-world that facilitates multiple forms of collaboration in sharing knowledge and work among billions of people without regard to geography, distance or language, and thus generating value in goods and services horizontally than vertically. In such a collaborative set-up, economic and/or technical standards found to be best and successful are quickly and globally adopted. This phenomenon of real-time convergence of the best in the world in a continual manner is the global version of the culture of continual improvement. (21)
23. Customer dissatisfaction: This is a status resulting from the customer not getting product–service transaction as per agreed terms. (103)
24. Customer focus: Customer focus is an ingrained habit of orienting ones thought to be of value and use to an external entity. Thus, customer focus operationally means centre of interest in all the activities across the company—goal setting, marketing, choice of technology, product-mix, delivery and after-sales service. Quality issues are in the forefront. (4)
25. Customer needs: A set of requirements to be met in the product, service or transactions; failure of which leads to customer dissatisfaction. (4)
26. Customer satisfaction: This is a status resulting from the customer getting product–service transaction as per agreed terms. (103)
27. Data interpretation: Data interpretation comprises of listing information out from the analysis of data and indicating what they mean utilising the domain knowledge. (289–291)
28. Defect prevention: Defect prevention is basically a thought process focused on (i) taking measures to prevent recurrence of a defect that has occurred, (ii) looking for measures to prevent occurrence of a defect in a potential state and (iii) enforcing such measures in advance. This thought process is extensively applied through diverse methods such as process scanning and process review. (63–79)
29. Defects per million opportunities (DPMO): This is obtained by multiplying DPO by 10⁶. In the above example of DPO = 0.125, DPMO = 0.125 × 106 = 1,25,000. (138)
30. Defects per opportunity (DPO): DPO is defects per unit where defects found is divided by number of opportunities for defect to occur. For example, if there are 25 defects in a sample of 50 items, and each item can have 4 opportunities for defects, then DPO = 25 ÷ 4 × 50 = 0.1250. (138)
31. Design of experiments: Body of statistical techniques and methods for design and analysis of experiments to obtain unambiguous answers to preformulated hypothesis/questions, at least cost by minimising the number of trials. (363–366)
32. Discrimination: Ability of the instrument to detect small changes in the characteristics of interest. As a general rule, measurement system should be able to discriminate to one-tenth of the tolerance range. (298–307)
33. DMAIC: The expression stands for the following five step process of continual improvement project.

    Define:	The goal is to define the project’s purpose and scope on the basis of background information about the process in relation to its customer. The outputs are (i) clear statement of the intended improvement, (ii) a high-level map of the process and (iii) data on customer linked key-quality characteristics. (407–408)
    Measure:	Gather current information. Outputs are (i) data that specifies the problem location, (ii) baseline data (current value of z and PCE) and (iii) more focused statement of the problem. (408)
    Analyse:	Identification of root causes. (408–409)
    Improve:	Develop, try-out and implement solutions to eliminate root causes and use data to evaluate solutions for their effectiveness to achieve the set goal. (411)
    Control:	Maintenance of gains by updating and standardising work methods, including training of employees. Institutionalising the lessons learnt from the entire CIP project is the focus of the control phase. (411–412)

34. Emotional compatibility: A person can survive, grow and prosper only when there is emotional compatibility with his/her environment—home, workplace and people therein. Emotional compatibility with the environment exists when the individual perceives it as meaningful and purposeful for his/her overall growth—intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. Likewise, when the individual’s contribution is perceived as important for the achievement of organisation’s goals and objectives, emotional bond between the organisation and the individual is enhanced. (455)
35. Empathetic temperament: The commonly found pattern of reaction of a person towards a difficult, problematic, painful situation is one of sympathetic temperament. Instead of this passivity, an empathetic temperament of focusing on a solution to the existing situation proves more useful and proactive. When an individual adopts an empathetic temperament and experiences his/her pains, he/she understands the situation better to provide appropriate solutions to the problem. (103)
36. Empowerment: Empowerment is the downward flow of authority to the level of ‘gate-keepers’, for them to decide and act; also allowing them to have a great degree of discretion and independence to act. Empowerment is not the same as delegation. Empowerment is the responsibility for action as well as its accountability. In delegation, one delegates one’s responsibility but does not abdicate one’s accountability for the consequences of delegation. Empowering to gate keepers was in vogue in the distant past during the heydays of universities at Nalanda (Bihar) and Taxila (now in Pakistan) where the gate keepers were empowered to screen and recruit students for the university. (15–16)
37. Environment: Physical conditions, management style, motivational factors, relationship, empowerment which acts as enablers in development of people in an organisation for continual significant contributions is termed ‘environment’.

