Audit
The systematic, independent and documented process used to find out how well a system is being followed. Audit findings are used to assess the effectiveness of systems and to identify opportunities for improvement.
Availability
The proportion of time a system is in a functioning condition.
BS 25999
The British Standard for Business Continuity Management (BCM). It has two parts: Part 1: Code of practice, and Part 2: Specification. Your BCM system would be assessed against Part 2.
BS 5760-5
The old British Standard for FMEA and FMECA. Now superseded by BS EN 60812: 2006.
BS EN 60812
Titled 'Analysis techniques for system reliability. Procedure for failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA)'. This is the current standard for FMEA and FMECA.
Business continuity
The strategic and tactical capability of the organisation to plan for and respond to incidents and business disruptions so that business operations can continue at a level acceptable to the businesses’ managers.
Business Continuity Management System (BCM)
Part of an organisation's management system used to develop and implement its business continuity policy and manage its resilience to adverse incidents.Competency-assessed training
Training where both the participant’s knowledge and their ability to apply it are assessed. Participants that satisfy Edworthy Business Management Consultancy competency requirements are awarded a certificate of competency.
Dependability
A collective term used to describe: reliability performance, maintainability performance and maintenance support performance.
Environmental Management System (EMS)
Part of an organisation's management system used to develop and implement its environmental policy and manage its environmental aspects.
Failure analysis
Analysis of the likelihood that an item will fail to function as required, often providing a prediction of the likelihood of failure (failure probability) or of the length of time the item will function between failures (mean time between failures – MTBF).
Fault tree analysis
An analysis in which a failed state of a system is analysed by combining a series of lower-level events to get a better understanding of how and why a system can fail. This analysis method is mainly used in the field of safety engineering to quantitatively determine the probability of a safety hazard.
FMEA
The acronym for ‘Failure Modes and Effects Analysis’. FMEA is a reliability improvement tool that assesses potential modes of failure and the effects of failure by systematically considering each possible failure mode for the item under consideration and then establishing the effects this failure will have on those items and ultimately on the whole system.
FMECA
The acronym for ‘Failure Modes and Effects and Criticality Analysis’. FMECA builds on FMEA to consider the likelihood of a failure occurring and the severity of the result should failure occur in service and the likelihood of its detection.
Information asset
Anything concerned with information that has value to an organisation. This can include:
- Paper documents
- Computers
- Networks
- Printers
- Fax machines
- Tapes or disks
- Wired or mobile telephones
- E-mails
- Databases
- Films or microfiche
- Overhead projectors with data storage
- Any other items used to convey knowledge and ideas
Information security
Information security is the preservation of the Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability of information.
Information Security Management System (ISMS)
Part of an organisation's overall management system, based on a business risk approach, to establish, implement, operate, monitor, review, maintain and improve information security.
In-house course
A training course conducted at your premises, for your staff, and normally tailored to meet your requirements.
Internal auditor
A trained and experienced person who conducts an audit of an organisation’s management system for the benefit of the top management of that organisation.
International Organisation for Standardisation
The national standards institutes of 163 countries, one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system. It is the world's largest developer and publisher of International Standards.
ISMS
The acronym for ‘Information Security Management System’.
ISO
The acronym for International Organisation for Standardisation. The organisation adopted the name ISO based on the Greek word isos, meaning equal. Recognizing that the organisation’s initials would be different in different languages, the organisation's founders chose ISO as the universal short form of its name.
ISO 14001
The international standard for Environmental Management Systems.
ISO 27001
The international standard for Information Security Management Systems.
ISO 9001
The international standard for Quality Management Systems.
ISO certification
Usually taken to mean certification of a management system to one or more of the ISO standards by an assessment body. ISO does not conduct assessments or issue certificates.
Maintainability
The probability that an item will be retained in or restored to a specified condition within a given period of time, when the maintenance is performed in accordance with prescribed procedures and resources.
Management System
A set of interrelated activities and documents that are used to establish policy and objectives and to achieve those objectives. A management system includes organisational structure, planning activities, responsibilities, practices, procedures, processes and resources.
Open (Public) courses
A training course conducted at a public venue, attended by representatives from many different organisations, and where the content of the training is generally applicable to all organisations.
Parts count
A simple method used to find an expected failure rate of the mechanical and electronic components of a system. It is based upon the idea that the more components that there are in the system, the more often it will fail. It is a variant of the Parts Stress method, with component stress not taken into account.
Parts stress
A method used to find an expected failure rate of the mechanical and electronic components of a system. It is based upon the idea that the more components that there are in the system, and the greater stress that they undergo in operation, the more often the components, and the system, will fail.
Quality consultancy
Consultancy provided to a client to help them put in place or improve a quality management system.
Quality management
Coordinated activities to direct and control an organisation with regard to quality
Quality Management System (QMS)
Part of an organisation's overall management system, to establish, implement, operate, monitor, review, maintain and improve the management of quality.
RAMS
The acronym for Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety
Reliability analysis
Analysis of the ability of an item to perform as required for a certain period of time.
Stakeholder
A person, group, organisation, or system that affects or can be affected by an organisation's actions. In a business context this can include shareholders, employees, suppliers, customers, statutory and regulatory bodies, and the general public.
UKAS
The United Kingdom Accreditation Service is the sole national body recognised by UK government to assess, against internationally agreed standards, organisations that provide certification, testing, inspection and calibration services. Most government bodies and major organisations recognise certificates only from UKAS-accredited certification bodies.