AS/NZS ISO 8402:1994

Australian/New Zealand Standard

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Quality management and quality

assurance—Vocabulary
 AS/NZS ISO 8402:1994

This Joint Australian/New Zealand Standard was prepared by Joint Technical

Committee QR/7, Quality Terminology. It was approved on behalf of the Council of
Standards Australia on 1 August 1994 and on behalf of the Council of Standards
New Zealand on 1 August 1994. It was published on 19 September 1994.

The following interests are represented on Committee QR/7:

Australian Bankers Association

Australian Electrical & Electronic Manufacturers Association
Australian Information Industry Association
Australian Organization for Quality
Australian Quality Council
Bureau of Steel Manufacturers of Australia
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CSIRO, Division of Mathematics and Statistics (Australia)

Department of Defence (Australia)
Department of Primary Industries & Energy (Australia)
Department of Transport & Communications (Australia)
Electricity Supply Association of Australia
Institution of Engineers Australia
Institution of Radio and Electronic Engineers Australia
Printing and Allied Trades Employers Federation of Australia
Quality Society of Australasia
Standards New Zealand
Telecom Australia

Review of Standards. To keep abreast of progress in industry, Joint Australian/New

Zealand Standards are subject to periodic review and are kept up to date by the issue
of amendments or new editions as necessary. It is important therefore that Standards
users ensure that they are in possession of the latest edition, and any amendments
thereto.
Full details of all Joint Standards and related publications will be found in the
Standards Australia and Standards New Zealand Catalogue of Publications; this
information is supplemented each month by the magazines ‘The Australian Standard’
and ‘Standards New Zealand’, which subscribing members receive, and which give
details of new publications, new editions and amendments, and of withdrawn
Standards.
Suggestions for improvements to Joint Standards, addressed to the head office of either
Standards Australia or Standards New Zealand, are welcomed. Notification of any
inaccuracy or ambiguity found in a Joint Australian/New Zealand Standard should be
made without delay in order that the matter may be investigated and appropriate action
taken.

This Standard was issued in draft form for comment as DR 92059.

 AS/NZS ISO 8402:1994

Australian/New Zealand Standard

This is a free 9 page sample. Access the full version online.

Quality management and quality

assurance—Vocabulary

First publi shed in Austr alia as AS 1057—1971.

Second editi on 1982.
Thir d editi on 1985.
First publi shed in New Zealand as NZS 5604:1987.
Jointl y revised and redesignated in part as Joint Standard
AS/NZS ISO 8402:1994.

PUBLISHED JOINTLY BY:

STANDARDS AUSTRALIA
1 The Crescent,
Homebush NSW 2140 Australia

STANDARDS NEW ZEALAND

Level 10, Standards House,
155 The Terrace,
Wellington 6001 New Zealand
ISBN 0 7262 9214 1
 AS/NZS ISO 8402:1994 ii

PREFACE

This Standard was prepared by the Joint Standards Australia/ Standards New Zealand Committee
QR/7 on Quality Terminology to supersede NZS 5604:1987 and AS 1057-1985, which have been
withdrawn.
This Standard is identical with and has been reproduced from ISO 8402, Quality management and
quality assurance—Vocabulary; however, non-English text has been deleted. Committee QR/7
provided input to the International Committee, ISO/TC 176, in the preparation of the International
Standard. It is issued as a Joint Standard under the terms of the Active Cooperation Agreement
between Standards Australia and Standards New Zealand.
At the time of publication, Committee QR/7 is preparing an Australian supplement to incorporate
relevant terms which were defined in the superseded AS 1057 and are referenced in current
Australian Standards, but are not included in AS/NZS ISO 8402.
For the purpose of this Standard, the ISO text should be modified as follows:
(a) Terminology The words ‘this Australian Standard’, ‘this New Zealand Standard’ or ‘this Joint
Australian/New Zealand Standard’ should replace the words ‘this International Standard’,
wherever they appear.
(b) References The references to ISO/IEC Guide 2 should be replaced by reference to Standards
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Australia/Standards New Zealand Handbook SAA/SNZ HB18.2, Guidelines for third-party

certification and accreditation, Guide 2—General terms and their definitions concerning
standardization and related activities.
(c) Bibliographical references Annex A provides references to other documents for information
and guidance only.