    Environment promotes, regulates, sustains growth in a benign environment; a malignant one hurts, harms and stunts the growth. A benign environment is not an accident. It is brought into being and maintained through a commitment to build such an environment; having a well-crafted plan to translate commitment into action; backed up by consistent efforts to implement and maintain action plan. In such a benign environment, human resource perpetually generates ‘value’ in every activity of the institution/organisation. (211)

38. Factual approach to decision-making: Decision-making is a process of identifying problems; finding alternate solutions to each problem, deciding on the best of the alternatives; implementing the chosen alternative; evaluating the effectiveness of implementation and routinising the actions found effective. In this process, an objective basis has to be there for problem selection on priority; and selecting the best of the alternative solutions available. Objective basis is provided by appropriate data and information, and not just opinion. Using data and information instead of only opinions for problem identification and solution is termed factual approach to decision-making. (7)
39. Failure mode effect analysis (FMEA): FMEA is an analysis and understanding of specific ways in which a product, process or service might fail. Having such a knowledge helps to develop countermeasures to remedy the failures. There are a number of FMEA—design FMEA, systems FMEA, product FMEA and process FMEA. (110)
40. First time yield (FTY): This is a metric for defect-free output of a process and is based on current level of defects per unit (DPU). (140–145)
41. Flow chart: Flow chart is also referred to as a process map. It is a graphical display of the process flow that shows all activities, decision points, rework, loops, handouts arranged as per the logic of the process. (229)
42. Force-field analysis: This is the classification of variables influencing a problem into positive and negative ones, and simultaneously taking action on strengthening positive ones, and weakening negative ones. (237–240)
43. Frequency distribution: This is a statistical tool for summarisation of a large number of observation to obtain the main features of the process–process level, process spread, pattern of variation and conformance level to given requirements. (253–257)
44. Gage R&R: This is a measurement of the two components of measurement error, commonly called repeatability and reproducibility of the gage. Total variability measured on a product includes product variability and gage variability.

    This assessment of the gage repeatability and reproducibility is meant to determine whether excessive variability exists in a measurement system. The evaluation method based on statistical methodology is designed in such a way that the sources of variability within the measurement system which includes total variability, product variability and measurement system variability can be partitioned as, total variability = product variability + measurement system variability (repeatability + reproducibility − GRR); and on the basis of the value of GRR, the measurement system is accepted for any given application. (314)

45. Gap analysis: This is the assessment of the difference between the actual and the expected specification in the product, service or transactions. (80–81)
46. Hidden defects: Past practices, assumptions, and implicit compliance to ‘set’ rules without ever questioning their continued validity induces a blindness whereby certain defects, deficiencies and undesirable practices continue to exist. These are hidden defects and they fall into two main categories, white colour defects and institutionalised defects. (76–78)
47. Horizontal deployment: This is adopting improvement actions taken at one place in other similar areas/processes, machines, locations or products. (193)
48. Housekeeping: Housekeeping means keeping the house clean, neat, orderly and systematic. The word house has its philosophical connotation symbolising one’s body housing the mind. Hence, the expression housekeeping acquires its deep, profound, but practical significance to every individual as a process to be adopted by everyone to refine oneself continually to attain a state of pristine purity in one’s thought (manasa), word (vacha) and deed (action).

    This refining process is not an end in itself. It is a means to realise through one’s work at all its interfaces, truth (satyam), God (shivam) and beauty (sunderam), which in effect means a ‘Six Sigma’ status.

    An organisation needs to provide the necessary support to facilitate its employees to pool and refine their efforts to enable the organisation, to attain Six Sigma status. (65–67)

49. Imagination: Imagination is the key source of a knowledge institution/organisation. It enables thought capital or intellectual capital to unleash human potential resulting in more efficient use of physical capital. (107)
50. Improvement—macro and micro: Organisational dynamism is a two-fold entity. The first one termed ‘macro’, is focused on achieving ‘quantum’ jump in operational results through expansion, diversification and collaborative efforts. The second one termed ‘micro’, is focused on achieving ‘incremental’ improvements in every aspect of a process on a continual pattern. Both the processes are a must for an institution/organisation for competence and competitiveness. Both operate simultaneously although the strategy, approach and nature of the two entities differ from each other. (180–183)
51. Intellectual capital: This is a productive resource available in people in the form of their knowledge, ideas, experience, innovative mind, managerial ability; the skills which when harvested and exploited yield present and future value to the organisation.

