Page 6 of Glossary of Quality

Facilitation Helping a team or individual achieve a goal. Often used in meeting or with teams to help the teams achieve their objectives.
Facilitator The person who performs facilitation. This person may be trained in group dynamics, teamwork, and meeting management methods.
Failure costs Two sets of costs—internal failure costs and external failure costs. Internal failure costs include those costs that are associated with failure during production, whereas external failure costs are as­sociated with product failure after the production process.
Failure Mode, Effect, and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) FMECA is an extensive but simple method for identifying ways in which an engineered system could fail. The primary goal of FMECA is to develop priorities for corrective action based on estimated risk.
Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) Method for systematically considering each component of a ­system by identifying, analyzing, and documenting the possible failure modes within a system and the effects of each failure on the system.
Fault tree analysis An analytical tool that graphically renders the combination of faults that lead to the failure of a system.
Features A dimension of quality that refers to those attributes of a product that supplement the item’s basic performance.
Final product definition The process of articulating the final drawings and specifications for a product.
Financial benchmarking A type of benchmarking that typically involves using CD ROM databases such as Lexis/Nexis or Compact Disclosure to gather information about competing firms to perform financial analyses and compare results.
Financial ratios Numerical ratios of firm performance such as return on equity, return on assets, and earnings per share.
Five S A process for inducing discipline in an organi­zation.
Five W two H Who, what, when, where, why, how, and how much.
Flowcharts A pictorial representation of the progression of a particular process over time.
Focus group A group of people who are brought together and are asked to share their opinions about a particular product or service.
Forming The first stage of team development, where the team is formed and the objectives for the team are set.
Full-Baldrige approach Term used to depict states’ quality award programs using the same criteria as the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.
Functional benchmarking A type of benchmarking that involves the sharing of information among firms that are interested in the same functional issues.