Quality

Question 1

ANSI

Answer 1

Acronym that stands for the American National Standards Institute; has coordinated the U.S. private-sector voluntary standardization system for more than 90 years. A key component of their mission is to coordinate the development of safe systems, processes and products through standards development and conformity assessment programs.

Question 2

ASHRAE

Answer 2

Acronym that stands for the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers; provides standards for both its members and others professionally concerned with refrigeration processes and the design and maintenance of indoor environments (e.g., heating, ventilation and air conditioning).

Question 3

ASTM

Answer 3

Formerly known as the American Society for Testing and Materials; a globally recognized leader in the development and delivery of international voluntary consensus standards. Their standards are the tools of customer satisfaction and competiveness for organizations across a wide range of markets.

Question 4

Audit

Answer 4

A planned evidence-gathering process to assess whether agreed-upon requirements are being met to enhance the degree of confidence of intended users or parties involved.

Question 5

Benchmarking

Answer 5

A method of comparing performance of commodities or services against comparable practices across an organization or with other organizations or industries.

Question 6

Best practices

Answer 6

Techniques, approaches, or methods of conducting business in a manner that has been widely recognized by peers and the industry as generally being the most effective and consistently provides the desired results.

Question 7

BSI

Answer 7

Acronym for the British Standards Institution; the national standards body of the U.K., with a globally recognized reputation for independence, integrity and innovation in the production of standards that promote best practice. They develop and sell standards and standardization solutions to meet the needs of business and society.

Question 8

Cause-and-effect diagram

Answer 8

A quality control tool that uses a visual method to identify many possible causes for an effect or problem and sort ideas into useful categories; also called Ishikawa or fishbone diagram.

Question 9

CEN

Answer 9

An acronym for the European Committee for Standardization; an international nonprofit association based in Brussels and a major provider of European Standards (ENs), technical specifications and other consensus documents. Their mission is to foster the European economy in global trading, the welfare of European citizens and the environment.

Question 10

Check sheet

Answer 10

Collect improvement data with a structured, prepared form and facilitate conversion of that data into meaningful information through further analysis.

Question 11

Close-ended questions

Answer 11

Present discrete choices to the respondent to elicit a simple response.

Question 12

Codes

Answer 12

Systems of regulations that define scoping requirements. It implies prescriptive requirements and is generally given statutory force.

Question 13

Common cause variation

Answer 13

A type of variation inherent within every process and repeated randomly within predictable limits. Sources of common cause variation in a process include chance causes, random causes, system causes and inherent causes.

Question 14

Conformance standards

Answer 14

Used for external quality assurance to provide confidence to the customer that an organization’s quality management system will provide a satisfactory product or service.

Question 15

Consensus standards

Answer 15

Developed through agreement among professionals regarding good practices. They are voluntarily adopted by an organization.

Question 16

Continuous improvement (CI)

Answer 16

The collective actions an organization takes to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of activities and processes in order to enhance its ability to meet requirements and provide added benefits to customers and the entire organization. A strategy for achieving total quality management, it is directed at improving quality and customer satisfaction.

Question 17

Control chart

Answer 17

Show process data over time and indicate whether or not the process is stable (which means that it has predictable performance).

Question 18

Correlation

Answer 18

A statistical measure of the relationship between two variables

Question 19

Customer focus

Answer 19

Seeking to determine the needs of customers and taking action to satisfy them.

Question 20

Customer satisfaction

Answer 20

The end result of delivering a product or service that meets customer requirements, needs and expectations.

Question 21

Customer segmentation

Answer 21

Aggregating or clustering customers into groups (e.g., internal or external customers) that have common needs and expectations for a product or service and will respond similarly to an organization’s actions (such as the improvement of a given service). The differentiated groups that result from this process are customer segments and are relatively homogeneous groups of customers.

Question 22

Customer service

Answer 22

Generally refers to various quality activities intended to answer customer questions and support services.

Question 23

Data Exchange standards

Answer 23

Set of agreed-on rules that permit the uniform capture and exchange of data between information systems. In FM, they involve standards from a variety of organizations and encompass the planning, design, construction, management, renovation, repurposing, decommissioning and ultimate demolition of buildings, bridges, power stations, airports, highways, fuel storage facilities, refineries and ports.

Question 24

DMAIC

Answer 24

Term that stands for define, measure, analyze, improve, control; a problem-solving and improvement process prescribed by six sigma.

Question 25

External standards

Answer 25

Conformance to regulatory requirements, international standards, health and safety laws and regulations, official industry standards, manufacturers’ recommendations and so forth.

Question 26

The five whys

Answer 26

A technique used in discovering the root cause (or causes) of a problem by repeatedly asking the question “why?” The technique also shows how different causes might be related.

Question 27

Flowchart

Answer 27

Represent the flow of a process, mapping the sequence of steps and decision points.