    The management of ‘intellectual capital’ in any corporate entity is a developing science. Likewise, a good method for measuring intellectual capital covering all its aspects, such as human capital valuation, brand value, R&D, quality of networks, customers, processes and their interplay, need to be developed. Methods to assess how well all the elements of intellectual capital are working together to create present and future value also need to be developed. Thus, now when the country is well set on a GDP growth of beyond 8 per cent, managing intellectual capital holds the real key to achieve such a growth and sustain it. (454–455)

52. Kano’s analysis of customer requirement: Proposed by Noriaki Kano, a Japanese engineer, who classified customers’ needs as (i) must, (ii) satisfiers and (iii) delighters. (104)
53. Killer phrases: These are expressions which are used more often than not deliberately to debilitate others in voicing their views, suggestions, comments and thus to promote one’s own image through one-upmanship. (220)
54. Knowledge institution: Knowledge institution is one whose main purpose, objective and focus is of (i) extending the frontiers of knowledge in a chosen field as well as in areas associated with the chosen field, (ii) application of the knowledge to diverse areas that admit of its use and (iii) having a set-up to train talented young people in the chosen field to ensure perennial supply of manpower to accomplish (i) and (ii) without a break. (435)
55. Knowledge worker: An expression coined by Peter Drucker to describe a person who employs his knowledge, imagination and ingenuity to provide solution. He has to depend on knowledge of IT (201–202).
56. Lead customer: Lead customer is one who leads in matter of
    1. Finding new applications for existing products; new products for existing applications both meaningful to customers.
    2. Identifying newer customer needs, requirements as well as their problems and meeting them.
    3. Demanding from his suppliers improved inputs continually. (108)
57. Leadership: Leadership is a passionate emotional force. It needs to be used to maximise the area of understanding with people as well as to develop a tolerance for divergence and to have respect for those known to have divergent views. In practical terms, it means providing direction for creating and maintaining the internal environment in which people grow to their full potential by getting them involved in achieving the objectives of the institution/organisation. (5)
58. Lean Six Sigma: This is a situation or state of simultaneous achievement of defect level of no more than 3.4 defects per million and value-added time in the process of at least 25 per cent of the total lead time. (165)
59. Level of significance: Probability value chosen for judging the significance in a test of significance. Usually it is 0.05 or 0.01. If the probability of observed change is below this, then the observed change is real and worthy of further consideration. (320–331)
60. Linear graph: Diagram developed by Dr. G. Taguchi for enabling an experimenter to choose the OA design and arrive at the layout of the trials. (366)
61. Management commitment: These are the actions of a management that are seen, felt and experienced by its employees at every stage of a continual improvement project to make the project a success. (394)
62. Measurement data: These are data obtained by measuring the characteristic with the help of an instrument, test equipment and a measuring method. Example: diameter, tensile strength, percentage of carbon in steel, etc. (307–308)
63. Measurement system: This is a set-up comprising of the product/item to be measured, the type of equipment/test instrument involved in the analysis used, person measuring, and method of collecting and preserving the sample till the time of measurement. All these elements impact the result of measurement and are a source of variation in the measured characteristics. (306)
64. Orthogonal array (OA) design: A type of design termed a fractional factorial design which enables to examine main effect and chosen interaction effects of interest independently with minimum number of experiments. (364 –366)
65. Out-of-box thinking: A solution/remedy completely out of the current domain of thinking and influencing factors. (191–192)
66. Ownership: This is a state of mind where a person totally identifies oneself with a given task and struggles to succeed in it. Thus ownership differs from owning. (211–212)
67. Pareto analysis: This is the most commonly used technique in continual improvement studies. Pareto law is also known as law of ‘vital few and ordinary many’, and ‘law of focus’. By a simple rearrangement of data in ascending or descending order, the area of study that can make an impact on changing the status quo can be identified. Area thus identified is the area of focus. (250)
68. Pattern discovery: There is a phenomenon that any unusual situation presents itself as an unusual pattern (non-random) and such a pattern is only to be ‘discovered-through-effort’ based on imagination, conjecture supported by technical knowledge, data, their analysis as well as experimentation. This entire chain is termed pattern discovery. (33)
69. Peculiarities: Distinct situations, experiences, approaches and attitudes that are of proven value in achievement of continual improvement in a certain field, but not found in another area are characterised as peculiarities. Discovering the peculiarities and understanding them are of fundamental importance to initiate continual improvement activity in any new area. (424–430)
70. Process: Process is essentially a logical and sequential arrangement of conversion of input into an output. This conversion is set out as a well-defined documented mechanism as under to serve as a process discipline.
    1. Inputs into the process—material for conversion as well as service inputs which facilitates conversion without being a part of the output—and the requirements with which the inputs are to be complied with.
    2. Logical sequence of operations/activities applied to the input which culminates in the movement of output to the next stage as per the requirements with which each operation/activity/stage is to be complied with. (83)
71. Process analysis: Process analysis is a wholistic activity to
    1. identify diverse segmentable sources of defects that can enter a process.
    2. devise suitable instruments such as flow chart, checklist as applicable to each segment to unearth all the defects.
    3. apply the instrument for a process to be analysed/reviewed.
    4. identify the defects that can occur and take suitable measures to prevent the defects.
    5. identify the defects which have the potential to occur but cannot occur due to suitable measures taken for their prevention; “Check the measures periodically for their continued relevance”. (33)
72. Process capability: Process capability is the ability inherent in a process to meet the requirements specified for that process. Assessment of process capability under dynamic conditions is possible through the use of statistical methods. Improvement in process capability is through a number of measures mostly technical in nature which minimises variation in the process. Variation is a symbol of health. Narrower the band of variation, better is the state of health. Improving process capability is at the very root of the concept of Six Sigma. (9)
73. Process cycle efficiency: This is a ‘lean metric’ defined by the expression (174)
    