 Copyri ght STANDARDS AUSTRALIA/STANDARDS NEW ZEALAND

Users of Standards are reminded that copyri ght subsists in all Standards Austr alia and Standards New Zealand publications and
soft ware. Except where the Copyri ght Act all ows and except where provided for below no publications or software produced by
Standards Australi a or Standards New Zealand may be reproduced, stored in a retri eval system in any form or tr ansmit ted by any
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an appropri ate royalty payment. Austr alian requests for permission and informati on on commercial soft ware royalt ies should be
directed to the head off ice of Standards Austr alia. New Zealand requests should be dir ected to Standards New Zealand.
Up to 10 percent of the technical content pages of a Standard may be copied for use exclusively in-house by
purchasers of the Standard without payment of a royalt y or advice to Standards Australi a or Standards New Zealand.
Inclusion of copyri ght materi al in computer software programs is also permitt ed without royalt y payment provided
such programs are used exclusively in-house by the creators of the programs.
Care should be taken to ensure that material used is from the current edit ion of the Standard and that it is updated whenever the
Standard is amended or revised. The number and date of the Standard should therefore be clearly identif ied.
The use of material in pri nt form or in computer soft ware programs to be used commercially, with or without payment, or in
commercial contracts is subject to the payment of a royalty. This policy may be vari ed by Standards Austr alia or Standards New
Zealand at any ti me.
 iii AS/NZS ISO 8402:1994

CONTENTS

Page

Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Terms and definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Section 1: General terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Section 2: Terms related to quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Section 3: Terms related to the quality system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Section 4: Terms related to tools and techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Annex A Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Alphabetical index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
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 AS/NZS ISO 8402:1994 iv

Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide

federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies). The work
of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO
technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for
which a technical committee has been established has the right to be
represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental
and nongovernmental, in liaison with ISO , also take part in the work. ISO
collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission
(IEC ) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.

Draft International Standards adopted by the technical committees are

circulated to the member bodies for voting. Publication as an
International Standard requires approval by at least 75 % of the member
bodies casting a vote.

International Standard ISO 8402 was prepared by Technical Committee

ISO/TC 176, Quality management and quality assurance, Subcommittee
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SC 1, Concepts and terminology .

This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition

(ISO 8402:1986), which has been revised and substantially extended.

Annex A of this International Standard is for information only.

 v AS/NZS ISO 8402:1994

Introduction

Many ordinary words, in everyday use, are used in the quality field in a
specific or restricted manner compared with the full range of dictionary
definitions, due to such reasons as:

— the adoption of quality terminology by different sectors of business

and industry to suit their specific perceived needs,

— the introduction of a multiplicity of terms by quality professionals in

different industrial and economic sectors.

The intent of this International Standard is to clarify and standardize the

quality terms as they apply to the field of quality management. These
terms and definitions are discussed and grouped together in the text
according to logical topics. They are also regrouped in an alphabetical
index at the end for convenience.

The word quality (2.1) in popular usage often means different things to
different people. In this International Standard quality is defined as the
totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to
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satisfy stated and implied needs.

There are many different usages of the word quality. These different
usages create considerable confusion and misunderstanding. Two such
usages are ”conformance to requirements” and ”degree of excellence”.
”Conformance to requirements” leads people to argue that ”quality costs
less”, which in some cases it does. Conversely, ”degree of excellence”
implies that ”quality costs more”, which in some cases it does. In order to
resolve some of the confusion in the usage of the word quality, another
term grade (2.2) can be used to describe the degree of excellence. The
term grade is used, when needed, to describe the sense of technical
excellence. Grade reflects a planned or recognized difference in the
requirements for quality. Although the different categories of grade do not
necessarily stand in rank order relationship to each other, grade
indicators can readily be used in a rank order sense to describe the
sense of technical excellence. An example of this usage is that it costs
more to provide and run a five-star hotel than a boarding house.