Question 28

Focus group

Answer 28

A structured but informal technique to assess customer needs and feelings. A small group of customers (normally six to 12) is invited to participate in a discussion led by a facilitator.

Question 29

Gap analysis

Answer 29

The difference between the current state and a desired state, or “the space between what is and what an organization hopes to be.”

Question 30

Guru

Answer 30

Deemed to be a good person, a wise person and a teacher.

Question 31

Histogram

Answer 31

A quality control tool that shows frequency distributions in data and illustrate patterns of variation that may be difficult to see in a simple table of numbers.

Question 32

Internal standards

Answer 32

Relevant organizational or FM standards and/or past related service standards.

Question 33

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

Answer 33

The world’s largest developer and publisher of international standards. A nongovernmental organization made up of a network of the national standards institutes of 163 countries. It forms a bridge between the public and private sectors and enables a consensus to be reached on solutions that meet both the requirements of businesses and the broader needs of society.

Question 34

Kaizen

Answer 34

Describes continuous improvement at all levels in an organization.

Question 35

Key performance indicators (KPI)

Answer 35

The most relevant metrics in determining whether the outcomes of an activity contribute to the goals of the entire organization and the aims of the activity.

Question 36

Lagging indicator

Answer 36

A metric that mainly refers to past developments, effects and results. It depicts actual trends against performance levels.

Question 37

Leading indicator

Answer 37

A metric that provides measures that can be used to predict the outcome of future events based on the analysis of past and current results.

Question 38

Likert scale

Answer 38

Survey tool response format that represents a bipolar continuum and gives customers the opportunity to respond in varying degrees.

Question 39

Measures of association

Answer 39

Show the extent (magnitude) to which two or more factors (variables) are related and the nature (direction) of the relationship. These measures are meant to indicate the dependence between two variables.

Question 40

Measures of central tendency

Answer 40

Measures of central tendency try to describe groups of things or events by how much of a certain characteristic they have in common.

Question 41

Measure of variation

Answer 41

An indicator of variation around central tendency values.

Question 42

Metrics

Answer 42

Standards of measurement; specific indicators that are measured in order to assess an organization’s impact on the physical or social environment.

Question 43

Open-ended question

Answer 43

Questions that have no answer categories.

Question 44

Pareto chart

Answer 44

A quality control tool that ranks causes from most significant to least significant using a vertical bar graph in which bar height represents the frequency or impact of causes.

Question 45

Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) cycle

Answer 45

An iterative model that has four phases: Plan, Do, Check and Act. The output of each phase serves as the input to the next phase, and the cycle can be repeated numerous times to capture the results of changes and progressive elaboration.

Question 46

Practice

Answer 46

A general term that refers to the customary, habitual or expected procedure or way of doing something. It has no force of law. It may be effective or not, good or bad; it merely describes performance.

Question 47

Process

Answer 47

An activity or set of interrelated work activities that takes input, adds value to it and provides specific outputs to an internal or external customer. A process involves a planned and repetitive sequence of steps by which a product or service is delivered.

Question 48

Process improvement

Answer 48

The application of quality improvement tools and models (such as the PDCA cycle and others) to effect positive improvement and better meet the needs and expectations of customers.

Question 49

Process map

Answer 49

Any one of several kinds of visual illustrations of how work flows. Flowcharts are the most simple, basic and linear. Cross -functional ones are more complex but still linear. Relationship maps are used for whole, complex organizations and are nonlinear.

Question 50

Protocol

Answer 50

An established code of procedure or behavior in any group, organization or situation (for example, a safety protocol). It describes how something has to be done.

Question 51

Qualitative data

Answer 51

Based on research that supplies non-numeric data, for example, through the use of interviews, focus groups, open-ended survey questions, observations or other methods that gather expression of attitudes, opinions and feelings.

Question 52

Quality

Answer 52

The process of confirming customer expectations, establishing performance standards and metrics based on those expectations, measuring the degree to which current products and services meet the standards and metrics, and identifying and implementing improvements to satisfy the standards and metrics. It incorporates customer expectations and feedback, the use of standards and metrics, the act of measuring and a commitment to continuous improvement.

Question 53

Quality awards

Answer 53

Prizes (or bonuses) awarded for some aspect of organizational quality performance, based on an assessment of the applicant’s performance against certain criteria. Some awards measure the result of quality activities (such as customer satisfaction), some assess the effort involved in ensuring consistency of output and others assess conformity of output to customer requirements. Most awards are competitive, but some are assessments of an organization’s performance with no limit to the number of winners.

Question 54

Quality management system

Answer 54

The organizational structure, procedures, processes and resources needed to implement quality. Designed primarily to satisfy the internal managerial needs of the organization in meeting the requirements of customers.