74. Process flow: Physical path of a work which it takes from start to finish. (164 –195)
75. Process interference: Interference is inevitable in the working of a process. Its impact is seen as a product defect and/or process deficiency. The nature of interference can be (i) a planned one, (ii) an identifiable one after its occurrence, (iii) unnoticed and (iv) due to unknown factors. Normally situations (i) and (ii) are attended and the other two remain unattended. Hence, the value of interference study lies in identifying the situations falling under (iii) and (iv) and acting upon them. (56)
76. Process lead time: This is the time taken for work in process (WIP) to get processed. (171–172)
77. Process model: Graphic display of the process flow that shows all the linkages to a process leading to the output reaching its next stage. (30)
78. Process scanning: Defects in a process owe their origin to distinctly different sources. Segmenting each source and devising an instrument to scrutinise, question, identify the defects attributable to the segment and applying the instrument to any specific process to identify the prevalence of any defect in the process is process scanning. (33)
79. Process velocity: This is the time taken to complete the processing of one unit of WIP and shift the processed unit to its next stage. (171)
80. Quality cost: Quality cost is the sum total of the cost of prevention, apprisal and failures. Prevention cost is the cost incurred for all the measures put in place for prevention of occurrence of defects right across the chain from design to delivery including service-after-sales. Apprisal cost is the cost incurred for all the measures put in place for evaluation, assessment, simulation and analysis related to quality, across the design-delivery chain. Failure cost is the cost suffered due to non-conformance to the requirement across the design-delivery chain. Quality cost is least when failure cost is least and it can be near zero. (396)
81. Quality critical to customer (QCC): Characteristics of a product, service and/or a set of transactions which significantly influence satisfaction of the customer. (85)
82. Quality management principle: QMP is not one dealing with the principle of managing quality or quality management. In this book QMP is looked upon as a principle of managing an enterprise as a whole where ‘quality’ is built into every one of its activity ranging from gardening in the enterprise to garnering global collaborative support/tie-ups. Quality is said to have been built into an activity when it has the characteristics of (a) monitoring the direction of progress/results and quantitative benchmarks to be achieved continually, (b) involvement of people at all levels to achieve the goals of the enterprise and also to grow to ones potential capability to achieve, (c) customer-focused—internal, external, society around and (d) protecting the interests of stakeholders. (4)
83. Regression analysis: A statistical technique used to investigate the relationship between a dependent variable y, on one or more independent variables x. The independent variables are called regression variables or predictor variables. (353)
84. Relation diagram: This is an exercise in systematic identification, analysis and classification of cause–effect relationship that exists among all critical issues. The key ones can become the heart of an effective solution. (233)
85. Restoration: This is one of the types of improvement. It is the act of bringing the process performance to its expected level. (19–20)
86. Risk priority number (RPN): RPN is an index on a scale of 1 to 1000 obtained by multiplication of rating of severity, occurrence and detection (each on a scale of 1 to 10), of a potential failure mode of a product/process. The higher the value of index, greater is the priority for controlling the key inputs to reduce risk to the customer. (114)
87. Rolled throughput: It is the yield of the entire sequence of operations or processes. It is obtained by multiplying the yield value of each operation or process. (142–145)
88. Root cause: The basic cause responsible for the observed situation, phenomenon or defect. (192)
89. Run-chart: Graphical display of time-ordered data to analyse trends or patterns over a specified period. (247–248)
90. Scatter diagram: This is a graphical representation of data to discover if any relationship, linear or curvilinear, exists between two variables. This is one of the most useful techniques used in a quality improvement project. (257–259)