The term product (1.4) is used throughout this International Standard. It

is the result of activities or processes and can be tangible or
intangible, or a combination thereof. In current ISO quality management
standardization, products are classified in four generic product
categories:

— hardware (e.g. parts, components, assemblies),

— software (e.g. computer programs, procedures, information, data,

records),

— processed materials (e.g. raw materials, liquids, solids, gases,

sheets, wires),

— services (e.g. insurance, banking, transport).

It is recognized that products generally involve combinations of these

generic product categories. The terms and concepts presented in this
International Standard are intended to be applicable to any product.
 AS/NZS ISO 8402:1994 vi

In this International Standard, the term entity (1.1) includes the term
product, but extends further to cover, for example, activity, process
(1.2), organization (1.7) or person.

Confusion has arisen in understanding the terms quality control (3.4),

quality assurance (3.5), quality management (3.2) and total quality
management (3.7). This International Standard is intended to clarify
these concepts.

In simplified terms, quality control concerns the operational means to

fulfil the quality requirements, while quality assurance aims at
providing confidence in this fulfilment, both within the organization and
externally to customers (1.9) and authorities. Within International
Standards, the English terms ”ensure” and ”assure” are used in the
following sense: ”ensure” means to make sure or certain, ”assure” means
to give confidence to oneself or to others.

Quality management includes both quality control and quality

assurance , as well as the additional concepts of quality policy (3.1),
quality planning (3.3) and quality improvement (3.8). Quality
management operates throughout the quality system (3.6). These
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concepts can be extended to all parts of an organization.

Total quality management brings to these concepts a long-term global

management strategy and the participation of all members of the
organization for the benefit of the organization itself, its members, its
customers and society as a whole.

All concepts addressed in this International Standard have both

economic and time implications. This should be recognized in the
interpretation of all definitions in this International Standard even though
it has not been explicitly stated in each definition.

The distinction made in this International Standard between the terms

defect (2.11) and nonconformity (2.10) is crucial as it has legal
connotations, particularly those associated with product liability (2.12)
issues. Consequently, the term defect should be used with extreme care.

The terms defined in this International Standard have direct application to

the International Standards on quality given in annex A.

Other pertinent standards are listed in annex A. Special attention should

be paid to vocabulary standards in the statistics field: parts 1 to 3 of
ISO 3534.
 1 AS/NZS ISO 8402:1994

AUSTRALIAN/NEW ZEALAND STANDARD

Quality management and quality assurance—

Vocabulary
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Scope Section 1: 1.3

This International Standard
defines the fundamental terms
relating to quality concepts, as
they apply to all areas, for the
pr epa rat io n and us e of
quality-related standards and
for mutual understanding in
international communications.
Terms and definitions
In the following definitions, the
te rm s ap pe ar in g i n th e
alphabetical index are in
semi-bold type. Within each
definition, reference is made to
the number where they are
defined.
The numbered terms and
definitions are classified under
the following main headings:
General terms
1.1
entity
item
that which can be individually
described and considered
NOTE — An entit y may be, for
example:
— an activity or a process (1.2),
— a product (1.4),
— an organization (1.7),
system or a person, or
— any combination thereof.
procedure
specified way to perform an
activity
NOTES
1 In many cases, procedures are
documented [e.g. quali ty system
(3.6) procedures ].
2 Wh e n a p r o ce d u re i s
documented, the term ”wri tt en
p ro c e d u re ” o r ” d o c u m e n t e d
procedure ” is fr equently used.
3 A w ritt en or d ocum ente d
procedure usually contains the
purposes and scope of an activity;
what shall be done and by whom;
when, where and how it shall be
a done; what materials, equipment
and documents shall be used; and
how it shall be contr olled and
recorded.

— general terms;
— terms related to quality;
— terms related to the quality
system;
— terms related to tools and
techniques.
1.2 1.4
process product
result of activities or processes
set of inter-related resources (1.2)
and activities which transform
inputs into outputs NOTES
NOTE—Resources may include 1 A product may include service
pe rs on ne l, f in an ce , f ac il it ie s, ( 1 . 5) , har dwa r e, pr o ces se d
eq ui p men t , t e chn i q ue s and m a t e ri a l s , s o ft wa re o r a
methods. combination thereof.

COPYRIGHT
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AS/NZS ISO 8402:1994 Quality management and

quality assurance - Vocabulary
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