Question 55

Quantitative data

Answer 55

Based on numeric data that is analyzed with statistical methods. Quantitative data consists of “hard” measures that can be readily averaged and analyzed.

Question 56

Range

Answer 56

A measure of dispersion in a data set (the distance between the highest and lowest values).

Question 57

Regression analysis

Answer 57

Refers to a statistical method used to predict a variable from one or more predictor variables. Its purpose is to determine whether a relationship exists between variables and the strength of the relationship.

Question 58

Reliability

Answer 58

The ability of an instrument to measure consistently when used under the same conditions with the same subjects.

Question 59

Root cause analysis

Answer 59

The process of discovering the systemic cause of system results.

Question 60

Run chart

Answer 60

A line graph that reveals patterns in data over time.

Question 61

Sampling

Answer 61

The process of selecting a number of customers to survey in such a way that they represent the larger group (the population) from which they are selected.

Question 62

Scatter diagram

Answer 62

A quality control tool that plots pairs of numerical data (one variable against another on each axis) to determine whether there is a correlation between the two variables.

Question 63

Service level agreement (SLA)

Answer 63

A part of a service contract where the service expectations are formally defined. They are terms negotiated between the service provider and the facility representative (such as the facility manager). The service provider may be internal staff or outside contractors who perform any delivered service such as operations and maintenance of the facility and its systems as well as occupant services such as custodial, food service, waste management and so forth.

Question 64

Service response card

Answer 64

An abbreviated form of a survey. Sometimes called transaction surveys; they are also known as comment cards or suggestion cards.

Question 65

Service specification

Answer 65

The description of service level acceptable to meet customer requirements. It also provides a framework for monitoring actual services. May be used as a benchmark to assess the standard and quality of service provided.

Question 66

Six sigma (6σ)

Answer 66

A process improvement approach encompassing a variety of techniques and tools focused on improving the capabilities of business processes. Key features are the use of data and statistical analysis and highly trained project leaders (known as Black Belt, Master Black Belt, Green Belt and Champion). Project selection is based on bottom-line results and has dramatic goals to reduce errors. The resulting decrease in process variation leads to reduced defects and improvements in profits, employee morale and quality.

Question 67

Six sigma (6σ) quality

Answer 67

Used to indicate that a process is well controlled.

Question 68

Special cause variation

Answer 68

A type of variation resulting from special circumstances, not an inherent part of a process. They are factors that disrupt the usual flow of work and, therefore, must be identified, investigated and brought under control.

Question 69

Standards

Answer 69

A statement of the minimum level of acceptability that incorporates the technical installation requirements of the code when/where referenced; the prescribed, accepted level of service and product performance. These apply to the facility itself (buildings, structures, interiors, exteriors and grounds), operations and maintenance and contractors and service providers (reception, cleaning and catering). A formal expression of rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results.

Question 70

Standard deviation

Answer 70

Shows how much data is spread out around the mean or average.

Question 71

Statistical analysis

Answer 71

Used to condense and summarize large quantities of data.

Question 72

Statistical process control (SPC)

Answer 72

Monitors services and processes in order to control the quality. It is done in real time rather than after delivery (or inspections).

Question 73

Survey/questionnaire

Answer 73

structured series of questions covering a specific area of interest that are designed to elicit a predetermined range of responses. May be administered orally by a survey taker, by paper and pencil or electronically (e.g., by computer or smart devices or Web applications). Responses are tabulated and analyzed to assess customer satisfaction, areas for improvement and so forth.

Question 74

Survey response rate

Answer 74

The percentage of people who respond to a survey.

Question 75

Systems

Answer 75

A set of interrelated, interdependent elements with behavioral patterns that interact with and affect the performance and behavior of the other elements.

Question 76

Systems thinking

Answer 76

A management theory that views the organization as a unified, purposeful combination of interrelated parts. It requires managers to look at the organization as a whole and recognize that one activity affects other parts in the organization.

Question 77

Total quality management (TQM)

Answer 77

A formal quality process that includes an intense focus on the customer, involvement of all stakeholders, and quantitative methods for continual improvement.

Question 78

Trend

Answer 78

A variable’s tendency over time to increase, decrease or remain unchanged.

Question 79

Trend analysis

Answer 79

The charting of quantitative data over time to identify a tendency or direction.

Question 80

Validity

Answer 80

The ability of an instrument to measure what it is intended to measure, or the strength of its conclusions, inferences or propositions. A measure of the accuracy of the data.

Question 81

Voice of the customer (VOC)

Answer 81

An organization’s efforts to understand customers’ expressed needs and expectations (“voice”) and to provide products and services that meet those needs and expectations. It can be captured in many ways, such as one-on-one interviews, focus groups, written/Web-based surveys and scorecards. The results are reviewed and analyzed at regular intervals for action items.