91. Self-control: Control exercised by one on a process/activity that he/she is responsible for, through a knowledge of how it has to perform; monitoring how it is performing; and action to set right the discrepancy, if any, when ‘what it is’ differs from ‘what it should be’. (72)
92. Sigma value of a process: It is the capability of a process linked to its defect rate and is denoted by z. Defect rate is to be expressed in terms of DPMO (defects per million opportunities). (9)
93. SIPOC diagram: A high level visual representation of the process from the supplier inputs to the product or service received by the customer. (31–32)
94. Six Sigma: Six Sigma is a thought process or concept that stands for near-zero defect status in any activity and it serves as a goal of TQM. Six Sigma as a technique has its deep roots in statistical methodology. Continual improvement is the means to achieve Six Sigma status. (9–10)
95. Soft skills: Soft skills generally refer to communication, positive attitude, behavioural aspects, team building and leadership issues which are learnt and understood predominantly through verbs, nouns and adjectives. The hard skills refer to problem identification, problem formulation and analysis which are learnt and understood through data, techniques and formulae. Soft skills are meant to make one’s technical knowledge and expertise more useful, productive and proactive. (393–394)
96. Specification: A comprehensive statement of requirements in the product, service or transactions covering quality, safety, environment, delivery and statutory/mandatory requirements. (80)
97. Stability: When measurements exhibit ‘statistical control’, the system through which measurement data was obtained is said to be stable. (308)
98. Statistical control: This is a state in which a process is influenced only by common causes, i.e., process has only inherent variation. (130–132)
99. Statistical tolerancing: Allocation or combination of tolerances based on statistical principles. (261–262)
100. Stratification: Stratification is categorisation of data on a subject of study into different categories that the data admits of. Data can be categorised into one or more categories. Example of single category—machine-wise production data. Example of the two-way category—machine-wise and shift-wise production data or machine-wise or operator-wise production data. Knowledge of the different aspects of data-source helps in planning the very collection of data that facilitates stratified-data-summary for further investigation. Stratification of data is a vital step in formulating, prioritising and identifying action points of a problem. (248–250)
101. Technique belts: This refers to the current practice of designating practitioners of Six Sigma as black belt or green belt according to their success in certain examinations on techniques and projects specified for each type of belt. (21)
102. Test of significance: A statistical procedure for judging whether observed change or difference as revealed by a sample reflects real change, i.e., not likely to have come from the existing process. (317)
103. Total quality management (TQM): TQM is a management philosophy and organisation practice that aim to harness the human and material resources of an organisation in the most effective way to achieve quality levels as well as objectives stipulated for every activity of the organisation. (3)
104. Volunteerism: Generally an urge to be of use to others is present in most of the persons. This inner urge makes one willingly invest ones time, experience, knowledge in the activities of an institution without inturn expecting any return except the feeling that his inputs have been well utilised. This is the core feature of volunteerism. The key task for tapping the rich resource that volunteerism represents lies in establishing and maintaining a harmonious bond between the institution/organisation and individuals ready to invest their abilities in the working of the institution/organisation. Thus, the task of augmenting, maintaining, monitoring the strength of bond in each of the diverse types of services an institution/organisation offers is an important key-result area of managerial performance of a non-profit service institution/organisation. (425)
105. Zero-based thinking: This is a process of examining a proposition in totality from scratch, free from all the already held opinions, beliefs and experiences. (189–190)