CSQP key terms

The coordinated set of processes a buying organization uses to define, verify, and improve the quality of goods and services it receives from external providers across the full relationship lifecycle.

A stage-gated approach that governs a supplier from initial need identification through qualification, performance management, development, and eventual exit or obsolescence.

The total cost incurred from defects, including internal scrap, rework, warranty, returns, inspection, and lost customer goodwill; used to justify supplier improvement investment.

A framework splitting quality-related spending into prevention, appraisal, internal failure, and external failure categories to guide where resources should be allocated.

An estimate of all costs associated with a purchased item over its life, including price, freight, inspection, defects, inventory, and administrative burden, used instead of unit price alone.

A documented set of expectations covering ethics, labor, environment, safety, and compliance that a buyer requires suppliers to accept and cascade to their own sub-tier sources.

The working agreement between purchasing and quality functions on decision rights, shared metrics, and escalation paths so commercial and quality goals do not conflict.

A structured evaluation that confirms a potential supplier has the capability, capacity, certifications, and controls needed before it is approved to receive business.

The weighted factors, such as technical capability, quality system maturity, cost, delivery, financial stability, and risk, used to compare and rank candidate suppliers.

A controlled register of suppliers authorized to receive purchase orders, typically recording approved scope, part numbers, approval status, and review dates.

An on-site or remote evaluation of a candidate or existing supplier's quality system, processes, and records against defined requirements to verify capability.

A formal solicitation asking suppliers to propose pricing and technical approach for defined requirements, often including quality clauses and capability questionnaires.

A document defining the scope, deliverables, acceptance criteria, schedules, and responsibilities for a supplier engagement, forming part of the contractual baseline.

A full verification of the first production units against all drawing and specification requirements, documented on a characteristic-by-characteristic report before mass production.

A standardized submission package demonstrating that a supplier's production process can consistently meet requirements, including design records, process flows, PFMEA, control plans, and measurement results.

A periodic report that rates a supplier on agreed metrics such as quality, delivery, cost, and responsiveness, usually with color-coded thresholds and defined consequences.

A quantifiable measure tied to a strategic objective, chosen because it signals whether supplier performance is improving, stable, or deteriorating.

A defect rate expressed as defective units per million units received, allowing comparison of suppliers with very different volumes.

A delivery metric counting only shipments that arrive by the promised date and in the ordered quantity, used to measure supplier logistics reliability.

A scheduled meeting with a supplier to review scorecard results, agree improvement actions, and align on future business, quality, and capacity expectations.

A formal request requiring a supplier to contain a problem, find its root cause, and implement verified actions that prevent recurrence, with documented closure evidence.

An eight-discipline team method moving from containment through root cause, corrective action, validation, and prevention, commonly required for significant supplier nonconformances.

A structured investigation to identify the underlying process or system conditions that allowed a defect to occur, rather than the immediate symptom or operator error.

Planned activities such as training, coaching, kaizen events, and capability building that raise a supplier's performance rather than simply enforcing requirements through inspection.

An ongoing effort to reduce waste and variation through small, sustained changes, supported by measurement and standard work, applied jointly with suppliers.

A structured evaluation of the likelihood and impact of supplier failure across financial, operational, quality, geographic, and compliance dimensions, used to prioritize mitigation.

The exposure created when a purchased item is available from only one qualified supplier or site, so any disruption directly threatens the buyer's operations.

Deliberately qualifying two or more independent suppliers for the same item to reduce supply interruption exposure, balanced against volume and cost penalties.

A supplier's documented arrangements for maintaining or restoring delivery after disruption, including alternate sites, inventory buffers, and recovery time objectives.

A supplier's own supplier, whose performance and risk affect the final product even though the buyer has no direct contract with it.

The documented structure of processes, responsibilities, and records an organization uses to consistently meet customer and regulatory requirements and improve over time.

An internationally recognized standard specifying requirements for a quality management system, emphasizing process approach, risk-based thinking, and customer focus.

An independent organization that audits a supplier's management system against a published standard and issues a certificate with defined scope and validity.

A documented failure of a product, process, or system to meet a specified requirement, which must be contained, dispositioned, and investigated.

A designated group authorized to decide the disposition of nonconforming material, such as rework, repair, use-as-is, return, or scrap.

A document listing the process steps, product characteristics, monitoring methods, sample sizes, frequencies, and reaction plans used to keep a process in control.

A team-based risk technique that scores potential process failure modes by severity, occurrence, and detection to prioritize preventive actions before defects occur.

A score calculated by multiplying severity, occurrence, and detection ratings in an FMEA, used to rank failure modes for action, though action thresholds should also consider severity alone.

The use of control charts and process capability studies to distinguish normal variation from special-cause signals so corrective action can be triggered early.

A study of the variation contributed by the measurement system itself, such as gauge repeatability and reproducibility, to confirm inspection data can be trusted.

A simple technique of repeatedly asking why a problem occurred until the underlying systemic cause is reached, rather than stopping at the first plausible explanation.

A cause-and-effect diagram that organizes potential causes of a problem into categories such as people, machine, method, material, measurement, and environment.

A contract annex that defines each party's quality responsibilities, acceptance criteria, change notification duties, audit rights, and complaint handling expectations.

The practice of segmenting suppliers by strategic importance and managing each relationship with appropriate governance, communication, and joint planning.

A predefined sequence of contacts and authority levels used to raise an unresolved supplier issue to higher management within agreed timeframes.

A supplier's obligation to inform the buyer before altering process, material, sub-tier source, or site, so the buyer can assess and approve the impact.