3 Definitions T 37

Terms, definitions and books related to environment and audits

The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms. Socrates

Some terms and definitions currently used in this module:

Accident: undesired event causing death or health and environmental damages
Audit client: everyone requesting an audit
Audit conclusions: outcome of an audit
Audit criteria: everything against which audit evidence is compared
Audit findings: every deviation from audit criteria
Auditee: everyone who is audited
Auditor: everyone who is trained to carry out audits
Competence: personal skills, knowledge and experiences
Conformity: fulfillment of a specified requirement
Continual improvement: permanent process allowing the improvement of the global performance of the organization
Control: ensure compliance with the specified criteria
Corrective action: action to eliminate the causes of nonconformity or any other undesirable event and to prevent their recurrence
Customer: anyone who receives a product
Document (documented information): any support allowing the treatment of information
Deviation: failure to meet a given threshold
Environment: space in which any organization functions
Environmental aspect: every element of an organization that interacts with the environment
Environmental impact: every change in the environment caused by an organization
Environmental objective: environment related, measurable goal that must be achieved
External provider (supplier): an entity that provides a product
Hazard: situation that could lead to a potential incident
Nonconformity: non-fulfillment of a specified requirement
Organization: a structure that satisfies a need
Product (or service): every result of a process or activity
Quality: aptitude to fulfil requirements
Record: document providing objective evidence of achieved results
Requirement: explicit or implicit need or expectation
Review: survey of a file, product, process so to verify whether preset objectives are achieved
Risk: likelihood of occurrence of a threat or an opportunity
Stakeholder: person, group or company that can affect or be affected by an organization
Supplier (external provider): an entity that provides a product
Work environment: set of human and physical factors in which work is carried out

Examples of stakeholders: investors, customers, external providers, employees and social, public or political organizations

In the terminology of environmental management systems, do not confuse the following:

anomaly, defect, dysfunction, failure, nonconformity, reject and waste
- an anomaly is a deviation from what is expected
- defect is the non-fulfillment of a requirement related to an intended use
- dysfunction is a degraded function which can lead to a failure
- failure is when a function has become unfit
- nonconformity is the non-fulfillment of a requirement in production
- reject is a nonconforming product which will be destroyed
- waste is when there are added costs but no value
audit and inspect
- to audit is to improve the management system
- to inspect is to verify the conformity of a process or product
audit, auditee and auditor
- an audit is a process of evaluating and improving the management system
- an auditee is the one who is audited
- an auditor is the one who conducts the audit
audit program and plan
- an audit program is the annual planning of the audits
- an audit plan is the description of the audit activities
communicate and inform
- to communicate is to pass on a message, listen to the reaction and discuss
- to inform is to give someone meaningful data
control and optimization
- control is meeting the objectives
- optimization is the search for the best possible results
customer, external provider and subcontractor
- a customer receives a product
- an external provider provides a product
- a subcontractor provides a service or a product on which a specific work is done
effectiveness and efficiency
- effectiveness is the level of achievement of planned results
- efficiency is the ratio between results and resources
follow-up and review
- follow-up is the verification of the obtained results of an action
- review is the analysis of the effectiveness in achieving objectives
indicator and objective
- an indicator is the information on the difference between the achieved result and the pre-set objective
- an objective is a sought after commitment
organization and enterprise, society, company
- organization is the term used in the standard ISO 9001 as the entity between the supplier and the customer
- enterprise, society and company are examples of organizations
organizational chart and process map
- the organizational chart is the graphic display of departments and their links
- the process map is the graphic display of processes and their interaction
procedure, process, product, activity and task
- a procedure is the description of how we should conform to the rules
- a process is how we satisfy the customer using people to achieve the objectives
- a product is the result of a process
- an activity is a set of tasks
- a task is a sequence of simple operations

Remark 1: each time you use the term "improvement opportunity" instead of nonconformity, malfunction or failure, the auditee will gain a little more confidence in you.

Remark 2: the use of ISO 19 011, ISO 14 001 and ISO 9000 definitions is recommended. The most important thing is to determine a common and unequivocal vocabulary for everyone in the company.

Remark 3: the customer can also be the user, the beneficiary, the initiator, the client, the prime contractor, the consumer.
Remark 4: ISO 19011 version 2018 uses the terms procedure ( ), record ( rec ) and documented information together. We prefer the terms document, procedure and record.